Killing of Serb sours Croat takeover

A Croat man has been charged with murder after shooting dead a Serb in the eastern region which was returned to Croatia on Thursday after two years' of United Nations administration. The shooting occurred hours before the Croatian government and the United Nations highlighted reconciliation between Serbs and Croats in the former Serb enclave and pledged to help the two communities live together again.

The 50-year-old man, identified only by the initials M.C., shot a Serb man in the chest with a Kalashnikov rifle on Wednesday night, a month after he threw a hand grenade into a cafe, killing another Serb. "For the first crime he was charged with "endangering public safety with fatal consequences'," a UN spokesman said, adding that the U.N. mission in Eastern Slavonia was concerned with the light sentence since he had intentionally thrown a hand grenade.