In the meantime, thousands of Albanians from villages around Vucitrn and Mitrovica began arriving from all sides to the southern, Albanian part of the city.
The Albanian crowd, after its entry into the city, broke through the first KFOR cordon near the UNMiK building, about 200 meters from the main bridge over the Ibar river. Once the Albanians reached the bridge, they were stopped by a second cordon set up by British, Canadian and French KFOR troops, armored troop carriers and large coils of barbed wire. KFOR soldiers dispersed Albanians with tear gas and "shock bombs". A cordon of about hundred KFOR soldiers and about ten armored troop carriers tried to prevent a large group of Albanians from crossing to the northern part of the city. At about 4:30pm, KFOR members pushed the Albanian demonstrators away from the bridge in Mitrovica and the cordon of international forces slowly pushed forward towards the southern part of the city. The situation around the bridge, which divides city into the Serb and Albanian controlled parts, was under the control of KFOR for about fifteen minutes after this intervention, after which Albanian demonstrators again tried to cross the bridge. About hundred KFOR soldiers and French gendarmes were stationed on the bridge itself, together with 25 armored troop carriers. Approaches to the bridge from the southern Albanian controlled part of the city were controlled by another 10 armored troop carriers.
The tension in the divided Kosovska Mitrovica was increased yesterday with the Albanian demonstrations, whose participants headed from all parts of Kosovo towards the city in the north of the province. Large groups of Serb and Albanian residents of the city gathered as early as noon on both sides of the bridge on the Ibar. In the southern part of the city, about 1,000 Albanians gathered in expectation of a column of 20,000 their compatriots who had left Pristina on foot that morning. The demonstrators carried Albanian and US flags and were shouting "Mitrovica is Kosovo" and "We shall not allow a division of Kosovo".
Facing them on the northern side, about 1,500 Serbs gathered with Serbian flags in order to prevent possible entrance of the Albanians to their part of the city. At the start of their gathering, Serbs burnt an American flag.
About 20,000 Albanians set out on foot from Pristina two days ago on their way to Kosovska Mitrovica. They wanted to protest because of the incidents that had happened in Mitrovica. Agence France Press reported that this group included even children and women. According to Anido, a KFOR spokesperson, KFOR command was negotiating with the Albanians to end their protest in Vucitrn. Only a small delegation was to go to Mitrovica, while other demonstrators would return to Pristina on buses. However, during the day all of them passed Vucitrn and continued towards Mitrovica.
Yesterday, all day long, Albanian media Pristina and all over Kosovo were inviting Albanians to join the march on Mitrovica. At the exit from Urosevac, where Albanians from the Gnjilane region and Urosevac were gathering, several hundreds Albanian women saw off several tens of thousands of Albanians with bread and baklava towards Pristina and Mitrovica. The Prizren office of the Center for Peace and Tolerance reported that several thousands of former "KLA" members had arrived in Mitrovica five days before. At the same time radio and television repeatedly broadcast the news about the strike of miners at Stari Trg Mine. They provided an example for the rest of Albanians by starting a hunger strike and demanding the release of Albanians held in prisons in Serbia, entry of Albanian students to the University in Mitrovica and return of alleged several thousands of Albanians expelled from northern Mitrovica. The same media broadcast a message of the Albanian leadership published three days ago in the daily newspaper "Kosova Sot" which states that "those Serbs who do not accept Albanian rule in Kosovo should leave".
Due to new incidents KFOR soldiers stopped weapons searches in both parts of the city. In Mitrovica there are 2,500 Soldiers from 12 countries.