|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Saturday, 20 March 2004 |
 |
|
 |
World | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
NATO rushes troops to Kosovo after 31 die in ethnic violence PRISTINA, Serbiar Friday (AFP) NATO moved swiftly to contain a bloody outbreak of inter-ethnic fighting in Kosovo which left at least 31 people dead, announcing that it was sending reinforcements to the province to back up a peacekeeping force there. The violence, which broke out on Wednesday between Serbs and the majority ethnic Albanians, is the worst in Serbian province since it was put under UN administration in 1999. The UN Security Council condemned the deadly violence and said the international community was still committed to a multi-ethnic society in Kosovo. "We have 31 victims and some 500 injured, out of which 61 are police and 35 are NATO-led peacekeepers," UN spokeswoman Izabella Karlowicz told AFP, revising a previous toll of 22 dead. A source at NATO headquarters in Brussels said up to 1,000 extra soldiers could be dispatched to Kosovo to bolster its 17,000-strong force, including 750 new troops sent by Britain. NATO's top military commander in Europe, US General James Jones, expressed concern about the flare-up. "I call on the leaders of both sides of the conflict to take decisive action to control immediately their citizens and return to the rule of law," he said in a statement, describing the extra troop deployments as a "prudent reinforcement." There were reports of more sporadic violence across the province on Thursday. In the capital Pristina a group of ethnic Albanians set fire to an Orthodox church, UN police spokesman Derek Chappell told AFP on Thursday. Chappell also said there were reports of gunfights in the eastern town of Lipjan. The Serb Orthodox church reported that 16 of its churches and monasteries throughout Kosovo, many of them built in medieval times, had been vandalised in the two days of clashes. Many of them had been set aflame. UN staff in Kosovska Mitrovica were being evacuated by NATO-led peacekeepers late Thursday and taken to an undisclosed location, a UN official told AFP. World leaders fear that clashes of this kind could spin out of control and destabilise the fragile Balkans region. "Violence is unacceptable and must stop immediately. Those responsible must be brought to justice," the UN Security Council said in a statement, read by current council president Jean-Marc de la Sabliere of France. "The establishment of a multi-ethnic, tolerant, democratic society in a stable Kosovo remains the fundamental objective of the international community," the council said. Meanwhile two days of fierce ethnic clashes in Kosovo have set back the province's quest for independence from Serbia, U.N. Security Council members said during an emergency session of the 15-nation body. "The recent events have highlighted the fragility of the structures and relationships in Kosovo. It shows that despite the progress that has been made since 1999, we have not come far enough," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the session, convened at the request of the government of Serbia and Montenegro. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
