Deadly unrest in Kosovo

Serb and ethnic Albanian clashes leave 6 dead, hundreds injured

UN armored vehicles stand between hundreds of ethnic Albanian protesters and Kosovo Serbs as clashes broke out in the ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica yesterday.

By Fisnik Abrashi - The Associated Press

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - At least six people were shot to death and nearly 300 others hurt yesterday in an explosion of ethnic violence provoked by reports that two ethnic Albanian children drowned in an icy river while fleeing angry Serbs.

At least one hand grenade was also thrown in the clash.

Among the worst instances of Serb-Albanian bloodshed since the end of the Kosovo war in 1999, the violence starkly reflected the failure of UN and NATO efforts to replace ethnic hatreds with tolerance.

Hospital personnel on the Serb and ethnic Albanian sides of divided Kosovska Mitrovica said four ethnic Albanians had died, apparently of gunshot wounds. Initial reports had said three Serbs were shot to death, but hospital personnel later revised that to two.

Capt. Athanassios Zormbas, a NATO spokesman, said 11 French soldiers were hurt — at least two seriously by stones or shrapnel from an exploding hand grenade.

Hospital employees on Kosovska Mitrovica’s southern side, dominated by ethnic Albanians, counted more than 200 hurt, among them several who were shot. Xhelal Ibrahimi, an ethnic Albanian witness covered by the blood of a victim he carried to the hospital, said gunfire came from the Serb-dominated part of town, and that he saw several people fall in front of him.

On the Serb side, Milan Ivanovic, a hospital physician, said 80 Serbs were wounded, including an unknown number shot and that some of those were in critical condition.

In a separate hotspot, near Pristina, hundreds of ethnic Albanians broke through barricades erected by UN police and NATO-led peacekeepers to march on the Serb village of Caglavica. UN spokeswoman Angela Joseph said there were reports that hand grenades had been thrown and that two Serb houses were on fire.

In the western village of Belopolje, ethnic Albanians drove out Serb residents and set fire to their houses, said Joseph. And in Pec, 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Pristina, ethnic Albanians had attacked the regional UN headquarters and damaged UN vehicles.

There was no immediate word on the injured in those confrontations.

The violence flared shortly after authorities recovered the bodies of two missing children from a river and just hours after reports that they were chased into the water by local Serbs. A third child remained missing.

The three children were aged 9, 12 and 13. One of the victims was the 12-year-old. Authorities were still trying to identify the other body.

The bodies were found after dozens of soldiers, police and civil emergency workers searched the Ibar River near the village of Cabra, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of province’s capital Pristina, said Joseph, the UN police spokeswoman.