NATO troops raided apartment blocks in a flashpoint Kosovo town today after two days of mass violence the alliance said verged on "ethnic cleansing" of Serbs by majority Albanians.
Almost 1,000 Serbs have fled their homes and sought the protection of NATO-led peacekeepers stationed in the province after riots, gunfire and arson attacks on Serb churches and villages.
"This kind of activity actually almost amounts to ethnic cleansing and it cannot go on," US commander of NATO forces for Southern Europe, Admiral Gregory Johnson, told reporters in Kosovo's capital Pristina. "That's why we came here in the first place." Seven NATO member states hurriedly sent 2,000 reinforcements between them to beef up the 18,000-strong NATO-led force in Kosovo, effectively a UN protectorate.
No fresh hostilities were reported today but a Reuters correspondent saw one Serb village, whose inhabitants had been earlier evacuated by peacekeepers, burning.
So far 31 people, both Serbs and Albanians, have been killed in Kosovo's worst outbreak of violence since 1999, dealing a blow to hopes that the UN and NATO can foster lasting reconciliation between the Orthodox Serbs and Muslim Albanians.
A UN police spokesman said 112 Serb homes and 16 churches had been burned. He said 100 UN and local police had been injured. "Over the past four and a half years, we have seen numerous protests and acts of violence in Kosovo," he said. "What we have not seen is an outbreak of violence of this scale, of this speed, of this intensity... involving thousands of people attacking Serb people, Serb property and Serb symbols."
The Serb government has accused the Albanians of a concerted campaign to evict remaining Serbs from Kosovo. Some 30,000 students marched in Belgrade to protest at "Albanian terror".
NATO-led KFOR peacekeepers said today they had killed a sniper and raided apartment blocks in the divided town of Mitrovica where the violence broke out. Peacekeepers have imposed a curfew.
Germany said it would send 600 more troops to Kosovo, France an extra 400 and Denmark an additional 100. About 150 British troops arrived today, the first of promised 750 soldiers.
About 150 US troops and 80 Italian Carabinieri arrived on Thursday. NATO-led peacekeepers in neighbouring Bosnia said they had sent an extra 160 Italian and British troops to Kosovo.
Western diplomats and analysts said the violence had made the effort to settle the final status of the province more difficult. Some said the scale and coordination of the Albanian attacks suggested they were part of the drive for independence.
"Albanians are trying to cleanse the Serbs and create a fait accompli before any talks," said a Western source on condition of anonymity. "Anyone with political experience can see that."
NATO bombed Serbia in 1999 to prevent Serbian ethnic cleansing of Albanians and forced Serb forces to abandon Kosovo. In the immediate aftermath, Albanian revenge attacks, arson, killing and intimidation drove 200,000 Serbs out of Kosovo. Up to 100,000 stayed on, in north Mitrovica and in small enclaves.