UN police quit Kosovo town after 100 hurt in clashes

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA-UN police were forced to withdraw Monday from the Serb-populated part of this flashpoint Kosovo town after coming under attack as they stormed a court occupied by Serbs opposed to independence.More than 100 people including 33 international security force members were hurt amid gunfire and a suspected grenade blast after they moved in to regain control of the UN-run tribunal in the northern town of Kosovska Mitrovica.At least 22 of the wounded UN police were Polish, Poland's national police spokesman Mariusz Sokolowski said in Warsaw, adding they had been pelted with rocks, homemade explosives and possibly shot at."The police are pulling out of northern Mitrovica," said an official from the Kosovo police mission of the United Nations, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.But Kosovo's NATO-led KFOR peacekeepers have remained in the tense town."NATO condemns, in the strongest terms, violence that we have seen today. NATO will respond firmly to ensure a safe and secure environment," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said in Brussels.The clashes erupted after UN police and KFOR troops surrounded the Mitrovica courthouse in a pre-dawn raid to evict the Serb protesters.Fifty-three Serbs were arrested, while at least 80 of them suffered wounds, including from gunshots, according to Kosovo police and hospital officials.As the UN police arrived, about 100 angry Serbs pelted them with stones. Police used tear gas to disperse them and several UN vehicles were set alight.The Serbs seized at least one police vehicle and freed some detainees.Machine gun fire was later heard and at least one member of the international security forces was shot, a witness said.The use of weapons makes the violence the worst to have flared in Kosovo since its ethnic Albanian-dominated parliament unilaterally declared independence from Serbia on February 17.Some 300 Serbs who had taken over the courthouse on Friday refused to leave after negotiations with UN officials failed at the weekend.The group of Serbs-many of whom worked in the judiciary before Kosovo came under UN administration in 1999-had demanded the establishment of their own court.Northern Kosovo has a 40,000-strong Serb population who are divided from the mainly ethnic Albanian south by the Ibar River, which passes through Mitrovica.The clashes came on the four-year anniversary of the March 2004 anti-Serb riots by ethnic Albanians in which 19 people were killed and dozens of medieval Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries were destroyed or damaged.Kosovo's independence has been recognised by many Western countries but Serbia and Kosovo Serbs-backed by Russia-have vehemently rejected the move as illegal.Britain, one of the 27 countries to have recognised Kosovo's independence, condemned the attacks on the UN police and NATO troops."We condemn totally these violent actions directed against UN and NATO personnel," said the British Foreign Office.But Serbian President Boris Tadic warned UN and NATO forces against any "excessive reaction" that could spark a further "escalation."Outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica condemned the "use of force" and said Serbia had "begun consultations with Russia over necessary mutual reaction in order to halt all violence against the Serbs."Russia had earlier called for a resumption of talks on the status of Kosovo, saying the unrest was a result of the territory's unilateral independence declaration."It's clear that the situation can only be normalised by returning the Kosovo process to the framework of international law, with the aim of finding a mutually acceptable solution based on dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina," Russia's foreign ministry said.
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As in the days of Noah....