KOSOVO: NATO AND POLICE REMOVE SERB BLOCKADE скачать в хорошем качестве

KOSOVO: NATO AND POLICE REMOVE SERB BLOCKADE

(5 Oct 1999) English/Nat Working before dawn on Tuesday, NATO soldiers and U-N police have removed a barrier outside of the Kosovo capital Pristina erected by nervous Serb and Albanian communities there. Serbs set up one of the barricades after a grenade attack last week that killed three Serbs and injured dozens more. In response, members of the ethnic Albanian community established another, which was also removed. A NATO spokesman says the blockades were blocking both civilian traffic and the movement of vital humanitarian aid. Helicopters illuminated the night sky as NATO troops moved into the ethnically divided village of Kosovo Polje before dawn on Tuesday. NATO-led peacekeepers backed by armoured personnel carriers cleared away the two rival barricades set up along Kosovo's main east-west highway. Serbs fled without resistance as columns of trucks and armoured vehicles rolled up about quarter-past-five (0315 g-m-t). The move came after Serb negotiators refused to end the blockade late on Monday. The Serb barrier was set up September 28th after a grenade attack on a Serb market killed two people and injured about 40. About 200 metres (650 feet) away, peacekeepers cleared a second barricade set up by ethnic Albanians in response to the Serb blockade. A NATO spokesman says the rival barricades were interfering with civilian traffic and the movement of humanitarian aid, and were removed only after negotiations to remove them broke down. SOUNDBITE: (English) "Just after five o'clock this morning British troops removed the Serbian and Albanian barricades that were disrupting traffic in the town of Kosovo Polje. We did this only after intense negotiations failed to clear this important vital route and to help reestablish law and order and the reconstruction of Kosovo. We are still in negotiations and the concerns of both populations are still being addressed. In fact further meetings are planned. But this is the time when we consider that we must show the robust attitude of K-FOR which has made it clear that nobody from either community will be allowed to continue to break the law in Kosovo." SUPER CAPTION: Lt. Col. Dermot O'Donovan, K-FOR Spokesman At dawn, British troops fanned out across Kosovo Polje, located just seven kilometres (five miles) southwest of Pristina, Kosovo's capital. The Serbs maintain the peacekeepers are unable to protect them, a view NATO officials say they are working to change. U-N officials have accused Serbs in Kosovo Polje of stalling on removing the blockade, saying all of the Serbs' major demands have been met, including sending twice as many peacekeepers and additional civilian police to the majority Serb town. But as K-FOR soldiers swept away the last debris from the demolished roadblocks, groups of Serb civilians stood by silently watching. They stayed discreetly behind British and Canadian armoured vehicles. A few Serbs say they're considering erecting a new barricade but there was no sign of it as early morning traffic moved along the two-lane highway. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...