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Blast Rocks Serb Protest in Kosovo

   VOA News 02 July 2010
   A  Kosovo Serb holding a Serb flag tries to cross on the Albanian side
   of the town form the northern Serb-dominated part of Mitrovica, 30 May
   2010

Photo: AP

   A  Kosovo Serb holding a Serb flag tries to cross on the Albanian side
   of the town form the northern Serb-dominated part of Mitrovica, 30 May
   2010

   Kosovo  police  say  an explosion during a protest by ethnic Serbs has
   wounded  about a dozen people in an ethnically divided town. The cause
   of the blast was not immediately clear.

   Officials say Friday's demonstration was called to protest the opening
   of a Kosovo government office in Mitrovica.

   The town remains deeply spit and is fraught with tension between Serbs
   and  ethnic  Albanians,  more  than  two  years  after Kosovo declared
   independence from Serbia.

   The United States is a key supporter of Kosovo's independence, and has
   maintained  a peacekeeping force of more than 1,400 troops there since
   the country's declaration of independence.

   The  U.S.  detachment  is  part  of a 10,000-strong NATO-EU force that
   along  with  some 2,000 police, judges and prosecutors are deployed in
   Kosovo to help the country develop democratic institutions.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP.

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