UN fires tear gas at Serb protesters

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo - U.N. police are firing tear gas at 5,000 Serb demonstrators trying to cross a key bridge in the ethnically divided city of Kosovoska Mitrovica.

Police fired the canisters Friday afternoon in an attempt to keep the protesters off the bridge separating the Serb and ethnic Albanian sides of the city — a flashpoint of tensions in Kosovo's restive north.

The demonstrators waved Serbian flags and chanted "Kosovo is ours!" on their fifth day of protests since Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders declared independence from Serbia on Sunday


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080222/ap_on_re_eu/serbia_kosovo_independence

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Serbs protesters attack UN police By DUSAN STOJANOVIC, Associated Press Writer

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo - Serbs protesting Kosovo's independence for a fifth straight day Friday attacked U.N. police guarding a key bridge in northern Kosovo with stones, glass bottles and firecrackers on Friday.

Serbia's prime minister appealed for calm as the European Union condemned rioting in the capital Belgrade overnight when demonstrators attacked the U.S. embassy and other Western mission. The United States and EU heavyweights Britain, France and Germany have formally recognized Kosovo.

Serbian President Boris Tadic called an emergency meeting of the national security council, saying the riots that engulfed the capital overnight must "never happen again."

In Serb-dominated northern Kosovo, demonstrators waved Serbian flags and chanted "Kosovo is ours!" Police tried to keep protesters off the Kosovska Mitrovica bridge over the Ibar River. The bridge, which divides Kosovo Serbs from ethnic Albanians, has long been a flashpoint of tensions in Kosovo's restive north

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080222/ap_on_re_eu/serbia_kosovo;_ylt=AtWNHzHW5Yo128YMetQYjNKs0NUE

[Warren Stupidity]

1. What is going to happen when the ethnic cleansing starts?

Eventually the Albanian leaders of Kosovo are going to get tired of the pesky Serb minority. The history of the region is that the solution to such problems involves crimes against humanity. The UN forces will then be presented with quite a dilemma.

[High Plains]

2. It already happened, for the most part:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_War

Aftermath

A Serbian Orthodox church destroyed by Albanians after the warWithin three weeks, over 500,000 Albanian refugees had returned home. By November 1999, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 808,913 out of 848,100 had returned.

However, an estimated 200,000 Serbs fled Kosovo.<52> Gypsies were also driven out after being harassed by Albanians. Since June 12, 1999, as many as 1,000 Serbs and Roma have been murdered or have gone missing as a result of KLA elements and possibly criminal gangs or vengeful individuals.<53><35> The Yugoslav Red Cross had also registered 247,391 mostly Serbian refugees by November. The new exodus was a severe embarrassment to NATO, which had established a peacekeeping force of 45,000 under the auspices of the United Nations Mission In Kosovo (UNMIK).

Returning IDPs from the Republic of Macedonia were kept in a lead polluted refugee camp set up by KFOR / UNMIK in North Mitrovica. The charity, ran by Paul Polansky, claims 27 died from lead poisoning, denied by UNMIK who recognise only one death.

According to Amnesty International, the presence of peacekeepers in Kosovo led to an increase in the trafficking of women for sexual exploitation.<54><55><56>

Eastern Kosovo, most of which was untouched by the war itself, was hard hit paricularly in the first months following Nato's entry in the province. Multiethnic Gnjilane in particular suffered heavily as this was in the American zone, and U.S. forces cooperated completely with the KLA as it burned Serbs and minorities out of the province. This also was the part of Kosovo from which the KLA finally was able to establish itself to launch attacks against central Serbia (2000) and Macedonia (2001). The 2001 Macedonia conflict, which ended with the KLA's effective partition of that country and with Macedonia's Interior Minister being made a prisoner at The Hague, was a direct result of the war in Kosovo.

Gotta love them Kosovar Albanians. The KLA, such nice folks. Your tax dollars at work again.

[IsItJustMe]

3. Kosovo Serb protesters attack UN police

Source: By DUSAN STOJANOVIC, Associated Press Writer

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo - Violent protests rocked Serb-dominated northern Kosovo on Friday, as mobs chanting "Kosovo is ours!" hurled stones, bottles and firecrackers at U.N. police guarding a bridge that divides Serbs from ethnic Albanians.

The scenes evoked memories of the carnage unleashed by former Serb autocrat Slobodan Milosevic the last time Kosovo tried to break away from Serbia, which considers the territory its ancestral homeland.

There were disturbing signs the riots in Belgrade, Serbia, and in Mitrovica have the blessing of nationalists in the Serbian government. The government hopes somehow to undo the loss of the beloved province, the site of an epic battle between Serbs and Turks in 1389.

Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's authorities have repeatedly vowed to reclaim the land, despite U.S. and other Western recognition of Kosovo's statehood. Some hard-line government ministers have praised the violent protests as "legitimate" — and in line with government policies of retaining control over Serb-populated areas....



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080223/ap_on_re_eu/serbia_kosovo

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Thing are heating up and coming to a head in the Bulkans

[LakeSamish706]

4. opps... That is getting out of hand for sure... This President must get a handle on this...

Sorry, I was pissed because I thought that the countries that should have been in the loop were Serbia and Russia... But this is getting out of hand and needs to be stopped... Melosivich is long gone and the Serbian people need to understand that Kosovo does have a right to exist without having to worry about eternal ethnic cleansing and/or harassment ....

[Eurobabe]

6. It's Milosevic, and yes the Kosovars do

have a right to freedom of oppression.

[LakeSamish706]

7. Oh fuck off and quit dumping on my spelling... grr...n/t

[EFerrari]

5. Condi: "No one could have ever imagined the Serbs would be upset". nt