Yugoslav Minister Quits After Riot Over Poison Scare

The regional interior minister has resigned in Yugoslavia’s Kosovo province, where the republic of Serbia has taken control of security after a mass poison scare, a Kosovo official said Monday.

Jusuf Karakashi handed in his resignation Sunday, the Information Ministry official said.

His resignation came one day after Serbia, of which Kosovo is part, took direct control of the police after ethnic Albanians rioted for two days when hundreds of their relatives were rushed to hospitals complaining of a mysterious illness.

At least one senior police officer has been suspended for allegedly cooperating with the ethnic Albanians, who beat up about 100 of the minority Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo.

Doctors have found no evidence to support the ethnic Albanians’ claims that they were victims of a mass poisoning, and the federal government has accused them of deliberately stirring up unrest by faking the poison scare.

Western doctors and international human rights groups have examined patients but reached no conclusions.

No new clashes have been reported in Kosovo since Friday. Tanks were sent onto the streets Saturday, but the southern province is now being patrolled mainly by heavily armed police.

Serbia sent in 2,500 extra police Sunday.

The newspaper Politika said Monday that 25 medical officials have been arrested at the medical facility in Pristina, Kosovo’s capital, but gave no details.

Last week’s clashes followed riots in January and February in which 28 people were killed.