Bosnian Serb police began evacuating some 200 people who were trapped in a building in Banja Luka by rioting Serb nationalists yesterday, a UN official said. Among those trapped was the head of the UN mission to Bosnia.
"Some 50 people are going to buses that are waiting for them outside," said a local UN official, who was also trapped in the building.
Hundreds of rioting Bosnian Serb nationalists held hostage Western diplomats and Muslim civilians and religious officials who were trying to mark the reconstruction of a mosque destroyed during Bosnia's 1992-95 war.
UN mission head Mr Jacques Klein and other officials were trapped by Serb protesters throwing tear gas grenades, stones and eggs at the visiting Muslims and officials.
Banja Luka, in north-west Bosnia, is the heartland of the Bosnian Serb republic, where most Muslim and Croat residents were expelled in violent wartime ethnic cleansing campaigns. Many locals fiercely oppose the return of non-Serbs.
Dr Ozren Kordic, a chief physician in a Banja Luka hospital, said eight civilians of all ethnic backgrounds were admitted with injuries. One of them was kept for further treatment.
A UN spokesman confirmed three Serb policemen were slightly injured during the riot, which started on Mr Klein's arrival when the protesters broke through police lines, forcing guests to take refuge in the building.
The Bosnian Serb Prime Minister, Mr Mladen Ivanic, reportedly arrived to co-ordinate the evacuation with Mr Klein, the UN official said. He added that a mob of up to 4,000 angry nationalists were still outside the Islamic community building.
The 16th-century Ferhadija mosque was destroyed eight years ago during the campaign to rid the region of symbols of Muslim culture and religion.