Whats going on in Kosovo? I see there is some street fighting going on? Why isnt anyone saying anything? Why are you quiet?
This is what i read:
http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?pDesc=1,1,22&type=top&File=080317182950.tcqk0og6.xmlUN police quit Kosovo town after 100 hurt in clashes
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA (AFP)
Fire burns around tanks as Kosovo Serbs clash with KFOR soldiers in the ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica. UN police were forced to withdraw Monday from the Serb-populated part of this flashpoint Kosovo town after coming under attack as they stormed a court occupied by Serbs opposed to independence.
UN police were forced to withdraw Monday from the Serb-populated part of this flashpoint Kosovo town after coming under attack as they stormed a court occupied by Serbs opposed to independence.
More than 100 people, including 63 international security force members, were hurt amid gunfire and a suspected grenade blast after they moved in to regain control of the UN-run tribunal in the northern town of Kosovska Mitrovica, police officials said.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon deplored the violent attacks against UN and NATO-led forces and urged "all communities to exercise calm and restraint."
He expected "all sides to refrain from any actions or statements that could incite or provoke further violence," a statement from his office said.
At least 27 of the wounded UN police were Polish, Poland's national police spokesman Mariusz Sokolowski said in Warsaw, adding they had been pelted with rocks, homemade explosives and possibly shot at.
Kosovo Serbs clash with French soldiers of the Nato-led peackeeping forces of the KFOR in the ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica. UN police were forced to withdraw Monday from the Serb-populated part of this flashpoint Kosovo town after coming under attack as they stormed a court occupied by Serbs opposed to independence.
"The police are pulling out of northern Mitrovica," said an official from the Kosovo police mission of the United Nations, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.
But Kosovo's NATO-led KFOR peacekeepers have remained in the tense town.
The French army chief of staff said in Paris that 20 French soldiers serving with KFOR were among the wounded, eight of them seriously, but none of them were in critical condition.
Kosovo Serbs clash with French KFOR soldiers in the ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica. UN police were forced to withdraw Monday from the Serb-populated part of this flashpoint Kosovo town after coming under attack as they stormed a court occupied by Serbs opposed to independence.
"NATO condemns, in the strongest terms, violence that we have seen today. NATO will respond firmly to ensure a safe and secure environment," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said in Brussels.
The use of weapons makes the violence the worst to have flared in Kosovo since its ethnic Albanian-dominated parliament unilaterally declared independence from Serbia on February 17.
The clashes erupted after UN police and KFOR troops surrounded the Mitrovica courthouse in a pre-dawn raid to evict the Serb protestors.
Fifty-three Serbs were arrested, while at least 80 of them suffered wounds, including from gunshots, according to Kosovo police and hospital officials.
A tire burns in front of KFOR tanks as Kosovo Serbs clash with KFOR soldiers in the ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica. UN police were forced to withdraw Monday from the Serb-populated part of this flashpoint Kosovo town after coming under attack as they stormed a court occupied by Serbs opposed to independence.
As the UN police arrived, about 100 angry Serbs pelted them with stones. Police used tear gas to disperse them and several UN vehicles were set alight.
The Serbs seized at least one police vehicle and freed some detainees.
But 32 detainees were taken to Pristina for questioning and were released late Monday, police said.
Branka Semenov, one the detained, told reporters upon return to Mitrovica that "those who arrested us were very tough and did not treat us as humans."
French KFOR soldiers shoot at Kosovo Serbs during clashes in the ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica. UN police were forced to withdraw Monday from the Serb-populated part of this flashpoint Kosovo town after coming under attack as they stormed a court occupied by Serbs opposed to independence.
"We were handcuffed for hours. In Pristina, they handed us over to the Albanians, and there was no international representative with us," she said.
Some 300 Serbs who had taken over the courthouse on Friday refused to leave after negotiations with UN officials failed at the weekend.
The group of Serbs -- many of whom worked in the judiciary before Kosovo came under UN administration in 1999 -- had demanded the establishment of their own court.
Northern Kosovo has a 40,000-strong Serb population who are divided from the mainly ethnic Albanian south by the Ibar River, which passes through Mitrovica.
The clashes came on the four-year anniversary of the March 2004 anti-Serb riots by ethnic Albanians in which 19 people were killed and dozens of medieval Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries were destroyed or damaged.
Kosovo Serbs clash with KFOR soldiers in the ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica. UN police were forced to withdraw Monday from the Serb-populated part of this flashpoint Kosovo town after coming under attack as they stormed a court occupied by Serbs opposed to independence.
Kosovo's independence has been recognised by many Western countries but Serbia and Kosovo Serbs -- backed by Russia -- have vehemently rejected the move as illegal.
Serbian President Boris Tadic warned UN and NATO forces against any "excessive reaction" that could spark a further "escalation."
Outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica condemned the "use of force" and said Serbia had "begun consultations with Russia over necessary mutual reaction in order to halt all violence against the Serbs."
Russia earlier called for a resumption of talks on the status of Kosovo, saying the unrest was a result of the territory's unilateral independence declaration.
