Serbs in Bosnia sacked branch offices of the British and US embassies and damaged the French and German missions yesterday in Banja Luka. The demonstrators, mostly students, attacked buildings which had been evacuated by diplomatic personnel.
The British and US missions in the main Bosnian Serb town were devastated, while windows at the French and German ones were broken with stones. On Thursday evening thousands of Bosnian Serbs demonstrated against the NATO raids, with similar demonstrations taking place in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia.
There, it emerged yesterday, a leading Serb politician had been arrested with some 60 other people after violent demonstrations on Thursday night. The spokesman for the Democratic Serb Party of Macedonia said party president Mr Dragisha Miletic was detained in the aftermath of protests outside Western embassies.
Yesterday some protesters tried again to get close to government buildings and western embassies but dispersed when riot police arrived on the scene. The hotel housing Organisation for Security and Co-operation (OSCE) monitors, evacuated from Kosovo, was also attacked.
Mr William Walker, American head of the OSCE Kosovo peace mission, said there was evidence that the demonstrations were provoked by agents from Yugoslavia. "We've had some pretty good information going back a few weeks that there was going to be as much trouble as Milosevic could stir up," Mr Walker said.
"The demonstration may have seemed spontaneous but it was in fact well organised and planned."
Meanwhile Romania's Foreign Minister said that while he was sorry for the pain NATO raids were inflicting on Serbs, the blame for them fell on Yugoslav President Milosevic's "suicidal stubbornness".
Mr Andrei Plesu said Romania fully backed the NATO action and would open its airspace for the strikes, while not taking a direct part in combat. "We have taken a firm option in favour of NATO, in the Romanian people's interests. Any option involves some sacrifice. We can't please both the US State Department and the Serbs.
"Our hearts are with the Serb people in these difficult moments. But we make a distinction between them and Milosevic . . . The only person who seems to rejoice at what's happening now is Milosevic, who seems unwilling to budge an inch to avoid disaster . . . This is suicidal stubbornness."
Romania has declared NATO membership to be its top foreign policy objective.