Angry Serbs dispute Kosovo's independence
Thousands of Kosovo Serbs took to the streets in protest today over their ethnic Albanian leadership’s declaration of the province’s independence from Serbia.
Chanting “This is Serbia” and “Down with America” and carrying banners reading “Russia Help!”, about 5,000 protesters demanded that the parts of Kosovo where Serbs live remain within Serbia.
In a first sign that Serbia was attempting to retake authority in the north of Kosovo, some Serb policemen started leaving the multiethnic Kosovo police force and placed themselves under Belgrade’s authority, a senior Kosovo Serb police official.
There are about 320 Serb policemen in the force, which was established by the UN authority that has run Kosovo since the end of the war between Serb forces and ethnic Albanian separatists in 1999. The departure of Serb policemen in the force would be likely to trigger a confrontation with the UN administration.
In Kosovo’s capital, Pristina, a spokesman for the local police denied that the Serb members had abandoned their duty in the northern town of Kosovska Mitrovica.
Russia has supported its ally Serbia’s claim to Kosovo, while the United States has supported Kosovo’s drive for independence. President George Bush today recognised Kosovo’s declaration of independence, saying “The Kosovars are now independent.”
“America is no longer the single world power,” Marko Jaksic, the Kosovo Serbs’ hard-line leader, told the noisy gathering in the divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica. “The Russians are coming. As long as there is Russia and Serbia, there will never be an independent Kosovo.”
The crowds, singing nationalist songs, marched to a bridge spanning a river that divides Kosovska Mitrovica in two, with Serbs living in the north and ethnic Albanians in the south of the drab mining town.
They were confronted by Nato peacekeepers guarding the bridge, but there were no violent incidents.
“If the Albanians try to cross the bridge, we demand from the Serbian army to use all available means to stop them,” Jaksic said.
Ethnic Albanians, who are mostly Muslim, saw yesterday’s independence declaration as a final victory over Serbs in their decades-long struggle over the impoverished territory. Kosovo’s Serbs, mostly Christian Orthodox, vowed to defend the province they consider the cradle of their state and religion.
About 800 Serbs staged another protest in a medieval Orthodox church in the town of Gracanica, near Pristina. They denounced the US and pleaded for Russia’s help.
Some kissed red, blue and white Serbian flags and carried banners saying “We trust Russia.”
The Serbian government in Belgrade has assured Kosovo’s defiant Serbs that they will remain Serbian despite Kosovo’s declared independence, suggesting the virtual partition of the province.
Tensions soared in Serb-controlled areas, which make up 15 per cent of Kosovo’s territory, after the ethnic Albanian-dominated parliament in Pristina declared independence. Serbs comprise less than 10 percent of Kosovo’s 2 million population.
Heightening the stand-off between Belgrade and Pristina, Serbia’s Interior Ministry filed criminal charges on Monday against the three Kosovo leaders who were instrumental in proclaiming independence _ President Fatmir Sejdiu, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and parliament Speaker Jakup Krasniqi.
A statement said the three had committed “a serious criminal act against the constitutional order and security of Serbia” by participating in the proclamation of a “false state” on Serbian territory. The charges are only symbolic as Serbia has not had jurisdiction over Kosovo since the 1999 war there.
