World

NATO Troops Raid Serb Mining Plant

August 14, 2000 / 9:56 AM EDT / AP

Hundreds of NATO-led peacekeepers took control of a Serb-run mining complex early Monday in a raid on what the United Nations had called a heavy polluter in the northern part of Kosovo.

With some resistance, the peacekeepers secured the area around the massive smelting complex. Clouds of smoke belched from the aging chimney stacks.

Kosovo Serb leader Oliver Ivanovic said plant leaders told him NATO troops "just appeared out of nowhere." Only a handful of workers were on duty during the 3:45 a.m. raid, Ivanovic said.

The United Nations said last week that pollution from the plant was raising lead levels to 200 times the accepted norms near Kosovska Mitrovica, a city divided between the predominantly Serb north and ethnic Albanian south.

The peacekeepers, some wearing face masks because of the smoke, stopped within yards of the crumbling communist-era complex. Peacekeepers took over after hours of negotiations with plant officials, U.N. spokesman Michael Keats said.

Later, Serbs protesting the takeover threw stones at NATO troops, slightly injuring several soldiers said NATO spokesman Maj. Craig M. Snow.

Capt. Kath Hurley, a NATO spokeswoman, said three British soldiers were injured.

NATO had no reports of civilian casualties, but the Belgrade-based independent news agency Beta said a Serb man and child were injured in a scuffle with British troops.

Bernard Kouchner, Kosovo's top U.N. administrator, stressed that the closure was only temporary, and workers would return to work "as soon as possible."

Kouchner said the takeover was necessary to end a health risk.

"As a doctor and as chief administrator of Kosovo, I would be derelict if I let this threat to the health of children and pregnant women continue for one more day," Kouchner said.

News of the lead levels sparked a rare moment of solidarity in Kosovska Mitrovica, prompting Serb and ethnic Albanian leaders to join U.N. personnel in publicly having their blood tested.

Ivanovic claimed the lead scare was a ruse, however, to be used as an excuse for the United Nations to take over the plant.

After taking over the facility, peacekeepers handed out leaflets appealing for calm and saying that the reason for the takeover was to "protect the environment." The leaflet suggested the mines would continue to operate.

The smelter is part of the vast Trepca mining complex, a collection of about 40 mines that produce gold, silver, lead, zinc and cadmium.

Trepca is an emotional symbol for the people of this southern Serb province, who are struggling to rebuild after a 78-day NATO air war aimed at forcing Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to end his repression of ethnic Albanians.

Kosovska Mitrovica has proved the most violence prone city in Kosovo in the year since NATO-led peacekeepers took control of the province. It is one of the few cities in the province where a significant Serb population remains.