89 PEOPLE ARRESTED IN INCIDENTS IN BELGRADE

BELGRADE, March 18 (Hina) - Serbian police have so far arrested 89 people involved in incidents in Belgrade on the night between Wednesday and Thursday, including the individuals who demolished Belgrade's Bajrakli Mosque, Serbian Interior Ministry Dragan Jocic told a news conference o Thursday.#L# The minister said that when between 200 and 250 fans of Belgrade's soccer clubs headed towards the mosque he ordered the police to protect the Islamic building without using firearms. "Otherwise the incident would have claimed lives and we can only speculate about what would be happening today," Jocic said. A total of 33 officers were injured in the violence of whom three severely. Today, all buildings which are potential targets, notably foreign embassies, are under police protection. The Belgrade police chief, Milan Obradovic, told a news conference the police did not expect that demonstrators might of demolishing the mosque. The only way to prevent the hooligans from doing what they did was to use serious force, Obradovic said. Apart from police, also injured in the incidents were five journalists and ten protestors. Apart from demolishing and robbing the mosque, the protesters also smashed windows on a McDonalds restaurant and set on fire two UNHCR vehicles, as well as two stores owned by Albanians. Earlier today a group of protesters stoned the Croatian embassy building in continuation of protests over Wednesday's violence in Kosovo. The police later scattered the protesters from Dedinje where the Albanian Embassy and the Croatian Consulate are located, (Hina) it sb