NATO force confronts Kosovo Serb protestors

Rioting Serbs clashed with UN and Nato forces in northern Kosovo today in the largest confrontation since the country declared independence.

UN police backed by troops had to storm a UN courthouse to evict demonstrators who have occupied it since last week.

Thousands of stone-hurling Serbs later surrounded the courthouse in Serb-dominated Kosovska Mitrovica and were confronted by riot police backed up by Nato troops, who used tear gas and stun grenades.

The Kosovo Serbs took over the UN court last Friday amid anger over Kosovo’s independence declaration last month.

Dozens of Serb demonstrators were arrested in today’s action.

At least one UN vehicle and one Nato truck were set on fire during the riots. Several demonstrators and policemen were injured.

Nato helicopters hovered above Kosovska Mitrovica, a town divided by the Ibar River between Kosovo Albanians and Serbs. The Serbs turned on an air raid alarm during the clashes in the city.

“The situation is quite tense, but police and Nato are out in force,” said a spokesman for Kosovo’s police in the north of the country.

The clash was the most serious between Kosovo’s peacekeepers and the Serbs since Kosovo declared independence, which set off daily Serb protests in front of the court.

Witnesses said 20 of the 53 Serb demonstrators who were arrested in the morning were later released when the rioters stopped UN vehicles driving them away.

“After the special UN police burst into the court, they bashed some furniture and handcuffed us,” said Milenko Stranic, one of the Serbs who escaped arrest. “They refused to speak to us and impounded our mobile phones.”

A UN police spokesman said all the arrested would sent into detention centers around Kosovo to appear before judges.

“The operation was undertaken by UN special police units backed by Nato peacekeepers,” he said. “The 53 persons were arrested for the illegal occupation of premises controlled by the UN mission here.”

The protesters have been trying to take control of local institutions that have been run by the UN since the end of the war in Kosovo in 1999. The crowds have prevented international and ethnic Albanian judges from returning to work at the court.

During earlier protests outside the court, UN and local staff were forced to evacuate after Serb rioters targeted the building with hand grenades.

The Kosovo Serbs have already tried to take control of a stretch of railway line in northern Kosovo in defiance of Kosovo’s government. Hundreds of Serb policemen have handed over their badges and weapons rather than submit to Kosovo authorities.

Predominantly ethnic Albanian Kosovo has been under UN control since 1999, when Nato stopped Solobodan Milosevic’s crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.

Serbia, which considers the territory its historic and religious heartland, says Kosovo’s declaration of independence was illegal under international law.