Nato rushed 1 000 extra peacekeepers, including 600 British troops, to Kosovo on Thursday amid fears that the worst day of ethnic violence between Albanians and Serbs since the 1999 war might lead to an explosion of pogroms and fighting in the region.
Ethnic Albanian rioters maintained the terror against the dwindling Serbian minority, forcing the evacuation of Serbian civilians and torching their homes in Obilic, near Pristina, and setting fire to a Serbian church in Mitrovica.
As it emerged that 31 people were killed and about 500 injured in gun battles and ethnic attacks in up to 10 towns in Kosovo on Wednesday and early on Thursday, Serbs in Belgrade and other towns in Serbia turned out in large numbers to demand counter-attacks against the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo.
The Serbian foreign minister, Goran Svilanovic, warned an emergency meeting of the UN security council of a renewal of ”ethnic cleansing” in the Balkans.
”To the Serbs, the signal is that there is no life for them in the province and they should leave,” he said.
UN and Nato peacekeepers were also the targets of the Albanian rioters. The 500 injured included 61 international policemen and 11 peacekeeping troops.
The first of 600 soldiers from Britain’s rapid response force battalion — the first battalion Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire regiment — flew to Pristina on Thursday night.
About 350 troops from the US, Italy and Nato’s international strategic reserve also flew to Kosovo. However, last night Hoon acknowledged that further troops may be needed. ”I don’t rule that out, but please bear in mind that they may not necessarily be British reinforcements,” he told BBC2’s Newsnight. – Guardian Unlimited Â