Serbs in Kosovo Vow to Remain Part of Serbia

A day after Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership declared independence from
Serbia, 7,000 Serbs took to the streets of this divided city, waving Serbian
flags, chanting "Kosovo is Serbia!" and burning an American flag covered
with the words "The Fourth Reich."

A small clutch of radicals stood at the bridge leading to the Albanian side
of the city shouting, "Kick, Shout, Kill the Albanians!" Old men and women
wept, some expressing disbelief that Kosovo was no longer theirs. A NATO
military helicopter hovered overhead. Armed police formed a human shield to
keep the protesters from trying to cross to the other side of the bridge,
where crowds of Albanian onlookers looked on defiantly.

Mitrovica is divided between Albanians, who live south of the Ibar River,
and Serbs, who live to the north. The city has long been a flashpoint for
violence in Kosovo, a territory of two million people, where the
125,000-strong Serb minority ekes out an existence in isolated enclaves
surrounded by Albanians, who make up 95 per cent of Kosovo's population.

The Serbian-dominated northern part of Kosovo already has parallel
institutional structures and does not recognize the authority of the Kosovo
government. The ability of NATO's 16,000 peacekeepers to maintain peace
could help determine whether Kosovo will hold together.

As Kosovo's jubilant ethnic Albanians continued to celebrate, concerns were
growing that the Serbian-dominated north could boil over into violence,
break off and bring about the partition of Kosovo. Conversely, analysts
warned of the risks if Kosovo's Albanians, newly emboldened by independence,
tried to assert authority over the north, which accounts for 15 percent of
Kosovo's territory. "Mitrovica has for long time been the critical area in
the south Balkans where things are going to come to a head," said Misha
Glenny, a leading Balkans expert based in London. "Whetever the outcome of
Kosovo's independence, everyone knows we are heading for de facto partition,
but no one is willing to admit it."

In a sign that Serbia was already asserting its authority in the north of
Kosovo, reports emerged Monday that some Serbian policemen had begun to
desert the multi-ethnic Kosovo police force to give their allegiance to
Belgrade.

Even as Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders pledged to protect the rights of
the Serbian minority, Serbs in Mitrovica Monday said they would never join
the "false state" and would remain part of Serbia . They said they had put
their faith in Moscow, which vehemently rejects Kosovo's independence.

"If the Albanians try to cross the bridge, we demand from the Serbian Army
to use all available means to stop them," Marko Jaksic, the Kosovo Serbs'
hard-line leader, told the protesters. "America is no longer the single
world power. The Russians are coming. As long as there is Russia and Serbia,
there will never be an independent Kosovo," he said.

Serbian officials in Mitrovica said they had been encouraged by Belgrade to
ignore the independence declaration and remain in Kosovo to keep the
northern part of the territory under de facto Serbian control. "They will
offer us a lot of money to sell our houses, but we will never leave -
never!" Mr. Jaksic said, as the crowd raised three fingers in a sign of
Serbian unity.

In the Albanian part of Mitrovica, most residents heeded police warnings to
stay inside. Bislim Bislimi, an unemployed 28-year-old ethnic Albanian, said
it was unjust that Albanians could not move freely on their own territory.
"We live here and we can't even walk to the other side of the bridge," he
said. "It belongs to us."

While the demonstrations in Mitrovica were calm by Balkan standards,
violence erupted nearby. An explosion early Monday destroyed a United
Nations car in Zubin Potok, a village about six miles northwest of
Mitrovica, local police said. No injuries were reported. Another explosion
on Sunday rocked a United Nations building near Mitrovica, causing minor
damage but no injuries.

In a move that threatened to heighten tensions further, Serbia's Interior
Ministry filed criminal charges in a Serbian court on Monday against the
three Kosovar leaders who were instrumental in proclaiming independence:
President Fatmir Sejdiu, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and parliament Speaker
Jakup Krasniqi. It was symbolic, since Kosovo does not recognize the legal
jurisdiction of Serbian courts.

Meanwhile, in Belgrade, 7,000 protesters gathered in Republic Square waiving
Serbian flags and chanting anti-Albanian slogans. A small band of hooligans
attacked the Turkish Embassy with bricks and stones, as reports emerged that
Ankara would recognize an independent Kosovo.

Monday's march followed demonstrations on Sunday in which rioters stoned the
American Embassy and attacked the mission of Slovenia, which currently holds
the rotating European Union presidency. Both countries backed Kosovo's
secession.

Ljubica Gojgic, a leading Serbian commentator, said that if Kosovo's
independence declaration was recognized by the West, it would embolden
Serbian nationalists while making it difficult for those who advocate closer
ties with Europe to have their voices heard.

On Monday, Serbian defiance also spilled over to Bosnia, where the
international community maintains a fragile unity between Bosnia's two
entities, the Serb-run Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation,
each with their own parliament and police force.

The main opposition Bosnian Serb party called Monday for the independence of
the Serb-run half of Bosnia, citing Kosovo as a precedent. A march by
several thousand people in Banja Luka, capital of the Bosnian Serb Republic,
turned violent as protesters threw stones at the American, French and German
consulates.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/wo...e/19serbs.html




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