seruriermarshal
04-17-2004, 09:00 PM
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Serbia-Montenegro (AFP) - Three UN policemen -- two Americans and a Jordanian -- were killed in Kosovo during a shootout between officers sparked by a quarrel over the conflict in Iraq (news - web sites), UN officials and sources said.
AFP Photo
AFP
Slideshow: Kosovo Unrest
UN police spokesman Neeraj Singh reported the deaths and said 11 other officers had been injured in the mid-afternoon clash. All were stationed at a prison in the town of Kosovska Mitrovica, he said.
"A shooting incident involving international police officers took place in the detention center in Kosovska Mitrovica," said Singh in Pristina, the capital of the UN-run Serbian province.
"Three international officers, two from the United States and one from Jordan, have died and another 11 have been injured. Some are in serious condition," he told AFP.
Hospital sources in the town -- the scene of deadly ethnic riots last month between Albanian and Serb populations -- said one of the dead was an American woman.
A fellow officer, a US citizen, described the incident as a clash over the US role in Iraq.
"They quarrelled over the situation in Iraq," he said.
"Everything started when the Middle Eastern guys told the American police officers that the US has occupied Iraq like every other country. The Americans were pissed off by these accusations.
"Suddenly one Jordanian started shooting," the UN policeman said.
There was no official UN explanation for the incident.
Other sources close to the UN mission told AFP in Pristina the incident was the result of a dispute between Middle Eastern and US officers serving in the same international force.
And the Serbian news agency Beta quoted anonymous sources saying that four Jordanian nationals working as UN police officers had been arrested and were being questioned at UN police headquarters south of the town.
More than 3,000 international police serve as part of the UN mission (UNMIK) in the province, and are responsible for maintaining law and order.
UNMIK head Harri Holkeri expressed shock over the killings.
"I am deeply shocked and dismayed at the unfortunate death of dedicated professionals who have come such a great distance to help Kosovo on its road to the future," Holkeri said in a statement sent to AFP.
One of the injured officers was Austrian, the interior ministry in Vienna said, while a hospital official in Kosovska Mitrovica said another was Australian.
Milan Ivanovic, the hospital's deputy director, said six wounded UN officers had been operated.
"The four first UN police officers were operated on and are now in intensive care. Their condition has stabilized," Ivanovic said Saturday evening.
Two others were still being operated on, he added.
Earlier, he said seven injured officers had been admitted, "six of them... seriously injured".
"An American woman died immediately from her wounds, four others are in the operation room," he told reporters. "The injured were hit in the chest or the abdomen, four of them are women and two are men, one an Australian national."
Serbian television channel B92 had reported a casualty toll of "at least four dead and 14 wounded" in the shootout.
It said three of those killed were US citizens and the fourth was Jordanian, citing information from the official Belgrade Coordination Centre in Kosovo.
The Austrian ministry gave the same casualty toll as B92 television.
UN spokesman Singh said an investigation was already under way.
"Forensics are at the scene and the police investigators are working on the case," he said.
Kosovo has been a UN protectorate since 1999, when NATO (news - web sites) jets bombed Serbian forces to end a crackdown on the province's separatist ethnic Albanian majority. A NATO-led peacekeeping force (KFOR) also has nearly 20,000 peacekeepers in the province, which remains deeply divided.
The shootings Saturday bring to five the number of deaths of UN police officers while on duty in Kosovo.
Last month, on the eve of the fifth anniversary of NATO's bombing campaign against Serbia, a UN officer from Ghana was killed, along with a local colleague, in a shootout with unknown gunmen.
And last August a policeman from India was shot dead in northern Kosovo.
Kosovska Mitrovica itself is a powderkeg town still rife with tension following the March 17 rioting here, which spiralled into province-wide violence in which 19 people were killed and more than 900 others injured.
Reports that Serbs had killed three ethnic Albanian children by pushing them into the river which divides the town, triggered angry Albanian mobs and attacks on Serbs.
In three days of unrest -- the worst the province had seen since it came under UN and NATO control in 1999 -- 30 Orthodox churches were burnt down and over 3,600 Serbs and other non-Albanians left homeless.
