Serbia, Unmik trade accusations over violence in Kosovska Mitrovica

Unmik officials accused Serbian officials of complicity in violence, as U.S. diplomat and deputy UN administrator for Kosovo Larry Rossin said "it was clear to us that the violence was orchestrated".

"We're having trouble continuing some of our operations in the north of Kosovo right now, and it's directly because of either their interventions or lack of interventions with those who are causing these problems," Rossin said, blaming Serbian officials.

Unmik spokesman Aleksander Ivanko said an investigation had been opened on the death of a Ukranian policeman and said charges would be brought forward.

In Belgrade, however, Serbian officials pressed for an international investigation on the incidents, arguing they had been provoked by Unmik's decision to use inappropriate force.

"Sniper shots were fired on unarmed people next to the bridge. We have photographs of the bullet wounds, as well as witnesses", Serbia's State Secretary fo Kosovo Dusan Prorokovic said, adding that had Unmik and Kfor not intervened, the dispute with the protesting workers of the judiciary would have been resolved peacefully.

In New York, the UN said that if claims that members of the international police used rubber bullets during the clashes prove to be true, the United Nations might launch a serious investigation, since the use of such ammunition in UN missions was forbidden in July 2007.

"We forbid the use of rubber bullets way back in July last year, after two persons got killed from such bullets in Kosovo earlier in that year", an UN official said.

UNMIK, as specified in the mission's report, withdrew on its own accord the rubber ammunition from its arsenal for dispersing demonstrators, and in the meantime, no decision has been reached on its being reincluded in the equipment of the international police.

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