Kosovo Town Divided By Blood
Violence is on the rise in Europe's hottest flashpoint.
French peacekeepers fired tear gas Wednesday at ethnic Albanian protesters throwing stones and Molotov cocktails in the Kosovo town of Mitrovica. Up to 1,000 demonstrators gathered this week to protest at clashes between Serbs and Albanians in this town, where one ethnic Albanian has died.
The protesters began gathering in the late Wednesday morning at the southern side of the main bridge over the River Ibar, which divides the Serb-dominated north and the Albanian-dominated south of Mitrovica.
The peacekeepers, equipped with riot gear including shields, helmets and gas masks, fired off more than 10 canisters of tear gas after members of the crowd began throwing stones at them. Similar clashes also occurred on Tuesday.
The crowd scattered but re-formed as the tear gas subsided and protesters threw a couple of Molotov cocktails. The peacekeepers responded again with tear gas and booming fireworks intended to disperse the protesters.
The clashes came as NATO Secretary-General George Robertson urged Yugoslavia to expand the rights of ethnic Albanians in the tense Presevo Valley zone on Kosovo's eastern border.
A weeklong upsurge of separatist attacks in the area, coupled with the clashes in Mitrovica, has raised the specter of spreading violence as Kosovo's political future remains unsettled.
The U.N. Security Council strongly condemned the border attacks Tuesday, particularly the killing of the Yugoslav soldier, and expressed alarm over the latest violence in Mitrovica.
In a statement drafted by the United States, it stressed the need for an immediate and full investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Robertson was speaking to reporters in Brussels with former U.N. Kosovo administrator Bernard Kouchner, who said he had told leading powers they must "be precise with the future of Kosovo otherwise you will get other attacks and murders and other unacceptable reactions."
A grenade attack in Mitrovica — which killed two Kosovo Albanians Monday — was a sign of worse to come, he said.
Kouchner urged voter registration to begin now for a Kosovo general election that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) says will take six months to organize.
Kouchner declined to predict what might happen if the Kosovo Albanians' demand for complete independence is blocked indefinitely by the West, pointing out that U.N. resolution 1244 on Kosovo promises them "substantial autonomy."
The resolution also affirms Yugoslav sovereignty over Kosovo, which ethnic Albanians reject. Its calculated ambivalence is seen by some analysts as a symptom of indecision among the major powers, which could develop into paralysis.
On Monday in Mitrovica, Albanian protesters angered by the death of a 15-year-old youth in clashes with Serbs set two parked armored personnel carriers on fire after pouring gasoline over them. French peacekeeers fired several rounds of tear gas when a crowd of about 1,000 ethnic Albanians tried to cross a bridge into the northern Serb-dominated part.
In a separate incident Monday, a crowd stopped a car with local translators working for the OSCE, dragged them out and beat one Serb man, breaking his jaw, the OSCE said.
The Yugoslav army said one soldier had died from injuries received in a clash Friday and four others were wounded when a rocket-propelled grenade.
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