Serb-Albanian clashes leave 8 dead

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Serbia-Montenegro - Ethnic Albanians traded gunfire with Serbs Wednesday after blaming them for the drownings of two boys. The clashes left eight dead and about 300 injured in one of the worst days of Serb-Albanian bloodshed since the end of the Kosovo war in 1999.

Riots broke out in virtually every city in the province - and in at least four enclaves where Serbs live - illustrating the failure of U.N. and NATO efforts to snuff out ethnic hatreds and guide the province toward reconciliation.

Protests also swept Belgrade, the capital of Serbia-Montenegro. Thousands took to the streets, demanding that the government act to protect their ethnic kin in Kosovo. Demonstrators in the southern Serb city of Nis set a mosque ablaze and then prevented firefighters from putting out the fire.

In a melee near Kosovo's capital, Pristina, hundreds of ethnic Albanians broke through barricades erected by U.N. police and NATO-led peacekeepers to march on the Serb village of Caglavica. Hand grenades were thrown, and Serb houses were set on fire.

In Pristina itself, U.N. cars also were torched. In the nearby city of Kosovo Polje, dozens of Serb houses and a hospital were set ablaze, and ethnic Albanians appeared to be in control on the streets.

Late Wednesday, armored personnel carriers and police in riot gear were placed in and around the U.N. headquarters in Pristina to prevent attacks against the building housing the international administrators of the disputed province.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the violence, saying it "jeopardizes the stability of Kosovo and the security of all its people," according to a U.N. spokesman.

U.N. officials, diplomats and Kosovo's leadership held an emergency meeting in Pristina and issued an unusual joint statement appealing for calm.

"The violence must stop, and it must stop immediately," the statement said. The officials called on demonstrators to disperse and said those responsible would be prosecuted.

The violence began in the ethnically divided city of Kosovska Mitrovica amid reports that Serbs in a nearby village had set a dog on a group of ethnic Albanian boys, sending three fleeing into a river, where two drowned and the third was missing.

After authorities recovered two bodies, ethnic Albanians and Serbs gathered near a bridge over the Ibar River that separates Kosovska Mitrovica, long the flash point of tensions in this southern province of Serbia-Montenegro. The two sides traded insults, threw rocks and charged each other several times before gunfire rang out and rioters set U.N. police cars ablaze.

The dead included six ethnic Albanians and two Serbs, said Derek Chappell, the chief U.N. police spokesman.

In the predominantly ethnic Albanian southern side of Kosovska Mitrovica, hospital workers counted more than 200 hurt. On the Serb side, Dr. Milan Ivanovic said 80 Serbs were wounded.

Wednesday's violence was the worst since February 2001, when ethnic Albanian terrorists blew up a bus carrying Serbs, killing 11 and injuring 40.

SERB "SCORPION' CONVICTED: In a landmark war crimes trial, Sasa Cvjetan was convicted Wednesday and sentenced to 20 years in prison for executing 14 ethnic Albanian civilians during the Kosovo conflict. He was a member of Serbia's notorious Scorpions "antiterrorist" police unit.

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