Brother_Mujahid
21st February 2008, 11:44 PM
Serb demonstration turns violent
Large protests in Serbia to protest the independence of Kosovo have turned violent with protesters setting fire to the US embassy in Belgrade.
At least 100,000 people had gathered outside the parliament earlier on Thursday in an initially peaceful rally to oppose Kosovo’s decision last Sunday to secede from Serbia.
However riot police clashed with protesters after the façade of the embassy was set on fire by flares after hundreds of young men stormed the building.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said he was "outraged by the mob attack," and that he would ask the UN Security Council to condemn it unanimously.
The violence spilled over to other embassies, including that of Croatia, and provoked widespread vandalising of shops and banks.
The rally had been backed by the Serbian government who refuse to accept the independence of the former province many Serbs see as their spiritual heartland.
More than 80 people were admitted to hospital after the violence, about half of them police and two journalists from France and the Netherlands, local media reported.
The embassy was unstaffed at the time of the attack. Cameron Munter, the ambassador, was at his private residence.
Barnaby Phillips, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Belgrade, said: "There is a great feeling among the crowd that America has treated Serbia very unfairly.
"The US... Britain, France and Italy are perceived by the people here as having ganged up on little Serbia and bullied their way into establishing an independent Kosovo.
"This is the second time the US embassy has been attacked in as many days. Initial reports are that the Serbian police were not terribly firm in stopping the attack."
US jeered
Earlier, Vojislav Kostunica, the country's prime minister, had told the crowd: "Is there any other nation on Earth from whom [Western powers] are demanding that they give up their identity, to give up our brothers in Kosovo?
"Nobody in Serbia will ever have the right to agree to that."
Many of the demonstrators waved Serbian flags, while some carried signs reading "Stop USA terror".
Most of Kosovo's population is ethnic Albanian. One group of protesters set fire to a red-and-black Albanian flag.
"We will not rest until Kosovo is again under Serbia's control. Hitler could not take it away from us, and neither will today's [Western powers]," Tomislav Nikolic, leader of the nationalist Radical Party, said.
Protesters booed and jeered at every mention of the United States and the European Union as Nikolic accused them of being responsible for the "theft" of Kosovo.
Rocks thrown
Earlier on Thursday at Merdare, a Kosovo border checkpoint, Serbian reservists threw rocks and burned tyres to create a smoke screen before surging past.
UN police said the demonstrators, arrived from the Serbian town of Kursumlija in buses and brought a bulldozer.
They are believed to be army veterans who fought on the Serbian side in Kosovo's 1998 to 1999 war.
Riot police with shields and batons erected a large steel barrier across the road in an attempt to keep them from pushing deeper into Kosovo.
The demonstrators, who chanted "Kosovo is ours! Kosovo is Serbia!" later dispersed and crossed back into Serbia.
Nations have been divided in their reaction to serbia's independence.
Venezuela joined the group of countries who say they will not recognise the move.
Hugo Chavez, the country's president, said the decision smacked of US interference and set a "dangerous precedent".
"This cannot be accepted, it is a truly dangerous precedent for the whole world and could also be the start of I don't know how many wars," he said.
More than a dozen nations, including the US, Britain, France and Germany, have recognised Kosovo's declaration of independence however.
But the declaration has been rejected by Serbia's government and ethnic Serbians who populate northern Kosovo.
Russia, China and a number of other nations have also condemned the move, saying it sets a precedent that separatist groups around the world will seek to emulate.
Source: Agencies (http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/91E52CBB-CD67-4316-B3AB-DCBD1DEEAD86.htm)
Large protests in Serbia to protest the independence of Kosovo have turned violent with protesters setting fire to the US embassy in Belgrade.
At least 100,000 people had gathered outside the parliament earlier on Thursday in an initially peaceful rally to oppose Kosovo’s decision last Sunday to secede from Serbia.
However riot police clashed with protesters after the façade of the embassy was set on fire by flares after hundreds of young men stormed the building.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said he was "outraged by the mob attack," and that he would ask the UN Security Council to condemn it unanimously.
The violence spilled over to other embassies, including that of Croatia, and provoked widespread vandalising of shops and banks.
The rally had been backed by the Serbian government who refuse to accept the independence of the former province many Serbs see as their spiritual heartland.
More than 80 people were admitted to hospital after the violence, about half of them police and two journalists from France and the Netherlands, local media reported.
The embassy was unstaffed at the time of the attack. Cameron Munter, the ambassador, was at his private residence.
Barnaby Phillips, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Belgrade, said: "There is a great feeling among the crowd that America has treated Serbia very unfairly.
"The US... Britain, France and Italy are perceived by the people here as having ganged up on little Serbia and bullied their way into establishing an independent Kosovo.
"This is the second time the US embassy has been attacked in as many days. Initial reports are that the Serbian police were not terribly firm in stopping the attack."
US jeered
Earlier, Vojislav Kostunica, the country's prime minister, had told the crowd: "Is there any other nation on Earth from whom [Western powers] are demanding that they give up their identity, to give up our brothers in Kosovo?
"Nobody in Serbia will ever have the right to agree to that."
Many of the demonstrators waved Serbian flags, while some carried signs reading "Stop USA terror".
Most of Kosovo's population is ethnic Albanian. One group of protesters set fire to a red-and-black Albanian flag.
"We will not rest until Kosovo is again under Serbia's control. Hitler could not take it away from us, and neither will today's [Western powers]," Tomislav Nikolic, leader of the nationalist Radical Party, said.
Protesters booed and jeered at every mention of the United States and the European Union as Nikolic accused them of being responsible for the "theft" of Kosovo.
Rocks thrown
Earlier on Thursday at Merdare, a Kosovo border checkpoint, Serbian reservists threw rocks and burned tyres to create a smoke screen before surging past.
UN police said the demonstrators, arrived from the Serbian town of Kursumlija in buses and brought a bulldozer.
They are believed to be army veterans who fought on the Serbian side in Kosovo's 1998 to 1999 war.
Riot police with shields and batons erected a large steel barrier across the road in an attempt to keep them from pushing deeper into Kosovo.
The demonstrators, who chanted "Kosovo is ours! Kosovo is Serbia!" later dispersed and crossed back into Serbia.
Nations have been divided in their reaction to serbia's independence.
Venezuela joined the group of countries who say they will not recognise the move.
Hugo Chavez, the country's president, said the decision smacked of US interference and set a "dangerous precedent".
"This cannot be accepted, it is a truly dangerous precedent for the whole world and could also be the start of I don't know how many wars," he said.
More than a dozen nations, including the US, Britain, France and Germany, have recognised Kosovo's declaration of independence however.
But the declaration has been rejected by Serbia's government and ethnic Serbians who populate northern Kosovo.
Russia, China and a number of other nations have also condemned the move, saying it sets a precedent that separatist groups around the world will seek to emulate.
Source: Agencies (http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/91E52CBB-CD67-4316-B3AB-DCBD1DEEAD86.htm)