Hatred Flares as Serb Homes Are Torched

Flames and smoke poured from a house Monday amid the charred hulks of other homes deserted by Serbs in this Kosovo village.

The burning of every Serbian remnant in Zitinje except a small church--along with a third day of scuffling between French soldiers and ethnic Albanians trying to march to the Serbian part of Kosovska Mitrovica--showed the hatred that persists in Kosovo eight weeks after the end of NATO’s air war.

Most of the Serbian province’s estimated 200,000 Serbs have fled since the war ended. The 250 Serbian residents of Zitinje, 25 miles southeast of Pristina, left last week, and U.S. troops moved in to protect their belongings and houses from revenge-minded ethnic Albanians.

But when NATO forces decreased their presence Friday, ethnic Albanians struck quickly. By Monday, every house with a Serbian Orthodox cross painted on it was destroyed.

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic withdrew army and police forces from Kosovo in June in exchange for the end of North Atlantic Treaty Organization airstrikes. Since then, minority Serbs increasingly have become the targets of hate crimes by ethnic Albanians seeking revenge for atrocities committed by Serbian forces before and during the war.

U.S. Lt. Col. Tim Reese said his troops tried to prevent the arson in Zitinje by collecting furniture, valuables and even stray farm animals for safekeeping in a building in the middle of the village.

Then the troops allowed ethnic Albanians to claim property that had been stolen during the war if they had documentation or could identify it.

Yet ethnic Albanians were ready with gasoline and matches Friday, and by Sunday, more than 40 houses were burned, along with the Serbian possessions stored by the soldiers. The rest burned Monday.

Bujar Zeqire, 22, said he came from the nearby village of Ballanc to see “that the houses are burned properly.”

“In my case, they killed my uncle, so how can I like them?” he said.

In Kosovska Mitrovica, French peacekeepers set up barbed wire across a central bridge connecting the Serbian and ethnic Albanian sides of town after a third straight day of scuffling with ethnic Albanians trying to cross.

About 500 youths stormed the bridge Monday, but they were held off by 40 French troops. A French peacekeeper was seriously injured in the clashes.

Tafil Jusufi, one of those involved in Monday’s protest, accused the French peacekeepers of “creating a new border” to keep ethnic Albanians out of the Serbian-dominated part of Kosovska Mitrovica, 20 miles north of Pristina, the provincial capital.

A senior U.N. official in the town, Mary Pat Silveira, said serious violence was likely if a large ethnic Albanian crowd crossed the bridge because Serbs gathered on the other side probably were armed.

Kosovo’s interim U.N. administration and peace force officials say the town can be reunified only through a political agreement between Serbs and ethnic Albanians that would guarantee free movement, return of refugees and property rights for all.

On Monday, the two sides met for three hours. Ethnic Albanian leader Bajram Rexhepi said that he pressed for the quick return of refugees to their homes in the Serbian sector but that the Serbs insisted on delays--until September 2000, he said.

Zoran Despotovic, a Serbian representative, said negotiators made a step forward.