UN police return to tense Kosovo Serb stronghold
By Matt Robinson and Branislav Krstic
MITROVICA, Kosovo, March 19 (Reuters) - U.N. police in Kosovo returned to the Serb stronghold of north Mitrovica on Wednesday, having pulled out two days ago following deadly Serb riots, but they remained under heavy NATO guard.
NATO pulled some French and Belgian troops from the yard of the police station and court, leaving armoured personnel carriers guarding the perimeter behind razor-wire.
"We are trying to establish the rule of law by putting UNMIK police and the Kosovo Police Service back on joint patrols," U.N. regional police commander David MacClean told Reuters.
He said the NATO-led peace force KFOR would "slowly" hand back control of the premises to police depending on the security situation. "Hopefully that will take place maybe tomorrow."
Around 25 U.N. police officers returned at midday with their Kosovo Serb colleagues.
They had pulled out with hundreds of Ukrainian and Polish special units on Monday after police and NATO troops clashed with Serbs at the police and court compound in the worst violence since Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority declared independence on Feb 17.
A Ukrainian police officer died of shrapnel wounds, after police and NATO troops came under fire from automatic weapons and hand grenades. U.N. officials have alleged the involvement of the Serbian Interior Ministry in the unrest.
Around 120,000 Serbs live in the territory among 2 million Albanians, who had the backing of the major Western powers for last month's secession. Almost half the Serb community lives in a northern strip backing onto Serbia, with the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica as its centre.
The violence, sparked by a U.N. operation to retake the U.N. court from Serbs who had seized it three days earlier, highlighted the risk of the new state's ethnic partition.
It underscored the challenge facing the United Nations and European Union as the latter tries to take over responsibility for law and order across the entire territory.
"We have rock solid proof that there were officials of the (Serbian) Ministry of Interior present at the courthouse," U.N. mission spokesman Alexander Ivanko told a news conference on Wednesday. "We will try to ensure that the officers of the interior ministry do not enter in Kosovo."
For almost two days NATO was the sole authority in north Mitrovica, securing U.N. buildings and guarding the Ibar river that divides the town's Serbs and Albanians. Extra U.S. troops were brought into the south of the city.
Backed by Russia, Serbia has rejected Kosovo's secession, nine years after NATO bombs drove out Serb forces to halt the killing and ethnic cleansing of Albanians in a two-year counter-insurgency.
Belgrade is strengthening Serb parallel structures and telling Kosovo Serbs to sever ties with the capital Pristina. Diplomats say it wants to cement ethnic partition. (Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Charles Dick)
