New violence flares in Balkans

Just as NATO considers a new peacekeeping role in Iraq, an older mission is causing trouble again.

NATO is sending hundreds of troops to the southern Serbian province of Kosovo, to control a new tide of violence between Serbs and Albanians that has claimed 22 lives, left 200 wounded, and led to the burning of both churches and mosques. The violence is the worst since a NATO air campaign five years ago stopped a Serb crackdown on the independence-mindd Kosovo Albanian majority.

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The violence comes a week before the fifth anniversary of the launch of the NATO air strikes, often a tense time in the region, the BBC notes. The anniversary reminds Albanians of Belgrade's campaign of ethnic cleansing against them in the 1990s. Serbs recall how they became the targets of violence and expulsion after the Serb security forces were withdrawn from Kosovo in 1999.

Bloomberg says the clashes came after at least two Albanian children drowned in a river Tuesday in the town of Mitrovica, reportedly after being chased by a group of Serbs. Albanian arsonists on Thursday torched several Serb houses in Obilic, an ethnically mixed town west of the provincial capital of Pristina, forcing UN police and NATO troops to evacuate dozens of Serbs and fire teargas at crowds, Reuters reported.

In response, Serb nationalists rampaged Thursday, torching mosques and threatening Kosovo's ethnic Albanians with "slaughter and death."

Overnight in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia-Montenegro, demonstrators set a 17th century mosque - the city's sole place of worship for Muslims - on fire after clashing with police trying to guard the building. The head of Serbia's Muslim community, Hamdija Jusufspahic, criticized the police for their "passive" protection of the mosque, which remained intact during the Serb-Muslim war in Bosnia but was gutted early Thursday with only its stone walls remaining.

Bracing for more trouble, NATO mobilized extra units Thursday, sending several hundred soldiers to the province, mostly from Bosnia and Italy, to beef up the 18,500 international peacekeepers now in Kosovo. The Telegraph reported three companies of NATO peacekeepers - around 350 troops- have already been deployed and hundreds of others have been put on standby.

One company of US troops will be deployed from Bosnia, Italy will provide another group, and a third will come from the NATO-run peacekeeping force's strategic reserve. At NATO's request, Britain will also deploy an extra 750 troops from bases in the United Kingdom.

The timing could not have been worse as UN and NATO consider expanding their role in Iraq. The breakdown in order in Kosovo, something of a nation-building success story, could cause fresh doubts about the wisdom of committing to a far more dangerous role in Iraq.

Over the past few years there has been a steady improvement in the security situation in Kosovo, according to the BBC. There have been isolated acts of inter-ethnic violence - mostly the shooting of Serbs who remained in Kosovo after tens of thousands of fellow Serbs fled the province five years ago.

The UN thought the kind of clashes that took place on Wednesday had been consigned to the past. The Associated Press suggests the violence illustrated the failure of UN and NATO efforts to snuff out ethnic hatreds and set the province on the path of reconciliation.

NATO ambassadors met for emergency talks on the ethnic violence in Kosovo Thursday. The Washington Post quoted NATO officials who called "upon leaders in the region to take concrete action to restore peace and security" and said the reinforcements demonstrate "the Alliance's will and capability to carry out its mission to provide security for all Kosovars, regardless of their ethnic identity."

In Serbia, Reuters reported the Interior Ministry ordered paramilitary police on the boundary with Kosovo to the highest level of combat readiness, saying "security measures have been strengthened together with other security forces to prevent any spillover." Serbia appeared to be acting in consultation with NATO. Its chief of staff scheduled a meeting with alliance military attaches and invited the media for a photo call.

Also...
• Break Through ( The New Republic Online)
• Just a Prelude ( National Review Online)

• Feedback appreciated. E-mail Seth Stern .