Word: serbe
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...about the mission of those troops - NATO is at a crossroads where it's forced to take a policy on the future of Kosovo, and to answer the question of whether it's prepared to put its own men at risk in confrontations with armed militants in both the Serb and Albanian communities...
...officials have blamed Serbia's President Slobodan Milosevic for the upsurge in violence around the town, but while Belgrade has certainly armed and organized the remaining Serbs in northern Kosovo, the recent outbreak of violence began with a rocket attack on a bus carrying Serb civilians that most observers saw as a continuation of efforts by elements of the supposedly disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army to drive out the territory's remaining Serbs. "Laying all the blame on Milosevic is too easy," says Anastasijevic. "He's certainly involved in arming and organizing the Serbs, but saying Milosevic is the source...
...floundering in its efforts to define the purpose of that peace, ethnic bloodletting is threatening to erupt once more in Kosovo. Some 10,000 ethnic-Albanian protesters began marching Monday on the flashpoint town of Mitrovica, where nine people have been killed in clashes between gunmen on the Serb and Albanian sides of the Ibar River, which divides the town...
Even more alarming, though, than the tensions that are sure to be inflamed by the arrival of Albanian "reinforcements" is the apparent disarray among the KFOR peacekeeping forces. A KFOR sweep to search for weapons on the Serb side of town Sunday broke down into chaos as Serbs accused the U.S. forces carrying out the raid of heavy-handedness, while the French contingent that commands the divided town apparently failed to maintain order - with the result that the Americans were eventually ordered to leave amid a volley of bricks and bottles hurled by protesters, leaving NATO looking decidedly ineffectual...
...Albanian protesters marching from Pristina that they won't be allowed to enter Mitrovica, but whether the peacekeepers maintain their resolve in the face of anticipated Albanian defiance remains to be seen. And the situation could easily escalate, since Mitrovica, situated in northern Kosovo, is not an isolated Serb enclave - its Serb community has relatively unfettered access to the border with Serbia proper, and a supply of men and material from Belgrade has emboldened the city's Serb community to stand its ground. But while Serbs and Albanians appear to be spoiling for a fight, NATO may be losing...