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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: truedog who wrote (12102)	6/15/1999 9:58:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 17770

Pristina erupts in violence as Serbs pull out By Julius Strauss and Tim Butcher in Pristina SWAGGERING and abusive to the end, Serb security forces withdrew from Pristina last night, ending a three-month reign of terror in the Kosovan capital. Their departure triggered a wave of ethnic killings that threatened to push Pristina towards anarchy. British peacekeepers tried to keep control but with only 1,200 Paras and Irish Guards spread over a large city, some suburbs dissolved into lawlessness. Kosovan Albanians said Serb gunmen shot four people dead as tension mounted. They said a fight between Serb and Albanian children escalated into a scuffle involving adults and resulted in the fatal shooting of four ethnic Albanians. Legacy of hate: a Serb armed with a pistol kicks an ethnic Albanian in one of many confrontations yesterday in Gnjilane Last night the streets were virtually empty as most ethnic Albanians celebrated their liberation behind closed doors and thousands of Serb civilians fled northwards, many setting fire to their homes before they left. Kosovo Polje, a Serb settlement that marks the spot where Serbs lost a decisive battle against the Turks in 1389, was in flames. The Serb civilian exodus was triggered by the sight of large Serb military convoys containing hundreds of tanks, lorries and self-propelled howitzers streaming north out of Pristina in line with the peace agreement signed last week between Belgrade and Nato. Nato observers counted them out, ensuring that they followed the agreed route. The sheer numbers indicated how far Nato was from destroying the Serb field army during its air campaign. Many of the Serb forces had been drinking and they shouted abuse at Nato and the ethnic Albanians, as they left the city with Serbian flags streaming from radio antennae. A Nato spokesman said the phased withdrawal was going well with about half of the 40,000 security forces already outside Kosovo. The south of the province is now empty of Serb army, special police and paramilitaries, in accordance with the agreement, and the remainder are expected to have left by the final deadline on Sunday. But the violence in Pristina and other towns in the south of Kosovo led to a call for restraint from Brig Bill Rollo, Commander of the 4th Armoured Brigade. It came after incidents involving British Paras and other Nato troops who came under fire as they tried to keep Kosovo's fragile peace. In one flashpoint, British Paras patrolling eastern Pristina were fired at by KLA soldiers. The men, from the 1 Bn the Parachute Regiment, did not return fire but sealed off the area and arrested five people - who, after being disarmed, gave the excuse that they mistook the British troops for Serb security forces. Another Para foot patrol came across a siege in which a Serb army barracks had been surrounded by armed KLA. For several hours they negotiated between the two sides, trying to make them keep undertakings made by their respective authorities. At another point, an Albanian man was dumped at a British Army position on the edge of Pristina. He had been shot through the head and the unit's Catholic priest administered the last rites. Soldiers from the Irish Guards and Parachute Regiment patrolled Pristina aggressively but could do little to stop many Serb civilians leaving in huge columns for Serbia proper. On the main streets, KFOR is in charge but on the housing estates and winding backroads of Pristina, KLA fighters were steadily infiltrating yesterday. They have promised not to harm Serb civilians but few are ready to take the chance. In the south-western village of Velika Krusa, Dutch peacekeepers found about 20 bodies apparently massacred and burnt by Serb forces. telegraph.co.uk ps. The magnitude of ming-boggling stupidity of Clinton/Blair axis is impossible to comprehend....