KOSOVO: MITROVICA: SITUATION UPDATE

(27 Mar 2000) Natural Sound

NATO peacekeepers on Monday arrested six people after a grenade exploded in Kosovo's tensest city of Mitrovica.

Shortly before the start of the NATO-imposed curfew at 10 p-m (2100 GMT) on Sunday, a hand grenade went off in Little Bosnia, an ethnically mixed neighbourhood on the Serb-controlled north bank of the Ibar River, which divides the city into rival camps.

No one was hurt in the blast.

Following a grenade explosion the previous evening, NATO soldiers on Monday morning began a house-to-house weapons search in Little Bosnia, an ethnically-mixed neighbourhood in the tense Serb-dominated northern part of Mitrovica.

Later on Monday, a NATO spokesman confirmed that two Albanians and four Serbs had been detained.

He did not say exactly where the grenade had exploded and offered no further details.

During the K-FOR security action a group of Serbian residents gathered outside the security zone, suspecting the action was a prelude to extending the zone.

SOUNDBITE (Serbian)
"I thought you arrived here in a mission of peace, to establish a balance between two sides, but it seems to me that you are taking our territory step by step, pushing us slowly into Serbia. But you should know that this is Serbia as well."
SUPERCAPTION: Dragica Vukanovic, Serbian resident

The Serbs are bitterly opposed to an extension of the zone, which K-FOR feels is necessary to calm tensions between Serbs and Albanians.

The city, which is located 32 kilometres (20 miles) northwest of the provincial capital Pristina, has the largest Serb population still in the province.

Tensions between the two communities in the city of Kosovska Mitrovica have steadily increased in recent months.

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