Islam Times - Russian Envoy Says Details of Kosovo Police's Attack on UN Staff Member "Shocking"

Russian Envoy Says Details of Kosovo Police's Attack on UN Staff Member "Shocking"

Islam Times - The details of the Kosovo police's attack on UN staff member Mikhail Krasnoschekov in May are shocking, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said at the UN Security Council session on Thursday.

The United Nations Organization earlier announced results of the investigation into the Kosovo police's operation on May 28. During the operation, two UN staff members, including Russian national Mikhail Krasnoschekov, were injured and detained. The investigation concluded that the actions of the Kosovo police were unlawful and in violation of the UN Security Council resolution.

"The details of the incident are shocking. Kosovo's forces dragged him from the car using physical forces, hit his head on the driver's door, hit him repeatedly with their hands, and then used special tools and handcuffs," Nebenzya said, Tass reported.

"They pushed him into the backseat of his own car, where they continued to beat him," the diplomat added. "Krasnoschekov's identity card and driver's license of a UN employee were taken, his cell phone was smashed," he noted.

Moscow agrees with the UN investigation into an attack of Kosovo's police on the international organization's staff members, Nebenzya stated.

"These results are in line with the investigation launched by the Russian Investigative Committee," he said. "Our investigators determined that [Kosovo's] Special Forces aimed to hamper Krasnoschekov's lawful activities which were carried out in full accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 1244," he added.

"We demand an investigation and to punish those responsible for this crime," Nebenzya said. "We think that the UN Security Council should decisively condemn this crime against UN staff members," he added.

"However, the main thing here is the following. We see the aim of Kosovar-Albanian authorities to push the UN mission out. There are no more UN staff members in Kosovo's north, and the mission in general has to work in the uneasy conditions of the de facto boycott from the authorities in Pristina," he noted.

Nebenzya said that "the picture painted here shows the immaturity of Kosovar-Albanian forces."

"In this context, we consider the issue of Kosovo's accession to international organization, including Interpol, mistaken and groundless," he concluded.