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PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (AP) - Serbs and Gypsies are being beaten and killed by radical ethnic Albanians seeking revenge, and NATO-led peacekeepers often are helpless bystanders, two human rights groups said today.
The allegations were contained in a report published today by Human Rights Watch and in excerpts of testimony by Gypsies - or Roma - made available to The Associated Press by the European Roma Rights Center. Both groups blamed the Kosovo Liberation Army for most of the abuses.
Together, they provided fresh evidence that violence stoked by ethnic hatred persists in Kosovo despite the June pullout of the Yugoslav army and Serb police after President Slobodan Milosevic accepted a Kosovo peace plan in exchange for an end to NATO bombing.
In outlining abuses, Human Rights watch said that ``well over 164,000 Serbs have fled Kosovo,'' along with ``significant'' numbers of Gypsies, accused by many Kosovo Albanians of siding with the Serbs and against the province's Albanians.
The report said there had been a ``rash of killings against Serbs since mid-June,'' including ``many ... innocent civilians.'' It said that Serbs and Gypsies are also abducted and ``in most cases, the men are detained, questioned, and beaten, often very badly.''
``While most are subsequently released, some of those abducted remain missing and are presumed dead,'' the report said.
In a separate development, French peacekeepers announced the arrest of a war crimes suspect identified as Dragan Jovanovic.
Second Lt. Sebastian Rousseau said Jovanovic was arrested north of the city of Mitrovica, near Leposavic. He had no details of what he was accused of or if he was formally indicted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal.
One beating victim quoted by the Budapest, Hungary,-based European Roma Rights Center related being taken into a room in the village of Drenovce, near the Albanian border to see a fellow-Gypsy who had been severely beaten.
``He lifted up his shirt and showed me his ribs,'' said the man, identified only by his initials. ``His chest was all black.''
Then the men, some in KLA uniforms, turned their attention to him.
``They kicked me all over my body, including my genitals,'' he said. ``I couldn't see, because my eyes were full of blood.''
Eight other men quoted by the Roma Rights Center related similar tales of beatings, threats and intimidation by people in KLA uniforms who accused them of spying for the Serbs, directly participating in the persecution of ethnic Albanians, or stealing. One of the men said his wife, sister and mother were raped by men in KLA uniform.
Both rights groups described international efforts to stop the revenge crimes as inadequate, with NATO-led peacekeepers - formally known as KFOR - an inefficient alternative to thousands of police the groups said are needed to keep violence in check.
``The current ad hoc arrangements for policing are woefully inadequate,'' said the Human Rights Watch report. ``KFOR's concern about protecting its own forces, differing interpretations of the mandate ... and lack of experience in civil policing result in an uneven response to attacks and threats against minorities.''
The reports were made public against the backdrop of a string of reported revenge killings of Serbs, including an elderly woman found strangled in her bathtub.
The 90-year-old Serb woman was found dead Monday in Pristina, Yugoslavia's state-run Tanjug news agency reported. Three other slayings, including that of a Serb killed in the Vitina area southeast of Pristina and two others in Prizren in southwestern Kosovo, were reported by the private Beta news agency.
KFOR said two ethnic Albanians were detained in connection with the killing of the woman. In a statement, it also said four attackers ``alleged to be ethnic Albanians'' killed a Serb man in the provincial capital.
The KFOR statement also said 15 Serbs were detained in Mitrovica for attempting to prevent ethnic Albanians from returning home.