SEVERAL HUNDREDS ALBANIANS BEATEN - KOSOVO PROTEST ORGANISERS

( Editorial: --> 6094 ) PRISTINA, Mar 2 (Hina) - Close to 300,000 Kosovo Albanians from Pristina and others places in Kosovo took part at Monday's demonstration against Serb violence in this southern Yugoslav region, the committee which organised the demonstration told a press conference. The demonstration was successful in spite of the force the Serb police used, the committee pointed out. Several hundreds Albanians were beaten, the committee said, adding incomplete data showed close to 150 people, including women and children, were either seriously or lightly injured. The Kosovo Committee for the Protection of Human Rights today said the police had made forced entries in many Albanian homes in Pristina and beat many Albanians. More than 160 Albanians were maltreated, the human rights committee said, including Adem Demaqi, the president of the Kosovo Parliamentary Party, and seven reporters, among whom was one of the AFP news agency. The Yugoslav Ministry of Interior Affairs said in a statement that the police "efficiently cleared" the gatherings in Kosovo. The Serb police stated that no demonstrations or similar acts which, according to the statement, endorse terrorism will be tolerated. Kosovo Information Minister Bosko Drobnjak, a Serb, estimated that 30,000 people took part in the Pristina demonstration, while 10,000 gathered in Podujevo. Representatives of Yugoslavia's ruling socialists and opposition leaders described the events in Kosovo as "terrorism of Albanian separatists." Serbia abolished the autonomy of Kosovo, as well as of the northern region of Vojvodina, in 1989. Prior to that, both these autonomous regions had federal unit status in the former Yugoslavia. (hina) ha jn 022121 MET mar 98