English/Nat A United Nations official has been killed on assignment in Kosovo. Police say the U-N staffer was shot as he went out for dinner at the end of his first day on the job. The man apparently angered a crowd of ethnic Albanians by speaking Serbian. The 38-year-old Bulgarian national was shot after being mobbed by ethnic Albanians on a main street in Pristina. U-N officials say the incident happened after Valentin Krumov angered the Albanians by speaking what sounded like Serbian. The U-N officer was attacked by a mob on Mother Theresa Street after someone in the crowd had asked him in Serbian for the time. Officials say the man had been advised not to speak Serbian. The victim is believed to be the first U-N staffer killed since the United Nations began running Kosovo in June. He was shot just days before U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan arrives Wednesday for his first visit to Kosovo. SOUNDBITE: (English) "The murder of a U-N staff member is intolerable. The international community who sends us their sons and daughters so committed to helping this ravaged land to heal will not accept exposing them to such brutality. Unquote. The victim, Valentin Krumov, 38 years old, a Bulgarian national, had arrived in Pristina earlier on Monday from New York. He was to join the U-N civil administration pillar. Together with two other newly arrived colleagues, he had dinner at a hotel in town. The three left around 9pm to stroll down the popular pedestrian avenue known as Mother Theresa. According to preliminary police reports, at approximately 21.10, 9pm, a crowd of ethnic Albanians assaulted him and took him 50 metres away where someone shot him dead -- shot him in the head. Police say he had apparently responded in the Serbian language to a question from a group of passers-by who had asked him for the time. " SUPER CAPTION: Nadia Juny, U-N spokesperson Hashim Thaci, Prime Minister of the provisional government of Kosovo, condemned the shooting, saying it could seriously destabilise the city. Thaci is the former head of the officially disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army and is considered Kosovo's leader by many, if not most, ethnic Albanians. SOUNDBITE: (Albanian) "The act of the assassination of the U-N policeman is an ugly act, a punishable one if an attack against the democratisation process in Kosovo, an attack against the mechanisms installed here, not only those of the international community installed here, but also the Kosovo factors that are trying to stabilise the situation in Kosovo." SUPER CAPTION: Hashim Thaci, former head of the Kosovo Liberation Army A suspect escaped on foot, apparently helped by other local residents crowding the street. SOUNDBITE: (Albanian) "We don't have information on who killed the policeman but we consider it an ugly act, which requires the full commitment of all the political spectrum in Kosovo and of all the Kosovo citizens to help the international mechanisms because we don't think the situation in Kosovo is dominated by anarchy and criminality." SUPER CAPTION: Hashim Thaci, former head of the Kosovo Liberation Army The incident reflects the high level of animosity felt toward Serbs by the ethnic Albanian majority four months after the end of an 18-month crackdown by Serb forces. Neither the peacekeepers nor international police who arrived in August have been able to quell sporadic ethnic violence. Much of it is directed against the dwindling minority of Serbs in Kosovo by ethnic Albanians seeking revenge. You can license this story through AP Archive: www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/7d4c627ab65240f324b6acaa6363aca8 Find out more about AP Archive: www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

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