Peacekeepers Shut Serb-Run Smelting Plant in Kosovo

Hundreds of NATO-led peacekeepers wearing surgical masks against toxic smoke swept into a Serb-run metal smelting complex Monday in Kosovo and shut it down, then used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters.

Yugoslav officials called the closure of the complex an “anti-Serb” action, but the chief of the U.N. administration that runs Kosovo said the peacekeepers were acting against an environmental danger.

Scuffles broke out outside the plant when residents threw stones at North Atlantic Treaty Organization peacekeepers who had blocked the center of the town of Zvecan, 25 miles from Kosovo’s capital, Pristina. Four British soldiers were injured, Maj. Angus Forbes said. At least one Serbian civilian was injured.

Bernard Kouchner, Kosovo’s top U.N. administrator, ordered the plant closed until repairs could be made.

Kosovo is a province of Serbia, the dominant Yugoslav republic.