PRISTINA, April 30 (Xinhua) -- A team of United Nations experts has started investigations into the violent clashes that rocked northern Kosovo in March, a spokesman for the UN mission in Kosovo(UNMIK) said on Wednesday.

    "The UN investigation team is conducting interviews at this time and a report will be produced later on," said Alexander Ivanko, the UNMIK spokesman.

    According to him, investigations started this week, including interviews with highest UNMIK staff, even with UNMIK chief Joachim Rucker.

    The investigation team has been assigned by the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, to probe the violence between Kosovo Serb demonstrators and UNMIK police in northern Mitrovica in March, which resulted in the death of a Ukrainian policeman, and injuries of more than a hundred civilians and UNMIK policemen and NATO-led peacekeepers.

    Violence erupted on March 17 when UNMIK police retook the UN court compound in northern Mitrovica, which was seized by Kosovo Serbs three days earlier.

    UNMIK police officers and NATO-led peacekeepers were attacked with hand grenades and stones among other things, whereas UN and NATO authorities in Kosovo claimed that they have "clear indication that members of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs were involved in the violence in Mitrovica," but these allegations have been denied by Serbian officials.

    UN experts will investigate the situation, and the chain of command within UN mission. There were many critics of abuse and negligence in the relation of the UN mission in Pristina and regional UN office in Mitrovica.

    Ivanko said the probe that started on Monday "is a UN Headquarters investigation and not UNMIK's."

    "It is too early to talk about the preliminary results but they will present the report to the Secretary General of the UN," he explained.