KOSOVO: ETHNIC ALBANIAN/ SERB CLASHES

(9 Aug 1999) Eng/French/Nat

For the third straight day ethnic Albanians taunted French peacekeepers in Mitrovica on Monday, demanding free movement across a bridge into the Serb district.

Armed French troops blocked the bridge over the Ibar River with armoured vehicles as hundreds of young men waved red-and-black Albanian flags, cursing the soldiers as terrorists.

Hundreds of ethnic Albanian youths stormed the bridge in Mitrovica, but they came up against forty heavily armed soldiers from the NATO-led peace keeping force.

The French troops, who were backed by armoured personnel carriers, then erected a barbed wire barricade across the bridge.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"What we are trying to do is to avoid a massive confrontation between the two communities. This morning it is not a problem for peaceful civilians to cross the bridge from North to South or South to North. But to avoid any provocation or massive confrontation, we don't want to let these people cross."
SUPERCAPTION: Captain Bertrand Bonneau, K-FOR Commandant

While some of the protestors acted peacefully, a number of them did storm the bridge.

SOUNDBITE: (French)
"Today, we have between 30 and 50 young people, most of them are teenagers, who have asked us to cross the bridge, we've explained to them that we could not let them cross the bridge because we wish to avoid any massive confrontation between two communities. Amiss the crowd there could be some trouble makers that could make things degenerate, we have asked them to step back, they've replied by pushing forward, so we had to step back a few meters in relations to the bridge in order to contain the crowd."
SUPERCAPTION: Captain Bertrand Bonneau, K-FOR Commandant

Monday's confrontation is a repeat of Saturday and Sunday's attempts by ethnic Albanians to cross the bridge over the Ibar River, for what they say is a chance to visit the homes they left behind.

SOUNDBITE: (Albanian)
"My house is down there (North Side) and it is burnt down. And we are not even allowed to go to it and clear up the mess. I hope things work out for the best. Our wish is to live over there, so that the town is not divided and that's all I have to say. I hope that it all works out."
SUPERCAPTION: Fatmire Beqiri, Vox Pop

About 150 Kosovo Albanians were held off by the French on Sunday, while on Saturday, a crowd of about one thousand tried to force their way across the bridge.

Many of the local Albanians are accusing the French peacekeepers of creating a new border to keep ethnic Albanians out of the Serb-dominated part of Mitrovica, about 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of Pristina.

But U-N officials believe there is potential for serious violence if the Albanians
are allowed to cross.

Mitrovica, a mining centre valued by both Serbs and ethnic Albanians, is divided by the river into predominantly Serb and ethnic Albanian enclaves.

Since the end of the Kosovo war, the central bridge has become a symbol of confrontation, with ethnic Albanians being prevented from returning to live north of the river.

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