Thu, Feb 09 2012

Protests in Kosovo dispersed by EU force

Wed, Aug 26 2009 12:34 CET

byGabriel Hershman

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Protests in Kosovo dispersed by EU force

Protesters and activists of an ethnic Albanian group smash the windows of a vehicle during a protest in Pristina against the EU executive mission in Kosovo


Clashes between Serbs and ethnic Albanians left seven people injured in Kosovo's northern city of Mitrovica, requiring intervention with tear gas from an EU force to separate the groups.

The violence in Mitrovica is rumoured to have started when a group of Serba gathered to protest gainst the re-building of Albanian properties destroyed during the Kosovo conflict in the late 1990s.

A police spokesman said that five Albanian construction workers and two Serbs had been injured when stones were thrown. He said a hand grenade had been detonated and the two groups exchanged small arms fire.

In another incident in Kosovo's capital, Pristina, 20 people were arrested following a protest against the EU presence there.

Albanian nationalists overturned or otherwise damaged at least 24 Eulex vehicles, officials said.

Eulex (The European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo) is a police, customs and judicial mission to Kosovo after the state declared independence - triggering denunciations from Serbia - in February 2008. The EU force was supposed to to replace the UN mission.

The protesters belonged to Self-determination, a group that wants full independence for Albanian-majority Kosovo from Serbia and the international community.

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