KLA Puts Stop to Rioting, Calls for ‘Organized Protest’

The Kosovo Liberation Army on Saturday managed to stop two days of rioting in this divided town, telling ethnic Albanians to avoid trouble as NATO and the United Nations finalize plans to transform the former rebel army.

Instead, the KLA called for an “organized protest” today in the northwestern Kosovo city of Kosovska Mitrovica.

About 60 ethnic Albanians assembled for a third day Saturday morning at the bridge over the Ibar River--the scene of rioting Thursday and Friday that left 184 ethnic Albanians, Serbs and French peacekeepers injured and one Albanian dead.

The ethnic Albanians have been demanding free access to the Serb-controlled north bank of the river. Serbs refuse to allow free movement, citing security fears. The French have enforced a division of the city to prevent ethnic violence.

Before trouble could start Saturday, however, about eight KLA officers in black uniforms moved through the crowd, ordering them to disperse. Other KLA members roamed through the city, tearing down posters encouraging residents to join in the protest.

As tensions eased, the French allowed an ethnic Albanian man, woman and child to cross the bridge Saturday to return to their home in the Serb-controlled part of the city. They were turned back by Serbs, however.

In Belgrade, a major Serbian opposition party blamed the KLA for provoking “the Albanian rampage in Kosovska Mitrovica” and accused the former rebels of promoting “monstrous, Nazi-type ideas to ethnically cleanse Kosovo and create ‘Greater Albania.’ ”

“Not only Serbian people . . . but all democratic principles of Europe and the world are in jeopardy in Kosovo,” the Serbian Renewal Movement said.

More than 50 angry Serbs on Saturday blocked the main road between Kosovska Mitrovica and Montenegro to demand that peacekeepers prevent ethnic Albanians from using the highway.