(14 Mar 1999) Albanian/Nat
Hundreds of ethnic Albanian mourners gathered in a remote village in Kosovo on Sunday for the funeral of one of the victims of Saturday's bombing in Podujevo.
Twenty-year-old Besnik Shabani was one of three people killed in the explosion in Podujevo's busy marketplace.
Another explosion in the town of Kosovska Mitrovica killed four.
The wave of renewed violence came as ethnic Albanian and Serb delegations made their way to Paris to participate in the latest round of peace talks.
Hundred of mourners gathered in the remote village of Metohija to bury one of the young victims of Saturday's wave of bombing in Kosovo.
Twenty-year-old Besnik Shabani died when a bomb exploded in the busy marketplace of Podujevo.
Moments later, another bomb went off near the town's post office.
Two others died and dozens were injured in the blasts.
A third bomb in the town of Kosovska Mitrovica killed four.
A spokesman for ethnic Albanian political leader Ibrahim Rugova accused the Serb side of carrying out the attacks.
Serb authorities responded by claiming the Kosovo Albanian guerrillas were responsible, trying to sabotage a peace deal.
The villagers of Metohija buried Shabani in a coffin wrapped in the Albanian flag - a symbol of their fight for independence.
Supported by relatives, Shabani's mother grieved at his grave side.
"Let the earth be light for you my son, you were in the best years of your life," she said as the coffin was lowered.
At the site of the bomb blast at the marketplace in Mitrovica, some merchants returned to retrieve belongings they were forced to leave when they fled on Saturday.
One teary-eyed merchant said he would find it difficult to return to work there now that some of his friends have been wounded or killed.
SOUNDBITE: (Albanian):
"How can we work here again when are best friends are not here anymore?"
SUPERCAPTION: Vox pops
As the funeral took place, 26 other victims continued to recuperate in hospital following the bombing.
Some have lost limbs, others are peppered with shrapnel wounds.
60 people were injured in the blasts which came after Kosovo Albanian leaders said they were ready to sign a U-S backed peace plan - only if it included deployment of NATO troops to implement it.
Ethnic Albanian and Serb delegations are gathering in Paris to take part in the latest round of peace talks, scheduled to start on Monday.
But prospects for a settlement look dim, with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic still refusing accept a key element of the peace plan - the deployment of NATO troops in Kosovo to enforce the agreement.
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