World

Four killed, 200 injured in Kosovo clash

MITROVICA (Serbia and Montenegro) March 17 - At least four people were killed and up to 200 injured on Wednesday in the worst clash between Kosovo Serbs and Albanians in more than a year, hospital sources said.

Shooting continued in the ethnically divided flashpoint city of Mitrovica some two hours after helmeted and flak-jacketed Polish riot police from a United Nations force moved in firing teargas and rubber bullets to try to disperse protesters.

``It is a mad situation,'' a spokeswoman for U.N. police told Reuters by telephone. ``It is going to be very bad, the end result...naturally it's not helping the peace process.''

Hundreds of Kosovo Albanians had gathered in their southern half of the city in the morning to vent their rage at the drowning deaths on Tuesday of two children they believe were hounded by Serbs.

As police battled to stop them crossing the bridge into the Serbian sector, a Reuters reporter saw a man on the Serb side fire a Kalashnikov rifle into the crowd and two Albanians fire back with revolvers.

Kosovo police sources said at least one Albanian was killed by a handgrenade thrown by Serbs and a second was shot dead. A Serbian radio reporter on the other side of the clash said a woman was shot dead through the heart by a stray bullet.

Hospital sources said at least four people were killed and 200 injured in the violence.

Kosovo has been under the rule of the United Nations and NATO peacekeepers since the Western alliance bombed Serbia during an Albanian guerrilla uprising, aiming to halt Serb repression of independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.

Almost five years later, parts of Kosovo remain an ethnic tinderbox, with no hint of the reconciliation international agencies have sought to foster.

Tensions flared in Mitrovica after two Albanian boys drowned in the Ibar River, in what Albanians believe was a revenge attack for the drive-by shooting in a more southerly enclave on Monday of a Serbian teenager who was gravely wounded.

Hundreds of Polish anti-riot police formed a cordon at the bridge leading to the Serb-populated northern part of the city, firing rubber bullets to disperse the protesters.

Armoured U.N. police vehicles blocked the entrance to the main bridge dividing the two communities and NATO-led peacekeeping troops formed a cordon to separate Albanians and Serbs who gathered in another part of the city.

The drownings occurred not far from Mitrovica.

``We found two bodies, one last night and one this morning and we are still looking for one child who is missing,'' said Tracy Becker, spokeswoman for U.N. police in Mitrovica.

Kosovo Albanian television on Tuesday quoted a fourth boy as saying he and friends were chased by Serb children and had jumped into the Ibar to escape. He said he swam with his little brother on his back but the boy slipped off and went under.

Further south on Wednesday, minority Serbs maintained roadblocks for a third day of protest against the drive-by shooting of an 18-year-old Serb who was seriously wounded. The Serbs blamed Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians for the attack. - Reuters