Kosovo MPs proclaim independence

[Papa Schlumpf]

Kosovo MPs proclaim independence

Kosovo's parliament has unanimously endorsed a declaration of independence from Serbia, in an historic session.

The declaration, read by Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, said Kosovo would be a democratic country that respected the rights of all ethnic communities.
The US and a number of EU countries are expected to recognise Kosovo on Monday.

Serbia has threatened Kosovo with diplomatic and economic sanctions, but not force. Its ally, Russia, also opposes Kosovan independence.
Correspondents say the potential for trouble between Kosovo's Serbs and ethnic Albanians is enormous.

Serbia's Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica condemned the declaration, calling Kosovo a "false state".
A number of his ministers have travelled to Kosovo to show their support for Serbs living there.

Search for equality
The declaration was approved with a show of hands. No-one opposed it.
"We have waited for this day for a very long time," Mr Thaci told parliament before reading the text, paying tribute to those who had died on the road to independence.
"The independence of Kosovo marks the end of the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia," the prime minister said - Kosovo was a unique case that should not set a precedent.

He said it would be built in accordance with the UN plan drawn by former Finnish President, Martti Ahtisaari - at the end of negotiations which did not produce a deal.
The international military and civilian presence - also envisaged by the Ahtisaari plan - was welcome, he added.

There should be no fear of discrimination in new Kosovo, he said, vowing to eradicate any such practices - and conveying a similar message in Serbian. President Fatmir Sejdiu had a similar pledge - also addressed in Serbian.
The declaration was then signed by all the MPs present.

Kosovo's top leaders are due to go to a sports hall later where the Kosovo Philharmonic Orchestra is expected to play Beethoven's Ode to Joy.
They are also due to sign their names on giant iron letters spelling out the word "newborn" which was to be displayed in Pristina.

Fireworks and street celebrations will follow. Thousands of people have poured onto the streets.
Some ethnic Albanians, who make up the majority of Kosovo's population, earlier laid flowers on the graves of family members killed by Serbian security forces during years of conflict and division.

The BBC's Nick Thorpe in the flashpoint town of Mitrovica says local and UN police, as well as the Nato troops, are maintaining a high profile to reassure all the citizens of Kosovo that they have nothing to fear.

Limitations
The declaration approved by Kosovo's parliament contains limitations on Kosovan independence as outlined in Mr Ahtisaari's plan.
Kosovo, or part of it, cannot join any other country. It will be supervised by an international presence. Its armed forces will be limited and it will make strong provisions for Serb minority protection.

Recognition by a number of EU states, including the UK and other major countries, will come on Monday after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, says the BBC's Paul Reynolds.
The US is also expected to announce its recognition on Monday.

Three EU states - Cyprus, Romania and Slovakia - have told other EU governments that they will not recognise Kosovo, says our correspondent.
Russia's foreign ministry has indicated that Western recognition of an independent Kosovo could have implications for the Georgian breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The UN has administered Kosovo since a Nato bombing campaign in 1999 drove out Serb forces.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7249034.stm

[wellard]

Australia and the USA have both recognized the new nation, what about other countries?

[Papa Schlumpf]

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/eu...nce/index.html

Serb protesters attack U.S. Embassy

* Story Highlights
* NEW: Charred body found in the U.S. Embassy compound
* Riot police and Serb protesters clash during attack on U.S. Embassy
* Turkish, British and Croatian embassies also targeted
* U.S. among the first to officially recognize independent Kosovo

(CNN) -- Angry demonstrators protesting Kosovo's independence from Serbia attacked the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade on Thursday, throwing rocks, breaking windows and setting fires.

Serbian TV showed someone trying to set fire to the U.S. flag at the embassy, which was closed and unstaffed when the masked protesters attacked.

Riot police fired tear gas at the rioters and lines of armored vehicles were on the streets before the embassy perimeter was secured. A State Department official told CNN "things are under control."

Kosovo declared independence last Sunday and the United States was among the first countries to offer official recognition of its split from Serbia.

One charred body -- a male protester -- was found in the U.S. Embassy compound, embassy spokesman in Belgrade William Wanlund said.

The only Americans at the embassy during the violence were Marines, who are all said to be accounted for.

Bratislaw Grubacic, chief editor of VIP magazine in Belgrade, said police reported 32 people injured, including 14 police officers. VideoWatch as a protester tries to set fire to the embassy flag »

Teresa Gould, a translator for Belgrade TV, said the Croatian Embassy next door also was attacked. Police quickly rounded up the demonstrators, witnesses said. VideoWatch as witness says protestors threw rocks, Molotov cocktail »

Nikola Jovanovic, a political writer for the newspaper Blic, said two floors of the embassy were burned. He estimated about 50 people, including 15 police officers, were injured.

