Kosovo tensions simmer through long hot summer

SKOROBISTE, Serbia, Aug 30 (Reuters) In the sweltering heat of the Balkan summer, the stray dogs cannot even muster a bark as a NATO foot patrol makes its way through the hilltop village of Skorobiste in southwest Kosovo.

Locals barely raise an eyebrow at the assault rifles carried by the seven-man German unit, which ends an uneventful tour with a ritual dishing-out of sweets to grinning children.

If Kosovo Albanians are angry their quest for independence from Serbia is stalled, they hide it well in Skorobiste. But Colonel Hans Werner Patzki has no doubt the summer lethargy across the breakaway province could fast give way to trouble.

''End of September it will start, perhaps not at a high level,'' said Patzki, the German deputy commander for the south of NATO's 16,000-strong KFOR peace force in Kosovo.

''It is good now. But later it will be cold and raining and they will be sitting in a bar with lots of time to think about all the bad things in the world,'' Patzki said in an interview back at the local NATO base in the town of Prizren.

A new diplomatic effort starts in Vienna today to break the deadlock between Kosovo Albanian and Serb leaders over the fate of the 90 per cent ethnic Albanian province. Eight years after NATO bombs drove out Serb forces trying to ethnically cleanse Kosovo, Belgrade remains resolutely opposed to its independence.

With Serbia backed by UN Security Council veto-holder Russia, expectations of a deal during the scheduled four months of talks are low. Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku predicts the province will declare independence by year-end regardless.

For now, few in Kosovo get worked up about politics, with temperatures above 40 degrees and the towns full of a visiting diaspora flush with cash earned in Germany, France or Belgium.

The lull will continue a few weeks longer as villages like Skorobiste concentrate on gathering this year's harvest, suffering from dire water shortages in much of the province.

JAILBREAK Yet already a few incidents are giving rise to jitters.

A break-out this month of seven inmates ranked as dangerous from a top-security prison added to Western concerns that the province's penitentiary is unfit for purpose. The U.N. mission in charge of Kosovo has demanded an independent inquiry.

The discovery of 92 kilos of TNT explosive near the border with Montenegro last week underlined that Kosovo remains a potential powderkeg brimming with illegal arms.

Concern is rising among the province's 100,000 minority Serbs, many of whom doubt NATO and international law enforcers can adequately assure their safety.

In north Kosovo, Milorad Radivojivic saw his Serb village of Svinjare destroyed by an Albanian mob in March 2004 during violence sparked in the nearby town of Mitrovica that led to 19 deaths across the province and caught KFOR napping.

Now the 61-year-old engineer produces from his shirt pocket a handwritten list of the 13 times his re-built house has been burgled or vandalised since, incidents which he says show Serbs can never live safely under Albanian rule in Kosovo.

''If we felt safer, we would live there in tents. But if not, we wouldn't live there in castles,'' he said of his still largely deserted village. ''My proposal is to give weapons to the Serbs.'' KFOR insists it learnt its lesson from the 2004 violence and that its force is more robust. Its commander said on Tuesday it had stepped up patrols and was reviewing contingency plans in view of what he called ''increased nervousness'' in the province.

The European Union, due to take over policing tasks from the United Nations after a status settlement, says its 1,850-strong force will include four anti-riot units totalling 500 officers.

''If the environment is more hostile, we have to see whether that has implications for the number of people we have on the ground,'' Casper Klynge, the head of the EU Planning Team for Kosovo, said in his office in the regional capital Pristina.

FLASHPOINT Peter Vanhoutte, special adviser on north Kosovo for rights watchdog the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), fears many locals are already preparing for trouble.

On a hill overlooking Mitrovica, he points out a section of dirt track giving access to the summit and a commanding view of the town below. Vanhoutte said the track appeared six weeks ago.

''Everyone denies knowledge of it. But strategically it is perfect for defending the town and the road north,'' he said, adding: ''I still think Mitrovica is a potential flashpoint.'' Some Western officials fear that if Kosovo parliament elections go ahead as planned in November, campaigning could spark trouble as candidates whip up frustration to win votes.

Others point to December 10, when international mediators are to report back to the UN Security Council on the latest bid to reach a compromise. If no progress is made, they fear, Kosovo's patience could snap.

''The second the perspective of a solution is lost, we have to be very careful,'' said Klynge.

REUTERS SZ ND0850