UN pulls out of Kosovo flashpoint

UN staff have been pulled out of the flashpoint town of Mitrovica in Kosovo where two days of inter-ethnic clashes have left 31 dead.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said the decision had been taken in view of the worsening security situation.

He was addressing a special session of the UN Security Council after the worst violence since the 1999 Kosovo war.

Mobs of angry Albanians set alight Serbian Orthodox churches and Serb-owned homes across Kosovo on Thursday.

The attacks came as Nato announced it was sending another 1,000 troops to reinforce the 18,500 already there.

The Security Council has strongly condemned the violence - calling it "unacceptable" - and demanded that it stop immediately.

Mr Annan said it showed that, despite the progress, communities in Kosovo were not ready to accept multi-ethnicity.

He urged all sides to co-operate with the international presence in Kosovo.

But his message was aimed primarily at the Kosovo Albanian leaders, who - as the largest ethnic group - had a responsibility "to protect and promote the rights of all people within Kosovo, particularly its minorities".

After calls from Nato and the European Union earlier, the main Kosovo Albanian political parties issued a statement urging their supporters to call off the protests - but it appears to have gone unheeded.

Drownings

Trouble first erupted in the divided city of Mitrovica after the drowning deaths of two Albanian children, blamed on members of the province's small ethnic Serbian community.

Flights in and out of Kosovo have been suspended and internal boundaries with Serbia have been closed.

The top commander of the Nato-led force in Kosovo, known as K-For, has authorised the troops to use force if necessary.

As attacks multiplied, angry demonstrators over the border in Serbia itself responded by burning several mosques.

A Serb Orthodox church in the heart of Pristina was the target of an attack on Thursday evening.

Earlier, Albanians managed to get past Nato peacekeepers to set fire to churches in Mitrovica and the town of Obilic, west Pristina, where about 100 local Serbs had to be evacuated.

Crowds of Albanians were also reported to be trying to storm a church being protected by Finnish peacekeepers in the central town of Lipljan.

Nato troops had to use tear gas against Albanian protesters seeking to march on the village of Caglavica, south of Pristina, for the second day on Thursday.

Accusation

Serbia has accused both the UN and Nato of failing to protect Kosovo's Serbs.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has described the attacks as "planned in advance and co-ordinated... this was an attempted pogrom and ethnic cleansing" against Kosovo's Serbs.

He has called for a state of emergency to be imposed in Kosovo.

Mr Kostunica was addressing protesters in the Serbian capital Belgrade - a day after similar gatherings ended up stoning and burning mosques and other Islamic buildings.

The situation has sparked growing debate about how to resolve the status of the Kosovo province, says the BBC's Nick Thorpe.

The latest outbreak of violence has revived debate about the idea of partitioning Kosovo, with the area north of the River Ibar, which divides Mitrovica, falling to Serbia.

But it is an idea which is an anathema to the majority Albanian population and has also been rejected by the UN administrators of the province, our correspondent says.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3525396.stm

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[ 03-19-2004, 02:39 AM: Message edited by: Spelca ]

I guess some people never learn.

It's the promulgation of the 'us' and 'them' mentality.

I think it's the result of putting a band-aid on a problem rather than really fixing it.

This issue shows us again that the un abbreviature stands for "unwanted nobodies" if at all.
Sucsess level equals zero.
How long will it take till another war will happen there? The un cant be there forever...

"UN staff have been pulled out of the flashpoint town of Mitrovica in Kosovo where two days of inter-ethnic clashes have left 31 dead."
isn't that kinda like a policeman walking away from a crime instead of stopping it. That's why I don't like the UN. Talk is wonderful if people want to talk, when they don't want to talk, to quote the "Thing" It's clobbering time.

How exactly is the lack of success the UN's fault? Kosovo was a NATO operation, so shouldn't NATO get the credit for any success (or the lack thereof)?

"UN staff have been pulled out of the flashpoint town of Mitrovica in Kosovo where two days of inter-ethnic clashes have left 31 dead."
isn't that kinda like a policeman walking away from a crime instead of stopping it. That's why I don't like the UN. Talk is wonderful if people want to talk, when they don't want to talk, to quote the "Thing" It's clobbering time. </font>[/QUOTE]It's not the peacekeepers who have pulled ot. It's the civilian support staff

French soldiers and riot police are patrolling the streets. 750 UK, 600 German and 400 further French troops are on their way. All wearing blue helmets.

Yep. With more to come. All wearing the famous ugly blue helmets. [img]graemlins/heee.gif[/img]

The problem with the conflict in this particular part of the globe is, that none of the indirect involved parties have anything to gain. There's no natural resources that aquire attention, no strategic positions that might come in jeapardy, no long term friendly relationships are on the line, etc...

The only thing that's to gain here for outsiders is to know where to draw the line and when to act in the name of humanity, all together.