Kosovo Serbs clash with Nato and UN in Mitrovica

KOSOVO:KOSOVO SERBS attacked United Nations police and Nato troops with guns, grenades and petrol bombs in the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica yesterday, in clashes that injured more than 100 people and fuelled fears of further violence.

While the European Union and Nato blamed Serb extremists for the fighting, Belgrade accused international peacekeepers and police of using excessive force in Mitrovica and said it was discussing an appropriate response with its main ally, Russia.

Riots erupted when about 100 police officers stormed and retook a UN courthouse in Mitrovica that had been seized last Friday by Serbs who were angered by Kosovo's western-backed declaration of independence a month ago.

The police arrested 53 people who were occupying the courthouse, but were set upon by a Serb mob when they drove them away for questioning.

As petrol bombs and grenades rained down on UN vehicles, at least a dozen of the detainees escaped and fled into the crowd, while Nato troops moved quickly into the area to quell the violence, which was the worst since the February 17th independence declaration.

Police used tear gas to disperse the mob, before being ordered to withdraw from the Serb-dominated northern half of Mitrovica after automatic gunfire was heard.

Nato said its troops were targeted by Serb gunmen, and in response fired warning shots into the air.

At least 27 Polish and 15 Ukrainian police officers and 20 French soldiers serving with Nato were injured in the fighting, while Mitrovica hospital officials said that about 70 Serbs had been hurt.

Serbia's minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, said the "brutal" international forces had broken a pledge not to use force to evict the occupiers of the UN courthouse.

"This is what they have done to us. We'll pay them back," he told a crowd in Mitrovica, which is divided between Albanians on the southern side of the Ibar river and Serbs on the northern bank. It has been a regular flashpoint for ethnic violence, most recently during deadly riots that erupted exactly four years ago yesterday.

Western officials said negotiations with Serb leaders had failed to resolve the stand-off, leaving them with no alternative but to retake the building in a show of UN and Nato determination to maintain control over Mitrovica and the rest of northern Kosovo.

"Nato condemns in the strongest form the violence we have seen in northern Kosovo today," said James Appathurai, a spokesman for the alliance. "[ Nato] will respond firmly to any acts of violence, as is its mandate from the United Nations."

Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, declared that "violence leads nowhere, and taking up buildings leads nowhere", and insisted that the trouble would not delay the deployment of a 2,000-strong EU mission to oversee the running of independent Kosovo. "The mission is continuing the deployment according to the calendar that has been established. Nothing for the moment has changed," he said.

Serb prime minister Vojislav Kostunica accused international forces in Kosovo of "implementing a policy of force against Serbia", and said Belgrade and Russia were discussing how to stop "all forms of violence against Kosovo Serbs".

Tomislav Nikolic, whose ultra-nationalist Radical Party is Serbia's most popular, accused UN police and Nato soldiers of "brutal and savage" acts reminiscent of those which "Hitler's occupying regime carried out against Serbs" during the second World War.

Russia's foreign ministry called for more talks on Kosovo and said "violence and clashes cannot be allowed". "The international presence should show restraint and act strictly in accordance with its [UN] mandate," it said.