Ethnic Serbs in Kosovo gather in northern town after clashes with NATO-led peacekeepers

By RADUL RADOVANOVIC
Associated Press

ZVECAN, Kosovo (AP) — Hundreds of ethnic Serbs on Wednesday gathered in a town in northern Kosovo, days after clashes that injured 30 soldiers from a NATO-led peacekeeping force and over 50 Serbs, provoking fears of a renewal of the region’s bloody conflicts and prompting the Western military alliance to send in additional troops. Wednesday’s protest outside the city hall in Zvecan, 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of the capital, Pristina, was peaceful as of late morning. Violent clashes have sparked fears of instability in the region that was the site of a bloody conflict in 1998-99 and which remains unstable. The United States and the European Union recently have stepped up efforts to solve the dispute as the war rages in Ukraine.