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Serb police in Kosovo reject Albanian command Fri Feb 29, 2008 11:58am EST By Matt Robinson PRISTINA (Reuters) - Hundreds of Serb police in Kosovo vowed on Friday not to follow the orders of the Albanian-dominated force after the territory split from Serbia. The Kosovo Serb officers are demanding they report to the United Nations police force, rather than the Kosovo Police Service (KPS) command in the capital Pristina. It is the latest sign of a deepening ethnic divide since the February 17 secession. Around 100 officers in the eastern Gnjilane region were suspended on full pay indefinitely, a police spokesman said. "The KPS officers are returning their equipment," said Ismet Hashani. There are around 700 Serb officers in the 7,000-strong force, created by the United Nations after it took control of the breakaway territory at the end of the 1998-99 war. Backed by Russia, Serbia and the 120,000 remaining Serbs in Kosovo have rejected the declaration of independence by the 90-percent ethnic Albanian majority, which has been recognized by the major Western powers. Serbia insists it will continue to rule areas where "loyal citizens" still look to Belgrade for government, fuelling fears it is trying to split the new country in two. In the central Serb monastery town of Gracanica, 100 Serb officers in uniform gathered outside the local police station to demand negotiations with the regional U.N. police chief. Serb officers in the north, where just under half the Kosovo Serb community lives, already report to the U.N. police, rather than KPS headquarters. "Serb KPS officers across Kosovo will do today what Serbs ... did in northern Kosovo," Stanko Jakovljevic, Serb mayor of the southern Kosovo region of Strpce, told Reuters. "They will only recognize orders from international police." Kosovo became a de facto U.N. protectorate in 1999, after NATO bombed to drive out Serb forces and halt the killing and ethnic cleansing of Albanians in a two-year war against rebels. Kosovo's declaration of independence has been met with daily, sometimes violent, Serb protests. Serb mobs burned down two border posts in the north last week and are refusing to allow the return of customs officers. Serbs are also demanding they be allowed to take control of the main U.N. court in the northern town of Mitrovica and are preventing Albanian court staff from traveling to work. (Additional reporting by Shaban Buza and Branislav Krstic; editing by Robert Woodward)
