BELGRADE: Serbia announced yesterday that it has opened a probe into a 2008 attack on the German embassy that followed riots over Kosovo’s declaration of independence.
“Every new information is welcome, we have nothing to hide, we are a modern country,” Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told the Beta news agency. The move comes after the deputy chairman of Germany’s ruling CDU-CSU party, lawmaker Andreas Schockenhoff, said during a recent visit to Belgrade that clearing up the circumstances of the attack were a key condition for getting German support to set a date to open EU accession talks.
Serbia officially became a European Union candidate member in March but hopes to get a date to open talks on entry before the end of the year.
The arson attack on the German embassy, which left a police guardhouse outside the building in ashes, happened during a protest days after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia.
Hooligans and ultra-nationalist groups went on a wild rampage, breaking into and looting foreign embassies and shops in Belgrade. In April 12 people were arrested for their role in the unrest. On Thursday a 13th suspect was acquitted of arson but jailed for a year for stealing a jacket and a mobile phone charger from the embassy premises during the attack on February 21, 2008
AFP
