New Clash In Kosovo

Ethnic Albanians stoned a Russian-Serb convoy in northern Kosovo Tuesday, injuring some Russian troops and the French police trying to stop the clash, a French official said.

At least one Serb was killed, according to Yugoslavia's Beta news agency and Albanian sources reached by phone in Kosovska Mitrovica. Seventeen Serbs were injured, two of them critically, and two Serb cars and one truck were turned, Beta reported.

The confrontation underscored the depth of ethnic hatred between Serbs and ethnic Albanians that can still boil over into violence more than three months after NATO-led peacekeepers arrived in Kosovo.

A French military officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the trouble started when 5,000 ethnic Albanians gathered near the town of Kosovska Mitrovica for the funeral of 18 of 28 Albanians found last week in a mass grave. Four Serbs have been arrested in the case.

As the crowd gathered, a convoy of Russian peacekeepers escorting Serb residents passed by, the officer said. The emotional crowd began stoning the Russians and the Serbs. French troops and police struggled through a three-mile traffic jam to reach the village where the melee occurred.

Albanian sources said the confrontation started when Serbs in the convoy gave the three-fingered Serb salute, provoking the crowd.

Another Albanian source said French police formed a human barricade between the two groups but were pummeled with stones. One Russian armored personnel carrier overturned, apparently while trying to get away from firebombs.

Finally, the crowd dispersed after officials from the former Kosovo Liberation Army -- the Albanian rebel force that opposed Serb troops during an 18-month crackdown -- rushed to the scene to calm the Albanians.

The clash occurred hours after NATO peacekeepers drove Serbs away from a roadblock along a major Kosovo highway, warning that they will not allow ethnic groups to interfere with vital supply routes in the province.

But NATO has tolerated an Albanian roadblock at another town, Orahovac, for more than a month -- an example of what local Serbs see as a double standard by NATO and the United Nations in dealing with Serb and ethnic Albanian communities.

"The situation there is rather different than in Kosovo Polje," peacekeeper commander Lt. Gen. Mike Jackson said of the Orahovac blockade. "We are determined to bring the situation to a peaceful conclusion... We will look at every situation on a case-by-case basis."

Nevertheless, the raid reinforced the opinion of local Serbs that NATO and the United Nations discriminate against them in favor of the ethnic Albanians, who comprise more than 90 percent of the province's 1.4 million people. Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's Serbian troops killed thousands of ethnic Albanians during an 18-month crackdown, but local Serbs say ethnic Albanians have launched revenge attacks against them since NTO bombing ended the crackdown.