Breaking News: Serbian Security Forces Enter Kosovo!
This article appeared in the Guardian on Wednesday February 20 2008 on p20 of
the International section. It was last updated at 00:44 on February 20 2008.
Up to 1,000 men, some suspected of being members of the Serbian Ministry of
Interior police, crossed into northern Kosovo yesterday amid rising fears that
minority Serbs living in the new state’s north would attempt effectively to
partition Kosovo along the Ibar River.
After two days of rapidly rising tensions between Serbs and Albanians
following Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia on Sunday, eyewitnesses
counted close to 200 cars and buses crossing from southern Serbia full of
men.
In a day of high drama, masked Serbs also torched two border posts separating
Serbia from Kosovo, located at Jarnije and Banja about 18 miles north of
Mitrovica, with bulldozers and plastic explosives.Nato troops later closed down
the roads leading to the checkpoints, cutting off the only link between
northern Kosovo and Serbia.
Several incidents were reported overnight, including masked attackers
throwing grenades at UN and Albanian-owned buildings. No one was reported injured.
UN and Nato officials seemed to have been taken largely by surprise by
yesterday’s events, which saw KFor troops being sent in to rescue personnel
trapped at the border posts.
Protesters also tipped over metal sheds that housed Kosovo’s customs service
and sent them sliding down a hill and into a river. They also vandalised and
set fire to passport control booths. “It was very dangerous and the police
had to withdraw and call for help from Nato peacekeepers,” said Veton Elshani,
a spokesman for Kosovo’s multi-ethnic police force.
In Belgrade, the Serbian government minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic,
hailed the attacks, saying: “Today’s action is in accordance with the
general Serbian government policies.
“Belgrade has the intention to take over the customs in northern Kosovo,”
Samardzic told private B92 television. “The customs points were intended to
become part of Kosovo’s state border and we are not going to let that happen.”
The attacks and arrival of the convoys from Serbia were an ominous reminder
of the enduring potential for violence in the new nation of Kosovo as it
embarks on European-supervised independence.
The EU’s new envoy, Pieter Feith, arrived in Pristina yesterday, accompanied
by the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, to mark the beginning of Kosovo
’s new era. Feith will lead a “stability mission” of 1,800 EU police and
legal experts who will run the country’s court system for the next few years.
In the coming days, Feith, a Dutch diplomat with extensive Balkan experience,
will also take over leadership of the International Civilian Office, which
will give him the power to overturn legislation and sack Kosovan officials.
European officials insisted he would try to keep a low profile and use his
powers only in extreme circumstances when, for instance, the country’s
democracy or minority rights were in jeopardy.
Yesterday’s incidents were an illustration of the central problem facing
Feith and the Albanian majority government in Pristina - the refusal of Kosovo’s
Serb minority and the Belgrade government to acknowledge the former province’
s sovereignty.
Elsewhere in the Serb-dominated north witnesses also spoke of police stations
once occupied by the joint Serb-Albanian Kosovo police service now
displaying the Serb flag. The fears that Serbia is intending to put its police force
into the north follow rumours being circulated among Kosovo police service
officers in Mitrovica that Serb members are planning to resign en masse in the
coming days.
The attacks and the arrival of a convoy from Serbia come as further
demonstrations are planned against the declaration of independence in Mitrovica and
Serbian cities this week.
_http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/20/kosovo.Serbia_
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/20/kosovo.Serbia)
**************Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on AOL Living.
(http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-duffy/
2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/gambia-l.html
To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://listserv.icors.org/SCRIPTS/WA-ICORS.EXE?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
|
