FACULTY BUILDINGS HANDED OVER TO ALBANIANS DESPITE SERB PROTESTS

( Editorial: --> 4752 ) PRISTINA, May 18 (Hina) - The buildings of three university faculties in Pristina were handed over for use by Kosovo Albanians on Monday, despite several hundred protesting Serb students throwing rocks at their Albanian colleagues earlier in the day. The Serb students gathered in front of Kosovo University's Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Architecture faculty buildings Monday morning and were only stopped when Serbian police moved in to separate the opposing groups. Albanian students were returning to the university buildings they had been thrown out of seven years ago. The violence however failed to stop the Serb representative on the "3 plus 3" group for normalising the education system from handing over the faculty buildings to his Albanian colleague. Albanian group member Abdul Ramai said the buildings were currently unusable because Serb students had caused damage to them last night in an attempt to prevent their hand over. An agreement on normalising the education system in Kosovo was reached a year and a half ago by then Serbian (now Yugoslav) President Slobodan Milosevic and Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova, but this year's protocol on implementing the agreement established the dynamics of returning Albanians to school and university buildings across the troubled southern Yugoslav province. Dissatisfied with the handover of the faculty buildings, which was outlined in the agreement, Serb students continued their protests in the centre of the Kosovo capital, especially in front of the American Information Center. (Hina) mb /lm 181857 MET may 98