Kiev - A senior official in Kiev blamed poor rules of engagement given United Nations peacekeepers for the death of a Ukrainian policemen in Kosovo, the Interfax news agency reported Thursday. Yury Lutsenko, Ukraine's Interior Minister, said strict UN rules forbidding international force members to use their weapons in almost all circumstances caused the Sunday death of police senior lieutenant Ihor Kinal.
"This is absolutely unacceptable, and it will lead to further loss of Ukrainian lives," Lutsenko said. "This policy (of making it impossible for Ukrainian service personnel to defend themselves) cannot be allowed to continue.
Kinal died in the Kosovo city Mitrovica on March 17 after he and his unit were attacked by ethnic Serbs throwing stones and Molotov cocktails. Ukrainian news reports described his injuries as "life-threatening fragmentation wounds."
More than 100 people, including as many as 33 foreign peacekeepers were injured in six hours of rioting in the city, begun when a mob stormed a courthouse guarded by KFOR and UN police.
A second peacekeeper, also a Ukrainian, was seriously injured and sent home for hospital treatment. Another seven Ukrainians were being treated in Mitrovica hospitals, according to the report.
The Serbian activists during six hours of rioting also used fire arms and hand grenades against some peacekeepers, according to a KFOR spokesman.
Lutsenko rejected a UN statement made shortly after the incidents noting peacekeepers are allowed to use their weapons in self-defence.
A locally-imposed standing order among KFOR and UN peacekeepers authorise the use of weapons in self defence "only after the first injury," Lutsenko claimed.
The UN's allegedly poor rules of engagement make necessary the transfer of Ukrainian peacekeepers in Kosovo from UN to KFOR command, Lutsenko said.
"We really need to take a serious look at how much sense it makes for (Ukrainian troops) to remain under UN command," he said. "A transfer to (KFOR command) would improve their safety."
Ukraine currently maintains 187 peacekeepers in Kosovo. Kinal was the first-ever to die since the former Soviet republic began contributing soldiers to peacekeeping operations in 1994.
