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KOSOVSKA KAMENICA, Serbia (Reuters) - More than 3,000 ethnic Albanians demonstrated Friday against Russian peacekeeping troops deployed in a volatile part of Kosovo near its boundary with the rest of Serbia.
The rally in Kosovska Kamenica, an ethnic cauldron with Albanians pitted against Serbs who look to the Russians for protection, followed three shooting attacks on Russian checkpoints in the area overnight.
Protesters in the main square of Kamenica, in rolling farmland 45 miles southeast of the provincial capital Pristina, carried placards saying, ``Criminals can't be peacekeepers'' and ''Russians out of Kosovo.''
Russians and Serbs are linked by a common Slavic, Christian Orthodox heritage and Moscow strongly supported Belgrade during much of its conflict with Kosovo Albanian separatists.
Ethnic Albanians allege that Russian mercenaries fought alongside the Serbian security forces who drove more than half Kosovo's 90 percent majority Albanians from their homes until NATO troops occupied the province in June.
Kamenica's protesters said they had been rallying for 14 days against the assignment of Russian peacekeepers to parts of Kosovo's southeast military sector, controlled by the U.S. army.
Russians and Americans patrol jointly in some areas in an effort to reassure ethnic Albanians and Serbs that the NATO-dominated KFOR peace force treats all communities equally.
But local Serbs say the Americans have failed to protect them from ethnic Albanian gunmen while ethnic Albanians accuse the Russians of ignoring Serb violence and allowing Serbs to harass them at Russian-run checkpoints at night.
Three Russian peacekeeping checkpoints came under gunfire late Thursday night and early Friday. A Russian soldier was wounded in the leg.
``Today's rally is bigger than the others because of last night's incident, where flares were launched in all directions, presumably by Russian troops, which really scared us and our children didn't sleep at all,'' said Ganimet Klaiqi, ethnic Albanian head of Kamenica's information bureau.
Klaiqi said Serbs had been able to set up roadblocks in the Kamenica area and assaults and abductions of ethnic Albanians had increased since the Russians arrived.
``The security situation in Kamenica is grave,'' he said.
At one point, a Russian armored vehicle on patrol passed through the crowd of demonstrators without incident.
Father Mikhail, a Russian military chaplain, said the protesters were being manipulated by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
``I was close to where the shootings occurred. A Russian checkpoint in Kamenica came under continuous fire overnight. They provoked us to fire back and we responded by firing above their heads, and the attackers (left),'' he said.
Russian officials said Albanians were probably responsible for the attacks. KFOR's press spokesman in Pristina, a NATO officer, said he would not attribute blame as no suspects had been arrested.
``The incidents are repercussions of Serb-Albanian confrontations, and we are caught in the middle,'' said Vladimir Vlasevich, Russian political adviser in Kosovo's new U.N. administration known as UNMIK.