KOSOVO: KOSOVO ALBANIAN ROADBLOCKS

Описание: (2 Oct 1999) English/Nat

Ethnic Albanians in the town of Kosovo Polje have blocked all roads into the area after local Serbs defied a U-N order and refused to dismantle a roadblock across Kosovo's main highway.

The Serb roadblock on the main east-west road through the province was set up after a grenade attack killed three Serbs on Tuesday.

United Nations officials say they secured an agreement from the Serbs that the blockade would be lifted by Friday afternoon.

But the Serbs are refusing to fulfill their side of the bargain, and in response, ethnic Albanians have set up their own roadblock further along the same road and across nearby railway lines.

This is the main east-west road through Kosovo, which has been made impassable by a Serb roadblock.

The barricade has reignited ethnic tension here in the town of Kosovo Polje.

The Serbs set up the roadblock last week in what they claim was an act of self-defence after Tuesday's grenade attack on a market in the town which killed three Serbs and injured dozens of others.

The Serbs say ethnic Albanians were responsible for the explosion.

The roadblock immediately sparked anger from ethnic Albanians in the town, and United Nations officials have been trying to calm the situation.

The U-N says the Serbs promised to dismantle the roadblock by Friday.

But on Saturday afternoon, dozens of people were still manning the barricade.

The Serbs' refusal to move has been linked to their demands for full control of a school in the town, which is shared with ethnic Albanian at the moment.

But the U-N has rejected the demand.

The ethnic Albanian community has responded angrily to the Serbs' refusal to back down, and in retaliation dozens of them have built their own roadblock.

Symbolically, the ethnic Albanian barricade is in front of Kosovo Polje's municipal hall, where in 1989 then-Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic made an infamous speech promising to protect Kosovo Serbs.

The speech effectively launched the series of ethnic wars that caused the break-up of the former Yugoslavia.

One of the protesters manning the ethnic Albanian roadblock described the spirit of defiance amongst his community.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"They block the road, and the people can't go there. If they don't get away from the road, we will block the train there."
SUPER CAPTION: Ethnic Albanian protester

As the situation continued to escalate on Saturday, ethnic Albanians moved on to the railway line linking Kosovo Polje to the rest of the province.

They're refusing to move until all the Serb blockades are removed.

Ethnic tensions in the town have never really subsided since the start of the 18-month ethnic conflict between the Serb and ethnic Albanian populations in Kosovo.

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