UN police to restore mission

UN police yesterday began returning to the Serb-held town in northern Kosovo where protesters with guns and hand grenades killed one of their colleagues and wounded dozens more.

About 40 UN police officers will resume their duties alongside 80 members of the local police force in Mitrovica, which on Monday saw the worst clashes since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia a month ago.

Yesterday Nato troops removed bundles of barbed wire from the bridge that splits the former industrial city into its Serb and Albanian sectors, but no cars used it.

David McLean, the regional police commander in Mitrovica, said the UN police were returning “gradually” and setting up their operation and patrols. He said he expected to restore the mission “as quickly as possible”.

The UN police started returning after Serbs promised they would not be attacked, said a spokesman for the UN.

The UN pulled out of Mitrovica and left Nato in charge in the wake of Monday’s clashes with Serbs who occupied a UN court.

After the violence, Serbian President Boris Tadic sought to call for renewed talks under the authority of the UN as the only way to reach a compromise.

Yesterday three of its neighbours — Bulgaria, Croatia and Hungary — moved to recognise Kosovo as an independent state, despite Belgrade’s warnings that could lead to worsening regional tensions.