The internationally administrated Kosovo was yesterday holding a day of mourning for some 24 victims of ethnic violence between ethnic Albanians and the Serbian minority.
The violence is widely regarded as a major step backwards in the reconciliation process which is almost five years old.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is due to arrive in Pristina Monday, to assess the security situation after the recent outbreak of ethnic violence and hold a round of talks with local leaders.
"Nobody in Kosovo should think -- and that goes more specifically for the majority community in Kosovo, the Albanians -- that by inciting violence they will bring their political ambitions closer," de Hoop Scheffer said over the weekend.
The violence broke out last Wednesday after three Albanian boys drowned in the northern river Ibar. The circumstances surrounding the drownings are still unclear but the boys' deaths sparked violent clashes in which 24 people were killed and hundreds wounded.
No incidents were reported since NATO deployed some 2,000 elite troops over past couple of days, raising the number of soldiers for the first time since international peacekeepers came to the province in mid-1999.
Flags were flying at half mast across the troubled province, but the tensions still remained high around Serbian enclaves throughout Kosovo yesterday.
The UN on Sunday said 24 people died and more than 850 were injured in the recent clashes. Among the wounded were 55 KFOR soldiers and more than 100 policemen.
Some 3,600 Serbs were driven out during the clashes. Hundreds of Serbian-owned houses and 30 Orthodox churches were burned during the attacks of Albanian mob during the three-day-long outbreak of violence -- the stiffest test for the international administration since its deployment in mid-1999.
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