January 7, 2006

Serbs cross Kosovo divide for Orthodox Christmas

By Matthew Robinson

MITROVICA, Serbia and Montenegro (Reuters) - NATO troops in Kosovo secured the fire-gutted Serbian church in the flashpoint town of Mitrovica on Saturday as dozens of Serbs crossed the bridge into the Albanian-dominated south to mark Orthodox Christmas.

Split into Albanian and Serb halves, Mitrovica in northern Kosovo has seen some of the worst clashes since the end of the 1998-99 war and the town's division by French troops at the Ibar River.

Serbs holding candles attend a service for Orthodox Christmas in the fire-gutted Serbian church in Mitrovica, 40 kilometres north of the Kosovo capital Pristina, January 7, 2006. Around 100 Serbs crossed the Mitrovica bridge into the Albanian-dominated south to attend the service, under NATO guard. (REUTERS/Hazir Reka)

Around 100 Serbs attended a brief service within the blackened walls of the Sveti Sava church, one of more than 30 Orthodox sites in the disputed Serbian province that were torched in two days of Albanian mob riots in March 2004.

Breath visible in the cold air, the voices of a handful of choristers filled the dank, stone building.

Soldiers from Belgium and Luxembourg, part of the 17,100-strong NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR), milled about the snow-covered grounds within a razor-wire perimeter fence.

Trips en masse by Albanians into the north or Serbs into the south are extremely rare.

During the 2004 riots, Mitrovica's residents traded automatic gunfire from rooftops and balconies. The bridge has since opened to traffic but vehicles of the United Nations mission and KFOR are its most frequent visitors.

"We have come to show everyone ... that this church will once again shine," the priest told the standing congregation as they clutched candles. A few Albanian men watched from across the street, closed briefly to traffic.

Legally part of Serbia, Kosovo has been run by the United Nations since 1999, when NATO bombs drove out Serb forces accused of killing 10,000 Albanian civilians and expelling 800,000 more in a two-year war with separatist rebels.

Ninety percent of the province's 2 million people are ethnic Albanians pushing for independence from Serbia in U.N.-led negotiations expected to climax in the second half of 2006.

Marginalised and targeted for revenge after the war, around 100,000 Serbs chose to stay when as many fled. Many live in enclaves dotted across Kosovo. "We are ghettoised and isolated," the priest said in his address.

Serbia insists Kosovo is the sacred cradle of the Serb nation and can never become a separate state. But diplomats say Western powers are likely to steer talks towards independence, under an EU-led mission with reserved powers, mainly over minority rights, for years to come.

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