FIRST INTERNATIONAL POLICEMEN BEGIN PATROLLING IN KOSOVO

PRISTINA, Aug 9 (Hina) - The first group of 500 international policemen took up officially their duty in restive Kosovo on Sunday. The first 3,110-strong contingent of international civil police officers from 21 countries has been arriving in Kosovo while tension has increased in some parts of Kosovo and ethnic Serbs have frequently been targets of retaliatory attacks. In the northern town of Kosovska Mitrovica, mobs of Albanians and French peacekeepers scuffled on Sunday for the second consecutive day. Conflict occurred when French KFOR troops tried to prevent ethnic Albanians from moving freely into the northern part of the town, where, they say, their relatives live and they have houses and property and Serbs have been blocking that section for almost seven weeks. About a hundred Albanians stoned heavily armed French troops on Sunday. French peacekeepers said an explosive device had been thrown into the Serb-controlled northern part of Mitrovica, but no damage or injuries was reported. Frenchmen believe the protests have been organised by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). French troops have added that the situation is now under the control. The two parts of the town are divided by the Ibar River and big groups of Serbs, some of whom are armed, are rallying on the other side of a bridge every day in order not to let Albanians cross into northern residential areas. Ethnic Albanians are to hold yet another protest rally for Monday in front of the bridge across the Ibar . KFOR reported that four persons sustained injuries in two bombing attacks in Pristina in the past two days. Three Serbs were wounded when a hand grenade was thrown in a coffee house where they were sitting. In the other incident an Albanian suspect was hurt, a spokesman for the KFOR said. (hina) ms