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[Confer yesterday's Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty report on the NATO-engineered Georgian-Azerbaijani joint military declaration concerning 'illegitimate seccessionist' threats.] Kosovo Serbs protest for third day to demand release of local leader Thu Apr 11, 9:56 AM ET KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Yugoslavia - About 3,000 angry Serbs took to the streets for the third straight day on Thursday to demand the release of a Serb recently arrested by U.N. police amid violent riots. The protesters gathered in the center of the ethnically divided city of Kosovska Mitrovica and then marched to the office of U.N. police officers, with whom they clashed bitterly on Monday. Some of them then pelted the office with eggs and set up road blockades, threatening to continue their protests until their demand is met. Simmering tensions erupted here Monday when the U.N. officers, part of Kosovo's international administration, tried to set up a new checkpoint in the Serb area. That move triggered riots by Serb hardliners. The city is divided into a mostly Serb-populated northern section and an ethnic Albanian southern section, separated by the Ibar river. Twenty-two U.N. officers and 12 Serbs were injured in the melee Monday as gunshots were fired and two hand grenades exploded. Police arrested a Serb, Slavoljub Jovic, on suspicion that he had led the attacks. On Thursday the protesters demanded the release of Jovic and another Serb, Stevan Zigic, who was arrested last month on charges that he took part in an assault that led to the death of an ethnic Albanian. A speaker at the rally, Vladimir Rakic, read a letter Zigic had written from jail. "We are being arrested just because we are Serbs," Rakic said, reading from the letter. Rakic also urged all Serb employees currently working for the U.N. administration or the NATO-led peacekeeping force to quit their jobs in protest. Kosovo has been run by the United Nations and NATO since 1999, when the alliance bombed Serb troops to stop former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists. NATO's airstrikes forced Belgrade to relinquish control over Kosovo, and caused more than 200,000 Kosovo Serbs to flee the province. Those who did not flee now live in Serb enclaves, the largest of which is in Kosovska Mitrovica. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ --------------------------- 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 ==^================================================================
