Kosovo Serbs tear down “border posts” between Kosovo and central Serbia

Some 1,000 Serb demonstrators burned the two border posts in villages Banja and Jarinje in the most serious in a series of incidents which followed Sunday's unilateral declaration of secession by ethnic Albanians, which left some 130,000 Serbs in a "country" they have no intentions of recognizing.

None of about 20 UN and border officials were injured in riots, which are a first sign of possible more serious security disruptions which could follow the controversial statehood-related move sponsored by the West.

"This has to serve as a clear sign that we will not tolerate any border between Kosovo and Serbia proper," one of demonstrators in Banja told KosovoCompromise.com.

 "This action has not been orchestrated by Belgrade," Serbian Minister for Kosovo Slobodan Samardzic said, adding, however, that Serbia has to take counter-measures to Pristina's plans to integrate border posts in the north to a single customs system of newly proclaimed state.

"We are not going to let that happen," Mr. Samardzic said.

In Pristina, Prime minister Hashim Thaqi tried to down-play the incident saying NATO and UNMIK "fully control the situation in Kosovo."

Meanwhile, in eastern Kosovo,  three unknown assailants attacked a Serb woman in her Kosovo home this morning, reports said.

Jelica Arsic, from Gornji Livoc, near Gjilane, was assaulted and severely beaten, Zoran Maksimovic, a fellow villager said.

Maksimovic is one of the leaders of Our Serbia organization, whose home was also targeted with explosive devices on several occasions.

Arsic, who was identified as a senior citizen but whose age was not given in the report, was taken to Serbia proper for treatment. Brain injury was feared as the woman was disoriented and repeatedly vomited.

A clinic in Vranje, in southern Serbia, said that she suffered head injuries, but that there was no brain damage. She was also treated for shock, and released from hospital.

But Kosovo Albanian police, KPS, said that the woman "was not attacked, and not in shock".

They said that a robbery took place in her home last night, and that, "while running away, the perpetrator pushed the woman, after which she fell and sustained her injuries".

Also Tuesday in Kosovo, a Serb elementary school in Laplje Selo, in central Kosovo, received an anonymous tip about a bomb allegedly planted at the building.

The Serb National Council of Kosovo and Metohija (SNV) reacted Tuesday and warned about the increasing pressure of ethnic Albanians on Serbs, urged UNMIK and KFOR to protect the Serb and other non-Albanian population, and called on the authorities in Belgrade to "undertake at once the measures that were required for the protection of the sovereignty and integrity on the whole of its territory."

"The bomb hoax in the Miladin Mitric primary school in the village of Laplje Selo, the beating up of a Serb woman in the village of Livoc near Gnjilane, as well as the pressure of the ethnic Albanian institutions that border crossings be placed at the administrative crossings are aimed at destabilizing the Serb community and forcing the Serbs to leave their homes, which will cause a destabilization of the region as a whole," the SNV assessed in a statement.

The Council requires from the representatives of UNMIK and KFOR to protect the Serbs and other non-Albanians in keeping with UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and to fulfill the mandate they have been entrusted with.

"Because of the newly-presented situation, the SNV demands from official Belgrade to undertake at once the measures that are required for the protection of the sovereignty and integrity on the whole of its territory, all in keeping with the strategy and the adopted acts regarding Kosovo and Metohija," the statement said.

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