Peace HOpes Crumble as Kosovo Slides Into Violence

[Phaedrus]

By Shaban Buza

PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro (Reuters) - Kosovo's fragile peace exploded in the worst clashes between Albanians and Serbs since NATO and the U.N. took control in 1999, plunging hopes of a success for international intervention into grave doubt.

At least 17, perhaps 20, people were killed Wednesday as NATO troops scrambled to quell the outbreak. But it was the scale of the violence rather than the death toll which signaled crisis.

In a severe blow to international hopes of calm ahead of talks this year or next on Kosovo's future status, the outburst of pent-up ethnic hatred in over a dozen locations suggested that reconciliation of the two ethnic communities was years off.

Clashes were reported from Mitrovica in the north to Urosevac in the south and Pec in the west, with U.N. police and troops injured in several places, at least three gravely.

The Kosovo Health Ministry said 16 were confirmed killed -- six in Mitrovica, three in Lipljan, three in Caglavica, two in Urosevac, one in Pec and one in Gnjilane. A 17th victim was recorded in the capital Pristina as mob violence spread and there were unconfirmed reports of three more dead in Gnjilane.

Kosovo has been under the control of the United Nations since NATO bombing drove Serb forces out in mid-1999, halting Serb repression of Muslim Albanian civilians but also granting victory to Albanian separatist guerrillas.

Fueling fears that Albanians might turn on their NATO and U.N. saviors if independence is delayed, mobs clashed on Wednesday with peacekeepers and police across the province.

United Nations Kosovo police veteran Derek Chappell called it "a very dangerous situation... very large scale." Kosovo Serb politician Momcilo Trajkovic said: "We are back in 1999."

A Shooting, Then a Drowning

The violence began when Albanians massed in Mitrovica to vent their rage at Tuesday's drowning of three boys. A survivor had said they were hounded into a river by Serbs, who were exacting revenge for a teen-ager wounded in a drive-by shooting.

Shooting broke out and grenades were thrown as police and troops fired tear gas and rubber bullets to stop Albanians storming the Serb half of the town.

Two red-and-white U.N. police jeeps burned fiercely and wreaths of tear gas drifted over Mitrovica as soldiers moved block to block to clear a security zone in the afternoon.

Late Wednesday, hundreds of angry Albanians surrounded a Serb enclave in the capital Pristina, setting U.N. vehicles on fire and stoning police who fired rubber bullets. U.S. troops were evacuating Serbs whose apartments were under attack.

Serbia's Beta agency reported that U.S. troops in a convoy of 30 armored personnel carriers drove to the central village of Caglavica to evacuate 10 injured NATO peacekeepers after clashes with Albanians attacking the enclave of 1,000 Serbs.

In Belgrade, Serb demonstrators broke through a police cordon and set fire to a mosque. Witnesses said demonstrators also smashed windows of the U.S. embassy.

There were Serb demonstrations in the northern city of Novi Sad and a mosque was burned in the southern city of Nis, television report said.

Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica ruled out any military response in the province of Kosovo, which Serbian troops quit in 1999. Such a move would trigger a major confrontation with NATO.

Serb homes were in flames in several villages and Serbs had to be evacuated by troops of the KFOR peacekeeping mission. A Serb post office, clinic, a school and 10 homes were burned down in Kosovo Polje near Pristina.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for an end to the violence, which he said jeopardised the stability of Kosovo. The State Department warned it could wreck the peace.

The U.N. Security Council was due to meet in special session Thursday at Serbia's request, Serb sources said.

 

[Oceans11]

Nato sends more troops to Kosovo

Deadly violence has returned to scar both communities in Kosovo
Nato is sending more peacekeeping troops to Kosovo after the worst ethnic clashes there for five years.
The troubles began in the divided town of Mitrovica where Serbs and Albanians exchanged gunfire and grenades, and several people were killed.

As violence spread across the UN-administered province, 22 people are known to have died and more than 500 were injured, UN officials say.

The news provoked protests in Belgrade and other Serbian cities.


Condemnation

Nato troops are being redeployed from Bosnia to Kosovo to help quell the violence, a spokesman at Nato's headquarters in Brussels said.

One company of up to 150 US troops is already on its way and two other companies are on standby, the spokesman told Reuters.

There has been widespread international condemnation of the riots, described by Nato as the worst violence since the end of the war in 1999.


Tensions resurfaced in the flashpoint town of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo on Tuesday when three Albanian children drowned, allegedly as they were trying to escape from Serbs who chased them with a dog.

The boys' deaths came a day after an 18-year-old Serb was wounded in a drive-by shooting in the village of Caglavica in central Kosovo, prompting clashes between Serbs and Nato peacekeepers.

So far 22 people have been killed in various outbreaks of violence, a spokeswoman for the UN administration, Unmik, said.

Flights in and out of Kosovo have been suspended and internal boundaries with Serbia have been closed.

Among other incidents:


Serb building attacked by Albanians in the capital, Pristina - seven people killed, the UN says. About 100 Serbs evacuated from the city by police and Nato forces

three people killed in eastern town of Gnjilane

fighting in Caglavica where several Serbs' houses were burned

in Kosovo Polje, on the outskirts of Pristina, a local hospital burned alongside Serbian houses

attacks against Serb returnees in Belo Polje in western Kosovo

rioting in the western region of Pec, where UN offices came under attack and an Albanian was killed by a UN policewoman

Thousands took to the streets of Belgrade on Wednesday night to protest at attacks on their fellow Serbs in Kosovo.

Demonstrators broke through a police cordon to set a 17th century mosque on fire.

Events in northern part of Kosovo-Metohija [Serb name for Kosovo]

A mosque was also set ablaze in the Serbian city of Nis.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said Wednesday's attacks showed the true nature of Albanian separatism, "its violent and terrorist character", and called for Kosovo Serbs to be given autonomy.

He denounced the Albanian "onslaught on the remains of the Serb community" in Kosovo.

Flashpoint

Mitrovica has been a flashpoint since the UN took over the administration of Kosovo in 1999 after Nato air strikes forced a Serb withdrawal.


A mosque is attacked in Serbia as Serb demonstrators vent their anger
Around 200,000 Serbs left Kosovo, but some remained in isolated enclaves or more homogeneous blocs, like northern Mitrovica.

Kosovo's future status is unresolved and correspondents say the lack of progress on this issue has increased post-war tensions.

Mr Kostunica recently proposed that the province be either divided into cantons or split on ethnic lines.

But a spokesman for the Kosovan President, Ibrahim Rugova, told the BBC that independence was the only solution.

"It goes without saying that the status should be independence for Kosovo, that is the will of the majority of the people of Kosovo. Kosovo's independence in fact would solve many problems here," Mohamed Hamiti told the World Today programme.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3522230.stm