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KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Yugoslavia, Sept 12 (AFP) - In a town that has become a symbol for the ethnic hatred that pits ethnic Albanians and Serbs against each other in Kosovo, clashes last week that left 150 injured were a new failure for international efforts to end its de facto partition.
Kosovska Mitrovica, the biggest town in the north of the province, has been divided since the return of Albanian refugees in June. The north of the town is occupied by Serbs, with Albanians mainly living in the south.
In the middle is the bridge on which French troops of the NATO-led KFOR peace force came under assault from cans, bottles, stones and other projectiles on Thursday and Friday as the soldiers stopped Albanians from heading north.
The specific problem last week in a town where confrontations on the bridge have become a daily event was caused by plans to return 136 Albanian families to the north. The programme has now been suspended for "at least several days," said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
"Conditions are not right to pursue the relocation operations," the UNHCR said Sunday.
Oliver Ivanovic, representing Mitrovica's Serbs, said it was important "to wait several weeks to allow tensions to fall before envisaging the return" of Albanian families.
The original announcement of the programme by the UN mission to Kosovo at the beginning of September sent tensions soaring, just two weeks after a first wave of violence between the two communities on the main bridge over the Ibar river that flows between the town's two sectors.
After several days of protests by Serbs, clashes broke out on Thursday evening in the northern Suvi Do district when Kosovar Albanians arrived, with arms, to guard a dozen heads of families about to be rehoused.
At least eight people were wounded by bullets. The clashes spread to the bridge and carried on into Friday.
Among humanitarian organisations, voices are being raised against "the political will to show the world that this town is not divided, putting the safety of the inhabitants at risk."
One aid worker said "there is a real danger of using relocation for political ends. Mitrovica is highly symbolic and is considered the last Serb bastion."
If the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) played a moderating role over the weekend, keeping young demonstrators off the bridge as it awaited the results of talks in New York on its transformation into a civilian force, it could decide -- if it thinks it has the backing -- to resume an offensive role, some officials fear.
"We shall stop all Albanians from coming to this bridge to fight KFOR and the Serbs until Sept 19" -- the date set for the KLA's final demilitarisation, said Naim Miftari, a KLA official.
"After that date, I shall be a civilian and I shall be 10 metres in front of the other Albanians crossing the bridge," he added.
The aid worker said that "giving in to Albanian pressure would compromise the security of Albanians isolated in the Serb sector and, in turn, lead to the flight of all the Serbs at the arrival en masse of Albanians."
Both sides, said the aid worker who asked not to be identified, "are heavily armed and there is still a risk of incidents as serious as those of last Thursday and Friday."
About 75,000 Albanians and 70 Serbs live in the southern sector of the town while, of the 15,000 in the north, 12,000 are Serbs and 2,500 Albanians.