http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=727843
TIMES (SOUTH AFRICA) Serbs snub UN over Kosovo AFP Published:Mar 15, 2008 KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - Serbs opposed to Kosovo's independence who stormed and occupied two United Nations (UN)-run courts refused to budge today, saying negotiations with the United Nations had broken down. Nobosa Jovic, one of around 300 Serbs who took over the buildings yesterday, told AFP they had rejected a demand from the UN mission in the breakaway Serbian province to leave by midday. The demonstrators proposed for their part to await the result of a meeting scheduled for Monday between Serbia's minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, and Joachim Ruecker, the head of the UN mission known as Unmik. Ruecker had described the protest as "completely unacceptable" on yesterday, adding, "I have instructed Unmik police to restore law and order...and to ensure that the court house is again under UN control." Unmik said that those who turned to violence had crossed one of its "red lines." However, no police were visible in the area of the court buildings today. The Serbs, from the northern half of the divided city of Mitrovica, "demolished and broke through two entrance gates and entered the buildings of the municipal and district courts, where they took down the UN flag," a Kosovo police statement said yesterday. UN police said they had been confronted by protestors pelting them with stones and metal objects. The Serbs - including many who worked in Kosovo's judiciary before the territory came under the administration of Unmik in 1999 - said they wanted to set up their own court. Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, on a brief visit to Kosovo, condemned the incident, which he described as a provocation that could lead to "situations which are unacceptable." During his visit to Kosovo, the Nato secretary general visited the northern part of the Albanian-majority province, but failed to meet with local Serb leaders. Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders also condemned the attack, with President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Hashim Thaci demanding Unmik and Nato-led peacekeepers "react urgently." They urged international authorities in Kosovo to "pull the hooligans out of the buildings as well as to provide their permanent protection." Kosovo's government unilaterally declared independence from Serbia on February 17 and has since been recognised by many Western countries. Serbia and Kosovo Serbs vehemently reject the move as illegal. Two days after the proclamation, angry Kosovo Serbs torched two border crossings with Serbia and have since staged a series of other protests, some of them leading to unrest. The protests and fears of violence have forced staff preparing for an EU-led international mission in the territory to be moved from the tense north of Kosovo, which is populated by some 40,000 Serbs.
