UN 'reclaims' Kosovo rail line

Many Serb workers are refusing to work for Kosovo's rail firms

The UN mission in Kosovo has said it retook control from Serbia over a northern railway line in the territory.

Unmik said its move "reverses the challenge" to its authority from Belgrade over the 50km (30-mile) line in the Serb-dominated part of Kosovo.

On Monday, Serbia's state-run railway company said it had taken over the Lesak-Zvecan railway line.

Belgrade and Kosovo Serbs refuse to recognise Kosovo's declaration of independence last month.

Tension in the region has risen sharply since the unilateral move by the authorities in Pristina on 17 February.

Last week, some 150 Kosovo Serb police officers were suspended for refusing to take orders from the ethnic Albanian authorities in Kosovo's capital, Pristina.

UN warning

"Unmik today [Tuesday] reasserted control of the rail line between Zvecan and Lesak," an Unmik statement said.

It said that Unmik border police stopped a Serbian train in Lesak on Tuesday morning, not allowing it to travel further south.

The UN chief administrator in Kosovo, Joachim Ruecker, warned that "any movement of trains south of Lesak by Serbian Railways is a clear challenge to Unmik's authority" and it "will not be tolerated".

In Zvecan, dozens of Serbs gathered on the tracks, wearing Serbian Railway uniforms, Reuters reported.

Last week, Serb rail workers stopped a train from Pristina on the line, saying they would not work for Kosovo's rail firms.

All are based in the same area of the south-east and they are asking to be put under the direct command of the local Unmik.

The Kosovo Police Service (KPS) has said talks were under way with Serb officers working in other parts of the south.

Serb KPS officers in the northern Serb stronghold around Mitrovica already only take orders from Unmik.

Some 700 ethnic Serbs serve in the 7,000-strong KPS, created by Unmik after it took control of Kosovo at the end of the 1998-99 war.