[ALBSA-Info] Serbs Nurse Rage After Attack in Kosovo City

[Iris Pilika]

THE NEW YORK TIMES
February 10, 2000

Serbs Nurse Rage After Attack in Kosovo City

By CARLOTTA GALL

MITROVICA, Kosovo, Feb. 9 -- United Nations police officers
apprehended a man here today who was slashing the tires
of their cars and who lashed out at one policeman, injuring his
eye, a spokesman for the peacekeepers said. It was a minor
incident compared with the violence of last week, but it reflected
the continuing tension and anger of Serbs living on the north side
of the city.

Five days after some of the worst violence that troops have seen in
eight months of peacekeeping, many Serbs are still cursing and
threatening foreigners in the street.

A number of Serbs in Mitrovica, including more than a dozen
interviewed on the street in recent days, do not appear to have
altered their views since the war against NATO and the arrival of a
NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo. A large percentage of
them attribute everything bad that has happened to the Albanians.

As many as 10,000 Serbs live in the north part of this divided city,
and almost a third of them are refugees from other parts of
Kosovo. They possess a readiness to take things into their own hands
and a measure of organization not found among Serbs living in the
isolated enclaves around Kosovo where they are far more
vulnerable to attack.

The Serbs of Mitrovica see themselves as defending the only
viable outpost of Serbian control in Kosovo against the Albanian
majority. They are bolstered by an almost ethnically pure Serbian area
stretching north behind them to the boundary with the rest of
Serbia. This provides them with a direct, safe land connection. With
an estimated population of 50,000 Serbs, the area represents 50
percent of the total left in Kosovo -- the largest concentration in the
province.

All of the dozen or so interviewed said the Serbian mobs that
rampaged through Mitrovica on Thursday night, intimidating
Albanians and leaving eight dead, were reacting to the grenade
attack on a Serbian cafe that wounded 15 young people.

"At that moment people remembered everything," said Oliver
Ivanovic, president of the Serbian National Council and an
acknowledged leader of the Serbian community. "The 20 Serbs
killed in the area in the last seven months; the 28 people
kidnapped and disappeared -- everyone has a reason to be angry.
It was very difficult to control them." Mr. Ivanovic was on the
streets Thursday night.

A history teacher, Dragoljub Radenkovic, who fled his home in
Vucitrn, a town about six miles southeast of Mitrovica that is now
wholly populated by Albanians, says people are revolted. "For eight
months journalists have only been writing about Serbs being
killed," he said. "In eight months you never saw the Serbs killing
Albanians. There was a lot pent-up inside people and it exploded."

Among the Serbs, Mr. Ivanovic, a sophisticated, English-speaking
businessman, who has become the main connection with the
international peacekeepers and administrators in the region, was
alone in acknowledging his people's recent crimes.

"Very bad things happened," he said. "I cannot support that, but
just ask that you understand it. I was feeling very angry too that
night." Other Serbs, including his deputy, Vuko Antonijevic,
appeared to applaud the crowd's actions that night.

"I want to thank you for what you did," Mr. Antonijevic told a rally
of 2,000 people on Monday. "You showed how much you love your
city and how you can defend it against Islamic terrorism. You
showed in the best way what is the Serbian answer for attacks on
Serbian youth in coffee bars."

Another speaker, Milan Ivanovic, a doctor from Mitrovica's
hospital, ranted against the NATO-led peacekeepers and United
Nations officials for allowing Albanians to persecute the remaining
Serbian population in Kosovo. "They are killing Serbs, they are
putting Serbs in concentration camps in Kosovo and in Albania,
and they are doing it in the presence of the United Nations
mission," he said.

Ordinary Serbs in the street repeated similar accusations,
defending the expulsions of Albanians from their midst. "They did
the same to us," said Smiljana Milosevic, whose grocery store
backs up to the cafe, Le Bel Ami, where the grenade attack
occurred. She said the Albanians still living on the north side, now
under heavy protection of peacekeeping troops, should leave,
"because there are no Serbs on the other side."

But when asked how the violence could be resolved, most Serbs
appeared unsure. Some said the curfew currently in force was
good and improved their security. Others said the curfew had left
them vulnerable and unable to defend themselves.

Many say they cannot rely on the peacekeepers and United
Nations police officers for security, and must therefore provide
their own. "We are just defending ourselves, with our bare hands,"
said the storekeeper, Ms. Milosevic.

The Serbs have a fairly well-organized defense here that is loyal to
Mr. Ivanovic. It is made up mostly of tough young men who carry
walkie-talkies and guard the bridge, inspecting Albanians who cross
from the south side to the north. Whether the young men played
a role in the violence is not known.

Mr. Ivanovic says his organization is opposed to expelling all the
Albanians from the north side of the city in order to make it all
Serbian, because that would invite more attacks from Albanians.
He is also against the partition of the Serb-dominated region from
the rest of Kosovo.