U.N. police stoned in Kosovo

Peacekeeping forces have recently been helping Kosovars with the euro

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia -- Four U.N. police officers were attacked and their cars stoned by a rioting mob in northern Kosovo this weekend.

The crowd also burned a U.N. vehicle during the clashes on Sunday night in the Serb-dominated part of the city of Kosovska Mitrovica.

The rioting began after NATO-led peacekeepers raided a bar and detained a Serb hardline militant, U.N. police spokesman Neeraj Singh told the Associated Press. The four officers were not injured.

A crowd of 20 people prevented an earlier effort to detain the activist, who had been seen carrying an illegal weapon, said Daz Slaven, a spokesman for the peacekeepers.

"We will not tolerate acts of aggression against our soldiers at any time or at any place," Slaven said.

Kosovska Mitrovica, an industrial city 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of the provincial capital, Pristina, is divided along ethnic lines and has seen a number of ethnically motivated attacks and riots. The divided town's Serb minority has recently targeted peacekeepers and U.N. police officers.

Last month, two French peacekeepers were slightly injured by hand grenades thrown at them, NATO told AP.

U.N. peacekeepers stepped up security a day after a booby-trapped grenade killed a Serb in the ethnically mixed town of Kosovska Kamenica, about 55 kilometres east of Pristina.

A curfew already in place from midnight to early morning in the town has been extended for six more hours, from 6 p.m to 5 a.m., Slaven said.

Sunday's explosion was the latest in a series of violent incidents in Kosovska Kamenica, although it was the first to claim a life.

Kosovo's U.N. governor, Hans Haekkerup, quit a week ago for family reasons

In a statement, NATO's top commander in Kosovo, Lt. Gen. Marcel Valentin, condemned "this and any acts of inter-ethnic violence." He also called for the restoration of calm during the Orthodox Christmas season. Christmas was celebrated last weekend.

The peace force "abhors this vicious and cowardly act," Slaven said.

Dozens of Serbs have been killed and tens of thousands have fled the province fearing attacks levelled in revenge by ethnic Albanians after the U.N. and NATO took control of Kosovo in 1999.

A 78-day NATO air war ended the 1998-99 crackdown on ethnic Albanians by then Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, which killed at least 10,000 people.

The U.N. governor of Kosovo, former Danish Defence Minister Hans Haekkerup, announced his resignation for personal reasons just before New Year after one year in charge of the southern Yugoslav province.

The soft-spoken, bearded Dane, 56, replaced Frenchman Bernard Kouchner in January 2001 as the U.N.'s Kosovo administrator.

Haekkerup, whose wife is expecting a child early next year, said he was looking forward to spending more time with his family and said the decision to leave was his.