Nato's peacekeeping mission in Kosovo was immersed in controversy last night after accusations by UN policemen serving in the province, as well as by Serbs and Albanians, that French Kfor troops stood by, withdrew or failed to prevent mobs of rampaging Serbs from hunting down and killing ethnic Albanians in Mitrovica late last week.
Eight Albanians and Serbs have died, and up to 40 people have been injured, including NATO peacekeepers and UN policemen, following violence after a mob of about 400 Serbs attacked Albanian apartments in an ethnically-motivated wave of violence in the divided Kosovan town.
Mitrovica, where Serbs live on the northern side of the river Ibar, and Albanians on the south, is at the centre of the NATO Multinational Brigade Area controlled by 4,600 French troops, with additional support from Danish troops and Italian carabinieri.
On Thursday night, when the violence started, a detachment of mainly American UN policemen was also on duty.
After news came through that on the previous day two elderly Serbs had been killed by Albanian guerrillas in a rocket-attack on a UN bus, the hardline and isolated Serb community was fast to react.
"I was in my apartment with 10 other people when seven or eight Serbs started shooting through our door, then throwing in grenades," said Mr Gani Gjaka (47), whose wife, Nerimane, was killed in the attack.
"I picked up the telephone at 10.10 at night, and got through to both the UN police and to French NATO troops. Four-and-a-half hours later, seven UN police arrived. They said the French troops had refused to come and help them."
"We asked for, but received, absolutely no back-up from the French troops at all, although we asked them," said a UN police investigator, Mr J.D. Luckie, on attachment from Midland, Texas.
"I was in Vietnam, and this was the worst night of my life. I carried a pregnant woman down the stairs, after we fought through crowds armed only with handguns. She died."
"Duty logs show that repeated calls for back-up were made to French NATO troops," said one international official.
"From the UN officers on the ground it was clear that French troops in several incidents either refused to help, or withdrew from the area of violence altogether."
"The French reacted quickly and professionally in most parts of the city," said a Kfor spokesman, Lieut. Cdr Philip Anido, in Pristina. "We are happy with the performance of the French. But an inquiry is under way, and a report will be issued."
The French Brigade commander, Gen. Pierre de Saqui de Sannes, defended his men's performance by saying that the soldiers present on Thursday night were newly arrived from France.
They were not trained in antiriot procedures.