PRISTINA, Kosovo -- Kosovo Albanian mourners attacked a Serb convoy near the divided city of Kosovska Mitrovica on Tuesday, killing at least one Serb and injuring Russian and French peacekeepers who tried to stop the clash.

Seventeen Serbs were wounded, two of them critically, and two Serb cars and one truck were burned, according to Yugoslavia's Beta news agency. At least 11 French troops serving as police and four Russians were also injured, a U.N. official said.

The confrontation erupted as 5,000 ethnic Albanians gathered for the funeral of 18 Kosovars found last week in a mass grave. Four Serbs have been arrested in the case.

Mourners stone Russians, Serbs

As the crowd grew, a convoy of Russian peacekeepers escorting Serb residents passed by. The emotional crowd began stoning the Russians and the Serbs, eyewitnesses said. French troops and police struggled through a three-mile traffic jam to reach the village where the melee occurred.

Albanian sources said the violence started when Serbs in the convoy gave a three-fingered Serb salute, provoking the crowd.

"The Albanians couldn't help themselves, and then it all happened," said Shemsedin Musliu, a local ethnic Albanian.

Albanians stoned Serb cars and threw gasoline bombs at a Russian armored personnel carrier, and several vehicles were set ablaze in the four-hour battle, the U.N. spokesman said.

Another Albanian source said French police formed a human barricade between the two groups but were pummeled with stones.

Finally, the crowd dispersed after officials from the former Kosovo Liberation Army -- the Albanian rebel force that opposed Serb troops during an 18-month crackdown -- rushed to the scene to calm the Albanians.

The confrontation underscored the depth of ethnic hatred between Serbs and ethnic Albanians that can still boil over into violence more than three months after NATO-led peacekeepers arrived in Kosovo

Hostility is particularly intense in Mitrovica, which is divided by the Ibar River into Serb and Albanian areas.

Tuesday's clash occurred hours after NATO peacekeepers drove Serbs away from a roadblock along a major Kosovo highway, warning that they will not allow ethnic groups to interfere with vital supply routes into the province.

Albanian roadblock tolerated

But NATO has tolerated an Albanian roadblock at another town, Orahovac, for more than a month -- an example of what local Serbs see as a double standard by NATO and the United Nations in dealing with Serb and ethnic Albanian communities.

The raid on the Serb roadblock reinforced the opinion of local Serbs that NATO and the United Nations discriminate against them in favor of the ethnic Albanians, who comprise more than 90 percent of the province's 1.4 million people. Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's Serbian troops killed thousands of ethnic Albanians during the year-and-a-half crackdown, but local Serbs say ethnic Albanians have launched revenge attacks against them since NATO bombing ended in June.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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RELATED SITES:

Yugoslavia:
  • War against Yugoslavia
  • Free Serbia Net!
  • Serbian Renewal Movement
  • CIA -- The World Factbook 1999 -- Serbia and Montenegro
  • Federal Republic of Yugoslavia official site
      • Kesovo and Metohija facts
  • Serbia Ministry of Information
  • Serbia Now! News

Kosovo:
  • Kosova Crisis Center
  • Kosova Liberation Peace Movement
  • Kosovo - from Albanian.com

Military:
  • NATO official site
  • BosniaLINK - U.S. Dept. of Defense
  • U.S. Navy images from Operation Allied Force
  • U.K. Ministry of Defence - Kosovo news
  • U.K. Royal Air Force - Kosovo news
  • Jane's Defence - Kosovo Crisis

Resettlement Agencies Helping Kosovars in U.S.:
  • The International Organization for Migration (IOM)
  • Church World Service
  • Episcopal Migration Ministries
  • Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society
  • Iowa Department of Human Services
  • International Rescue Committee
  • Immigration and Refugee Services of America
  • Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
  • United States Catholic Conference

Relief:
  • UNICEF: Kosovo
  • AmeriCares
  • World Relief
  • Doctors without borders
  • U.S. Agency for International Development (Kosovo aid)
  • Doctors of the World
  • InterAction
  • International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
  • International Committee of the Red Cross
  • Kosovo Humanitarian Disaster Forces Hundreds of Thousands from their Homes
  • Catholic Relief Services
  • Kosovo Relief
  • ReliefWeb: Home page
  • The Jewish Agency for Israel
  • Mercy International
  • UNHCR

Media:
  • Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
  • Independent Yugoslav radio stations B92
  • Institute for War and Peace Reporting
  • United States Information Agency - Kosovo Crisis

Other:
  • Expanded list of related sites on Kosovo
  • 1997 view of Kosovo from space - Eurimage

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