WASHINGTON/MOSTAR/BANJA LUKA, March 19 (Hina) - NATO peacekeepers and United Nations police must protect Serbs in Kosovo so as to prevent the recurrence of the events from 1999 when 200,000 local Serbs were forcibly displaced, Human
Rights Watch (HRW) said on Friday.
WASHINGTON/MOSTAR/BANJA LUKA, March 19 (Hina) - NATO peacekeepers and
United Nations police must protect Serbs in Kosovo so as to prevent
the recurrence of the events from 1999 when 200,000 local Serbs were
forcibly displaced, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Friday.#L#
The latest cases of ethnic violence in Kosovo have left 31 people dead
and as many as 500 wounded since Wednesday, HRW said in a statement on
its web site.
"U.N. police indicate that most of the violence is being directed at
the ethnic Serb minority. Unidentified attackers have burned churches,
homes, public offices and at least one school. Particularly disturbing
are reports of arson attacks on newly built homes of Serbs who had
recently returned to Kosovo following their forced displacement in
previous years," the US organisation says.
"The attacks bear similarity to the campaign of arson, abduction,
intimidation and killing directed at Serbs and Roma in the summer of
1999. This campaign of violence forced 200,000 Serbs and thousands of
Roma from the province," it adds.
"Human Rights Watch is also concerned by violence that has flared
elsewhere in Serbia after attacks began Wednesday in Kosovo," such as
arson attacks on mosques in Belgrade and Nis, and calls on Serbia's
authorities to protect their minorities.
Catholic bishops in Bosnia-Herzegovina on Friday called for preventing
the escalation of violence in Kosovo. The bishops appeal to all who
can efficiently prevent bloodshed and the escalation of violence to do
so, reads a press release issued by the Bosnian bishops' conference.
The Bosnian Serb entity's president, Dragan Cavic, on Friday called on
citizens to exercise restraint so as to prevent the conflicts from
spreading to Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Throughout Bosnia the police have stepped up security measures around
religious facilities and buildings used by international diplomats and
peacekeepers as well as around foreign embassies and consulates,
Bosnia's Security Minister Barisa Colak was quoted by Radio Herceg
Bosna as saying.
Colak also voiced hope that there would be no fresh incidents after
last night's arson attack on a Serb Orthodox church in Bugojno, when
fire was set to the roof of the church. He was also hopeful that the
Kosovo crisis would not spill over to Bosnia.
(Hina) ms sb