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Serbs rally to protest arrest of their leader and U.N. police action
By GARENTINA KRAJA
The
Associated Press
4/9/02 10:02
PM
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Yugoslavia (AP) -- Thousands of Serbs rallied Tuesday to demand the release of a hardline leader imprisoned after clashes with U.N. police and other Serbs held in Kosovo jails.
The protest in the ethnically divided city of Kosovska Mitrovica came a day after 22 international police officers and 12 Serbs were hurt in the violent confrontation.
Marko Jaksic, a local Serb leader and director of a Serb hospital, said two of the injured Serbs were in serious condition. Michael Steiner, the United Nations top official in Kosovo, traveled to the still tense city on Tuesday and denounced the violence against the U.N. police force.
"I condemn in the strongest terms these unlawful acts," he said. "Politically, they hurt the legitimate interests of Serbs in Kosovo."
Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller arrived in Kosovska Mitrovica later in the day to visit 11 of 15 injured Polish U.N. police officers still in the city's French military hospital. Afterward he termed Monday's acts of violence "dramatic" and said they "should not have taken place."
An American U.N. policeman also was injured and hospitalized at Camp Bondsteel, the main U.S. base in Kosovo. The nationalities of the other injured policemen was not known.
Serb community leaders said Kosovska Mitrovica Serbs rioted because U.N. police arrested Slavoljub Jovic-Pagi, a leader of a hardline group known as the "bridge guards."
However, John Neil, the head of the U.N. police in Kosovska Mitrovica, told reporters that a violent crowd formed when U.N. police set up a checkpoint for a routine check of vehicles in the Serb part of the town.
On Tuesday, demonstrators in the industrial city divided by the Ibar River into a predominantly Serb northern part and an ethnic Albanian southern section, accused U.N. police of unnecessarily violent tactics.
Marko Jaksic, another Serb community leader, demanded Jovic-Pagi's release along with other Serbs detained in Kosovo jails.
The protest ended without reported incidents.
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