HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK ---------------------------Macedonia war crimes probe
LJUBOTEN, Macedonia, April 8 (Reuters) - Forensic experts began digging up graves on Monday in an ethnic Albanian village in northern Macedonia where a rights group says security forces killed nine civilians during last year's conflict.
The U.N. war crimes tribunal, which has launched an investigation into the allegations, said it was working with local authorities on the exhumations at a cemetery on the outskirts of the village of Ljuboten.
After investigating violence in Ljuboten last August, New York-based Human Rights Watch accused security forces of reprisal killings of civilians. Macedonian officials have denied the allegation, saying the dead were ethnic Albanian guerrillas.
Macedonian experts, their mouths covered by white masks, unearthed two individual graves on the first day of the exhumations. Fellow villagers buried those killed in the August violence at the cemetery last year.
Reporters saw one body being put in a blue plastic bag and later lowered into a metal casket.
Officials from the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague were present at the exhumations, as were international monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
"We are working with the local authorities," U.N. war crimes deputy prosecutor Graham Blewitt told Reuters by telephone from The Hague. "It has been in the works for some months."
Quoting testimony from villagers, Human Rights Watch said security forces had shot dead six civilians, killed three in random shelling and beaten scores of detainees after 10 soldiers died in a landmine explosion near Ljuboten.
The government said the casualties were "terrorists" killed in battle, just days before a Western-brokered peace deal was signed to end a six-month guerrilla insurgency in the name of better rights for Macedonia's large Albanian minority.
10:21 04-08-02
Serbs Clash With NATO Troops
.c The Associated Press
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Yugoslavia (AP) - French NATO troops in Kosovo fired tear gas and stun grenades Monday in an attempt to quell a riot by hundreds of Serbs who protested the arrest of a local leader.
The clash was the most serious incident in months in Kosovska Mitrovica, a troubled, ethnically divided town in northern Kosovo.
Marko Jaksic, a leader in the Mitrovica Serb community, said the rioting began when U.N. police arrested Slavoljub Jovic-Pagi, a leader of a hardline group known as the ``bridge guards.''
The armed ``guards'' have in the past tried to prevent ethnic Albanians and Serbs from crossing a bridge that divides the city between the two rival ethnic communities.
Belgrade's private Beta news agency reported that two loud explosions and two bursts of machine-gun fire were heard during the clashes in the Serb-held part of Kosovska Mitrovica.
Jaksic, a hospital director, said Jovic had tried to discuss security in Mitrovica with U.N. police when he was arrested. Locals, frustrated by the arrest, then began rioting.
Two civilians suffered wounds from bullets ``apparently fired by riot police,'' Jaksic told The Associated Press. ``The situation here is desperate now, it is very tense.''
Eyewitnesses said at least two U.N. police officers had been injured after two explosive devices were thrown into the crowd. The report could not be independently confirmed.
AP-NY-04-08-02 1126EDT
Rioting Serbs Wound U.N. Police
By GARENTINA KRAJA
.c The Associated Press
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Yugoslavia (AP) - Nineteen U.N. police officers were wounded Monday when they tried to quell a riot by hundreds of Serbs in this ethnically divided Kosovo town, a U.N. spokesman said.
One officer was in serious condition, said Stefan Feller, the commander of United Nations police in Kosovo. The clash was the most serious incident in months in the troubled town.
The rioting began when U.N. police arrested Slavoljub Jovic-Pagi, a leader of a hard-line group known as the ``bridge guards,'' said Marko Jaksic, a Serb community leader.
The ``bridge guards'' have previously tried to prevent ethnic Albanians and Serbs from crossing a bridge that divides Kosovska Mitrovica between the two rival ethnic communities.
John Neil, the head of U.N. police in the town, said a crowd formed when U.N. police set up a checkpoint for vehicles in the Serb part of the town and that some people began throwing stones at the officers.
Neil said one Serb was arrested because he was throwing stones and telling others to do so.
U.N. police commanders said they called for assistance as the crowd began rioting. During the confrontation, two hand grenades were thrown at U.N. police. Neil said police came under fire by two gunmen and returned fire in self-defense.
``With the angry crowd throwing stones at the U.N. police, it all escalated into a riot with gunfire and explosions directed at U.N. police officers,'' U.N. police spokesman Barry Fletcher said.
Jaksic, the Serb community leader, said two civilians suffered wounds from bullets ``apparently fired by riot police.'' One was in critical condition with a gunshot wound in the neck, he said.
U.N. police commanders said they could not confirm there were casualties among the Serbs.
Jaksic, a hospital director, said at least at least 10 other people ``with light injuries and suffocation symptoms'' were admitted to his hospital.
U.N. police and NATO troops were blocking the bridge separating the ethnic Albanian and the Serb parts of the city. Armored vehicles carrying police officers in riot gear were lined up on the Ibar River's southern, ethnic Albanian side.
04/08/02 16:20 EDT
--------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST
==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