"You could say the American embassy is trashed in this protest," he said.

Serbian media, however, estimated that between 96 and 107 people were injured in the protests, up to 35 of them police officers.

Smaller groups attacked police posts outside the Turkish and British Embassies in another part of the city but were beaten back, The Associated Press reported. PhotoSee photos of the chaos »

Richard Holbrooke, a former negotiator in the Balkans under President Clinton, said: "The fact that (independence has) not happened as peacefully as people had hoped is the direct result of the incitement to violence by extremist elements in Belgrade, implicitly and privately supported by the Russians."

Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, expressed outrage at the "mob attack." VideoWatch protesters attack the U.S. embassy »

The U.S. has received assurances from Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica "that there would not be a repeat of this episode, and we will hold them to that," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, said: "Those scenes that we saw are regrettable. The Serbian government has repeated time and time again that any solution to the Kosovo problem -- other than peaceful and mutually accepted a compromise solution -- would lead to instability in the region. Unfortunately, this fell on deaf ears."

The violence was part of a much bigger, peaceful demonstration where up to 150,000 people chanted 'Kosovo is Serbia," and vowed to never accept the province's independence.

The larger group of protesters marched to the Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava, where a huge outdoor prayer service was held.

Kostunica, who earlier addressed the peaceful rally, said "Kosovo is Serbia's first name." He called the declaration of independence last Sunday illegal and said he will do all he can to get it annulled.

State railroads provided free transport to protesters, and schools across the country were closed Thursday for the "Kosovo is Ours" rally in the Serb capital, The Associated Press reported.

Tensions also erupted at the Kosovo border checkpoint in Merdare -- about 50 kilometers (30 miles) northeast of Kosovo's capital Pristina -- as several hundred Serbian army reservists clashed with NATO-led peacekeepers and police, AP said.

Photographs showed demonstrators, many of them wearing their reservist uniform, hurling rocks and setting tires alight to create a wall of smoke.

U.N. police said the demonstrators had come by bus from the Serbian town of Kursumlija and were largely army veterans who had fought with the Serbian side in Kosovo's 1998-1999 war, AP reported.

Following the clashes, the demonstrators dismantled and returned to the Serbian side of the checkpoint.

Meanwhile several hundred Bosnian Serbs rallied in the Bosnian city of Banja Luka and in the Sarajevo suburb of Lukavica, AP said.

Students in Lukavica were seen waving Serbian flags and singing Serbian patriotic songs while police in Banja Luka were stopping demonstrators from marching on the U.S. consulate there.

The breakaway region has been recognized by the U.S. and several EU nations including the UK, France and Germany but the government in Belgrade maintains that Kosovo is a part of Serbia.

Amid simmering tensions in northern Kosovo, home to most of the region's Serb minority, there were fears that Thursday's rally could spill over into violence, as was seen at the Merdare border crossing, following attacks by Serb nationalists on western targets in Belgrade including the U.S. embassy earlier this week.

On Thursday, Italy became the latest European nation to recognize Kosovo's sovereignty, AP reported.

Russia and China continue to oppose Kosovo's declaration of independence while Spain has expressed concern that recognition will give momentum to secessionist movements in other countries, such as the Basques in northern Spain.

[johnny]

Why are the Americans so eager to recognize Kosovo as a legitimate state? Are they even aware of the historic importance this province has to the Serbians? They have stronger ties to Kosovo than the ethnic Albanians. Besides...when you look at Albania itself, do we really want another backwater state in the EU? Isn't one criminal infested pauperstate enough already?

The Albanians have no historic rights whatsoever to claim this land as their own, they're not even there for more than 200 years. How would Washington respond, if for the sake of argument, a buch of Cubans claimed Florida as a sovereign nation, and broke all ties with the English speaking part of the continent? Wouldn't they regard such a thing as a rebellion and send in military forces to put the Cubans back in place?

As far as ik know Holland hasn't recognized Kosovo's legitimacy yet, and hope they never will. This could just as easily set off uprisings in other regions....after all, apparently in the end there's a reward.

Here's a tip for the Albanians...you want a land of your own? Then how about Al-friggin-bania?

[pritchke]

Johnny makes a good point. Personally I am not sure I agree with it myself. The reason I have been on the sideline is I don't know enough about the history of the land and the people in it. If what Johnny says is true I most likely don't support it. Most likely Canada will support it if the UN and the US has it generally seems to follow the crowd.