''The situation here is like Texas..."
go2net.com
Kosovo Albanians, French Scuffle Again
By Mark Heinrich Aug 8 8:05am ET
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Serbia (Reuters) - French
peacekeepers Sunday scuffled with ethnic Albanians
who spat and threw soda cans at them in frustration
at being barred from storming into the
Serb-dominated part of a major Kosovo town.
It was the second straight day of disturbances
between French troops and ethnic Albanians on the
south bank of a river marking an urban boundary of
hatred between Albanians and Serbs in Kosovska
Mitrovica, the province's third biggest city.
A French army spokesman said the throng, which
chanted belligerent nationalist slogans and burned
and stomped on a Yugoslav flag, was clearly
organized by the erstwhile guerrilla Kosovo
Liberation Army (KLA).
But the crowd, numbering up to 200, was much
smaller and the number of French troops far greater
than Saturday, when about 1,000 almost broke
through a few stunned peacekeepers to the north
side of Mitrovica's main bridge before more troops
raced in to drive them back.
Sunday's disturbances began when a woman at the
front of the crowd standing nose-to-nose with
French troops began cursing and punching a soldier,
who shoved her back angrily.
Infuriated, the crowd surged forward and the
French, in full battle dress, rushed in
reinforcements. Peacekeepers and ethnic Albanians
traded punches and kicks and one young man was
dragged away to be detained for assault.
Screaming ''French are terrorists'' and ''UCK,
UCK'' (Albanian acronym for KLA), ethnic Albanians
spat and threw crumpled soft drink cans at the
French as they were being pushed back.
The melee lasted 10 minutes and there was sporadic
jostling over the next hour-and-a-half during which
the crowd burned the Yugoslav flag while waving
red-and-black Albanian ones and chanting ''We shall
liberate Mitrovica,'' among other things.
French troops also sealed off the north end of the
bridge as a precaution. A few dozen Serb men
loitered nearby, primed to confront Albanians if
they crossed, but most locals went about their
business.
The ''Dolce Vita'' cafe at the bridge on the north
side blared Serb nationalist folk music which
drowned out the ethnic Albanian commotion on the
other side.
At midday, the ethnic Albanian mob suddenly fell
back and regrouped to march around town.
They went to the French military police
headquarters to demand the release of their
detained comrade before dispersing at the request
of a local KLA officer in uniform.
Overnight, a rifle grenade was fired from the south
into the north side of Mitrovica but there were no
injuries or serious damage, French army spokesman
Lieutenant Meriadec Raffray told Reuters. The
assailants escaped.
He said there were also bursts of sub-machinegun
fire from the south bank and French troops fired
back. A teen-age boy was arrested, Raffray said.
''The situation here is like Texas. Everyone has
guns and they are almost impossible to control,''
he said.
''These mobs were certainly orchestrated by the KLA
to crank up the pressure on us (to let them take
over north Mitrovica). But this would cause major
violence and our job is to prevent that.''
Demonstrators said they wanted only to regain free
access to property which they said was seized by
Serbs or was now too dangerous to visit because
French troops did not protect ethnic Albanians when
they tried to visit individually.
Many said they had been evicted from the north side
during a vicious 16-month conflict with Serbian
security forces and were now cut off from female
relatives and children who had stayed behind and
were vulnerable to Serb persecution.
They accused the French of collaborating with a
Serb agenda to divide Mitrovica and keep the spoils
of ethnic cleansing.
French officers denied this, saying they sought
only to prevent renewed urban war and that
reunification of Mitrovica must await a political
agreement between the two sides.
Sporadic, U.N.-mediated talks on free movement and
repatriation of displaced people have borne no
fruit. |