NATO rushed reinforcements to Kosovo, and the international community has since engaged in hand-wringing and soul-searching efforts to bolster reconciliation and improve their administration of the province.
Jordanian police crazy ?
AFP Photo
AFP
Slideshow: Kosovo Unrest
UN police spokesman Neeraj Singh reported the deaths and said 11 other officers had been injured in the mid-afternoon clash. All were stationed at a prison in the town of Kosovska Mitrovica, he said.
"A shooting incident involving international police officers took place in the detention center in Kosovska Mitrovica," said Singh in Pristina, the capital of the UN-run Serbian province.
"Three international officers, two from the United States and one from Jordan, have died and another 11 have been injured. Some are in serious condition," he told AFP.
Hospital sources in the town -- the scene of deadly ethnic riots last month between Albanian and Serb populations -- said one of the dead was an American woman.
A fellow officer, a US citizen, described the incident as a clash over the US role in Iraq.
"They quarrelled over the situation in Iraq," he said.
"Everything started when the Middle Eastern guys told the American police officers that the US has occupied Iraq like every other country. The Americans were pissed off by these accusations.
"Suddenly one Jordanian started shooting," the UN policeman said.
There was no official UN explanation for the incident.
Other sources close to the UN mission told AFP in Pristina the incident was the result of a dispute between Middle Eastern and US officers serving in the same international force.
And the Serbian news agency Beta quoted anonymous sources saying that four Jordanian nationals working as UN police officers had been arrested and were being questioned at UN police headquarters south of the town.
More than 3,000 international police serve as part of the UN mission (UNMIK) in the province, and are responsible for maintaining law and order.
UNMIK head Harri Holkeri expressed shock over the killings.
"I am deeply shocked and dismayed at the unfortunate death of dedicated professionals who have come such a great distance to help Kosovo on its road to the future," Holkeri said in a statement sent to AFP.
One of the injured officers was Austrian, the interior ministry in Vienna said, while a hospital official in Kosovska Mitrovica said another was Australian.
Milan Ivanovic, the hospital's deputy director, said six wounded UN officers had been operated.
"The four first UN police officers were operated on and are now in intensive care. Their condition has stabilized," Ivanovic said Saturday evening.
Two others were still being operated on, he added.
Earlier, he said seven injured officers had been admitted, "six of them... seriously injured".
"An American woman died immediately from her wounds, four others are in the operation room," he told reporters. "The injured were hit in the chest or the abdomen, four of them are women and two are men, one an Australian national."
Serbian television channel B92 had reported a casualty toll of "at least four dead and 14 wounded" in the shootout.
It said three of those killed were US citizens and the fourth was Jordanian, citing information from the official Belgrade Coordination Centre in Kosovo.
The Austrian ministry gave the same casualty toll as B92 television.
UN spokesman Singh said an investigation was already under way.
"Forensics are at the scene and the police investigators are working on the case," he said.
Kosovo has been a UN protectorate since 1999, when NATO (news - web sites) jets bombed Serbian forces to end a crackdown on the province's separatist ethnic Albanian majority. A NATO-led peacekeeping force (KFOR) also has nearly 20,000 peacekeepers in the province, which remains deeply divided.
The shootings Saturday bring to five the number of deaths of UN police officers while on duty in Kosovo.
Last month, on the eve of the fifth anniversary of NATO's bombing campaign against Serbia, a UN officer from Ghana was killed, along with a local colleague, in a shootout with unknown gunmen.
And last August a policeman from India was shot dead in northern Kosovo.
Kosovska Mitrovica itself is a powderkeg town still rife with tension following the March 17 rioting here, which spiralled into province-wide violence in which 19 people were killed and more than 900 others injured.
Reports that Serbs had killed three ethnic Albanian children by pushing them into the river which divides the town, triggered angry Albanian mobs and attacks on Serbs.
In three days of unrest -- the worst the province had seen since it came under UN and NATO control in 1999 -- 30 Orthodox churches were burnt down and over 3,600 Serbs and other non-Albanians left homeless.
NATO rushed reinforcements to Kosovo, and the international community has since engaged in hand-wringing and soul-searching efforts to bolster reconciliation and improve their administration of the province.
Jordanian police crazy ?