5 Ethnic Albanians Killed by Police in Yugoslav Riots

At least five ethnic Albanians were killed and an undetermined number were wounded in gun battles with police Saturday, the fifth day of riots in Yugoslavia’s Kosovo province, the news agency Tanjug said.

Witnesses said four people were killed in Orahovac and one in Pec, where up to 2,000 people demonstrated to call for the resignation of local leaders, free elections and the release of political prisoners.

A separate demonstration in the country’s second-biggest city, Zagreb, drew over 10,000 students to the streets to protest soaring inflation and falling living standards, according to witnesses.

Tanjug said of the Kosovo clashes in Pec and Orahovac, “We have learned that five people died.” It said demonstrations also took place in towns of Suva Reka, Dusanovac and Gnjilane.

Radio Pristina said many people, including policemen, were injured in the clashes and least five were taken to hospitals.

Tanjug said police returned fire after demonstrators shot at them from several directions. It said the Orahovac clash was the worst in five days of rioting.

The wave of violence was the worst in the southern province since 28 people were killed last March when ethnic Albanians rioted against curbs on the province’s self-rule in favor of Serbia, Yugoslavia’s biggest republic.

Kosovo, an autonomous province of Serbia, is a focal point of friction between the area’s 1.7 million mostly Muslim ethnic Albanians and 200,000 Christian Serbs and Montenegrins.

Serbia imposed constitutional curbs on Kosovo’s self-rule last March, saying Albanian separatists wanted to annex the province to neighboring Albania.

Earlier Saturday, human rights and opposition groups in Kosovo called for political solutions instead of violence, saying street protests are detrimental to democratic processes.

They said in a statement the protests could be used as a pretext “for reinforcing and prolonging emergency measures” clamped on Kosovo last year.

The groups also demanded a date for free elections, an end to Communist media control and political discrimination, the freeing of political prisoners and the right to form political associations.