Police officer dies in Kosovo violence
Rte.ie/news
Tuesday, 18 March 2008 14:33
A UN policeman in Kosovo has died of injuries suffered in rioting by Serbs, as NATO tries to restore calm after the worst violence since Kosovo's independence declaration.
The police officer was Ukrainian, and he died yesterday evening of wounds suffered during violent demonstrations in Mitrovica, Kosovo.
More than 150 people were injured in the ethnically divided northern Kosovo town during clashes between both the UN police and NATO-led peacekeepers and Serbs opposed to Kosovo's independence declaration.
Sixty-three of the injured were members of the UN's international police force, hurt when demonstrators pelted them with stones and at least one grenade.
The rioting erupted after police conducted a pre-dawn raid to dislodge a group of Serb protesters who had been barricaded inside two UN-run courts in Mitrovica since Friday.
After the police detained around 50 Serbs in the court, hundreds of residents from the Serb-populated northern part of the town attacked the security force's convoy and managed to free some of the prisoners.
The police later withdrew from the northern half of Mitrovica, but KFOR peacekeepers have stayed in the flashpoint town where tensions remain high today.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon led the international condemnation of Monday's violence in the town, urging 'all communities to exercise calm and restraint.'
However bitter differences over Kosovo's independence remain between the US and Russia.
Rte.ie/news
Tuesday, 18 March 2008 14:33
A UN policeman in Kosovo has died of injuries suffered in rioting by Serbs, as NATO tries to restore calm after the worst violence since Kosovo's independence declaration.
The police officer was Ukrainian, and he died yesterday evening of wounds suffered during violent demonstrations in Mitrovica, Kosovo.
More than 150 people were injured in the ethnically divided northern Kosovo town during clashes between both the UN police and NATO-led peacekeepers and Serbs opposed to Kosovo's independence declaration.
Sixty-three of the injured were members of the UN's international police force, hurt when demonstrators pelted them with stones and at least one grenade.
The rioting erupted after police conducted a pre-dawn raid to dislodge a group of Serb protesters who had been barricaded inside two UN-run courts in Mitrovica since Friday.
After the police detained around 50 Serbs in the court, hundreds of residents from the Serb-populated northern part of the town attacked the security force's convoy and managed to free some of the prisoners.
The police later withdrew from the northern half of Mitrovica, but KFOR peacekeepers have stayed in the flashpoint town where tensions remain high today.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon led the international condemnation of Monday's violence in the town, urging 'all communities to exercise calm and restraint.'
However bitter differences over Kosovo's independence remain between the US and Russia.
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