KOSOVO:NATO PLACED the Kosovan town of Mitrovica under de facto military law yesterday after riots by a Serb population hostile to independence killed one UN policeman and forced the pull-out of UN personnel.
The Nato-led peacekeeping force K-For and the United Nations mission ordered all local Kosovo Serb police officers to park their patrol cars and suspend normal duties.
With UN police already withdrawn, the order left French, Belgian and Spanish troops in sole control of law and order in the northern slice of Kosovo, where Serbs opposed to its February 17th secession from Serbia dominate the population.
"We have not organised martial law," K-For commander Gen Xavier Bout de Marnhac told a news conference in the capital, Pristina. "There is no intent as far as I know for installing it for the time being." He said Monday's riots had "crossed a red line with the deliberate intent to kill people, you know Molotov cocktails, fragmentation grenades and direct fire" aimed at UN and K-For personnel.
"We are not going to tolerate that . . . don't put us in a position to show it again tomorrow," the general said. A column of US troops, some in full riot gear, arrived on the south side of Mitrovica yesterday "to help out", one soldier said. They are based in southeastern Kosovo.
At the main police station, three dozen Kosovo Serb police officers carried their holdalls and flak jackets out past Belgian armoured cars guarding the perimeter of the car park.
"Following yesterday's events K-For has taken over authority for north Mitrovica and occupied the northern police station. UN police have ordered us to stay at home until further notice," Capt Milija Milosevic said.
A Ukrainian police officer serving with the United Nations died overnight of injuries sustained in the riots. Polish, French and Ukrainian officers were among 42 UN police and 22 K-For soldiers injured.
The violence was the worst since Kosovo's Albanian majority declared independence and highlighted the risk of the new state's partition along ethnic lines.
Soldiers in armoured personnel carriers secured key positions in the town after Monday's riots. The main bridge over the river separating the Serb north from the Albanian south was closed. Razor-wire and upturned rubbish containers blocked the way.
The violence was sparked by a UN police operation to retake a UN court seized three days earlier by protesting Serbs. The unrest has cast further doubt on the deployment in the north of a European Union rule-of-law mission in the next two months. - (Reuters)