Serbs Want NATO to Act on Attacks by Ethnic Albanians

Alarmed about increasing ethnic Albanian attacks, moderate Serbs said Sunday that they will stop participating in Kosovo’s U.N.-led interim government until they are satisfied that NATO is acting decisively to quash the violence.

The Serbian National Council said it will stop sending representatives to meetings of the United Nations interim government, which helps administer the province, and will send a delegation to New York to raise their concerns directly with the U.N. Security Council.

Only after the delegation reports back from the United Nations will the moderate Serbs decide whether to rejoin the government as observers, said Father Sava Janjic, a spokesman for the group.

The moderates argue that a spate of recent attacks that killed eight Serbs in less than a week are part of an organized effort to drive all non-ethnic Albanians out of the province. The Serbs are demanding that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led peacekeepers respond forcefully.

The attacks have included drive-by shootings, hit-and-run accidents and land mine explosions. In one particularly gruesome attack in the sector where U.S. peacekeepers are posted, a gunman sprayed automatic-weapon fire into a village store, killing a 4-year-old boy and his grandfather.

In a letter to Serbian President Milan Milutinovic, the Serbs also appealed for help from the government, which has denounced their cooperation with the U.N. and NATO.