Several hundred ethnic Serb protesters took over a United Nations court in the town of Mitrovica in north Kosovo today after UN police at the compound retreated.
Kosovo's Serb minority, some 120,000 people among two million Albanians, reject Kosovo's secession from Serbia last month. The Serbian government has vowed to never accept it and to extend its authority over Serb areas in the territory's north.
The protesters had been outside the building for several weeks, preventing Albanian court workers from crossing the bridge over the Ibar River that divides Mitrovica into a Serb north and an Albanian south.
"We have returned to a building that belongs to us, and in which we worked until 1999," said municipal public prosecutor Milan Bigovic.
The crowd, mostly former court employees in the Mitrovica region who were left jobless after Nato expelled Serb forces in 1999, broke through the court's outer gate and entered the building. They ripped the UN plaque off the building and took down the blue-and-white flag, raising a Serbian flag instead.
Ukrainian and Polish special UN police offered little resistance. A UN source said there were some reports of protesters attacking police with metal bars, but the protesters' move was largely non-violent.
The takeover of the court took place a few hours before Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is due to visit Mitrovica for meetings with local leaders and Nato commanders.