Three arrested for torching 11th-century Serb Orthodox church in Kosovo

PRISTINA, Serbia-Montenegro, May 17 (AFP) - United Nations police in Kosovo have arrested three ethnic Albanians for setting fire to a 11th-century Serb Orthodox church in the west of the province, an official told AFP Monday.

Fatmir Gjurgjeali, spokesperson for the Kosovo police, said the three were arrested for torching the church Bogorodica Ljeviska in the town of Prizren during March riots that left 19 dead and over 900 injured in the UN-run province.

"Three ethnic-Albanians were arrested last week and during investigations they confessed to having burned the church", Gjurgjeali said.

"The investigation is still ongoing however and we cannot make public the identities of those arrested," Gjurgjeali said.

Some 260 people have been arrested by both UN police and the local police force in Kosovo in relation to the March riots that lasted for two days and saw the Serb minority targeted by mobs of ethnic Albanians.

Over 800 houses were burned and 20 churches and monasteries torched as rioting Albanians attempted to overrun Serb enclaves under UN and NATO protection.

Kosovo has been controlled by the UN and NATO since June 1999 following NATO's air war against Yugoslavia that forced then president Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw his troops from the Albanian dominated province.