"Serb demonstrators attack UN police in northern Kosovo"
"by Dusan Stojanovic, Associated Press | February 23, 2008
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo - Violent protests rocked Serb-dominated northern Kosovo yesterday as crowds chanting "Kosovo is ours!" hurled stones, bottles, and firecrackers at UN 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 that the riots in Belgrade, Serbia, and in the northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica have the blessing of nationalists in the Serbian government, which hopes to somehow undo the loss of the beloved province.
Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's authorities have repeatedly vowed to reclaim the land, despite US 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....
In his first postindependence interview, Kosovo's prime minister said the violence is reminiscent of the Milosevic era.
"The pictures of yesterday in Belgrade were pictures of Milosevic's time," said Hasim Thaci, a former guerrilla leader of the disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army, said at his office in Pristina, the capital. "What we saw were terrible things."
Yeah, that was when Bill Clinton used "Al-CIA-Duh" fighters in the Balkans!
How come that always gets left out, readers?
He said the violence recalled Milosevic's bloody 1998-99 crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo, which was halted only by NATO airstrikes on Serbia.
Think that's what is called for again, readers?
In Kosovska Mitrovica, about 5,000 Serbs rallied in the tense town, waving Serbian flags and chanting "Kosovo is ours!" in a fifth day of protests since the independence declaration. Protesters lobbed firecrackers in a skirmish with police.
The clashes took place on the Kosovska Mitrovica bridge over the Ibar River - dividing Kosovo Serbs from ethnic Albanians - long a flashpoint of tensions in Kosovo's restive north....
Tensions were higher than usual yesterday after French NATO peacekeepers on Kosovo's border refused to allow in several busloads of Serbs who wanted to join the rally. Some Serbs apparently managed to evade the blockade, leading the clashes at the bridge.
Kosovo Serbs have been venting their anger over Kosovo's statehood by destroying UN and NATO property, setting off hand grenades, and staging noisy rallies.... Kostunica made no mention of the damaged embassies. In addition to the US and Croatian embassies, the missions of Turkey, Bosnia, Belgium, and Canada were targeted."
Notice the different ways the AmeriKan press describes protests?
Global Warming folks always get plenty of mention and positive pub.
Those demonstrating for "freedom" against regimes the U.S. opposes are cast in a positive light.
Those opposed to U.S. goals -- like Arabs or Serbs -- get the "noisy, threatening, violent" treatment.
And the antiwar protesters get no coverage at all.
Interesting, 'eh, readers?
