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KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Yugoslavia (September 11, 1999 12:52 p.m. EDT ) - The Kosovo Liberation Army on Saturday managed to stop two days of rioting in this divided town, telling ethnic Albanians to avoid trouble as NATO and the United Nations finalize plans to transform the former rebel army.
Instead, the KLA called for an "organized protest" in the northwestern Kosovo city of Kosovska Mitrovica on Sunday.
About 60 ethnic Albanians assembled for a third day Saturday morning at the bridge over the Ibar River - the scene of rioting Thursday and Friday which left 184 ethnic Albanians, Serbs and French peacekeepers injured and one Albanian dead.
The ethnic Albanians have been demanding free access to the Serb-controlled north bank of the river. Serbs refuse to allow free movement, citing security fears. The French have enforced a division of the city to prevent ethnic violence.
Before trouble could start Saturday, however, about eight KLA officers dressed in black uniforms moved through the crowd, ordering them to disperse. Other KLA members roamed through the city, tearing down posters encouraging residents to join in the protest.
"We won't allow borders in Mitrovica," said Naim Miftari, a KLA officer, denying that the KLA was responsible for organizing the protests. "But if the border remains, no doubt the war will start again."
As tensions eased, the French allowed an ethnic Albanian man, woman and child to cross the bridge Saturday to return to their home in the Serb-controlled part of the city. They were turned back by Serbs, however.
In Belgrade, a major Serbian opposition party blamed the KLA for provoking "the Albanian rampage in Kosovska Mitrovica" and accused the former rebels of promoting "monstrous, Nazi-type ideas to ethnically cleanse Kosovo and create `Greater Albania."'
"Not only Serbian people ... but all democratic principles of Europe and the world are in jeopardy in Kosovo," the Serbian Renewal Movement said.
More than 50 angry Serbs on Saturday blocked the main road between Kosovska Mitrovica and Montenegro to demand that peacekeepers prevent ethnic Albanians from using the highway. Danish peacekeepers were trying to calm the situation.
By stopping the rioting, the KLA demonstrated its influence among the majority ethnic Albanian community at a time when NATO and the United Nations are finalizing a controversial plan to give a new role to a "demilitarized" KLA after the Sept. 19 deadline for the former rebels to disarm and disband.
Under the plan, the KLA would be transformed into a uniformed Kosovo Corps, although details of its size and mission have not been finalized. Miftari told the crowd to be patient and wait to see what the U.N. Security Council will decide about the future of the rebel fighters.
That was a clear sign that the future of the international mission in Kosovo may depend on whether a formula can be found to allow the KLA a new role despite opposition by Russia and Yugoslavia, which is still nominally the sovereign over Kosovo.
The military commander of the KLA, Agim Ceku, has said NATO and the United Nations are obligated to give a major role to the new Kosovo Corps because of the rebel contribution during the 78-day NATO air campaign.
Russia opposes any plan short of complete disarmament and disbanding of the rebel movement. Bernard Kouchner, head of the U.N. mission in Kosovo, plans to meet with Russian officials in Moscow this week to discuss the matter.
In New York, Russian U.N. diplomat Kiril Speransky told ITAR-Tass that Moscow considers some decisions by the U.N. mission here as an "encroachment on the sovereignty of Yugoslavia."
He cited U.N. plans to issue new identity cards for Kosovo residents, hold new elections and moves to replace the Yugoslav dinar with the German mark as the official currency in the province.