"Split widens over Kosovo"
"by Peter Finn and Peter Baker, Washington Post | February 19, 2008
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo - The United States and the European Union's largest countries recognized the independence of Kosovo yesterday, a major boost for the fledgling state, which still faces intense opposition from Russia, Serbia, and even some Western European countries over its proclaimed status.
President Bush, traveling in Africa, hailed the new state's "special friendship" with the United States, promising to set up a US embassy there and inviting Kosovo to establish a diplomatic mission in Washington.
"On behalf of the American people, I hereby recognize Kosovo as an independent and sovereign state," Bush said in a letter to President Fatmir Sejdiu. "I congratulate you and Kosovo's citizens for having taken this important step in your democratic and national development."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who first announced the US decision, tried to placate the Serbs, and by extension their closest allies, the Russians. "We invite Serbia's leaders to work together with the United States and our partners to accomplish shared goals," she said in a statement....
The formal US statement on Kosovo came at the end of a long and confusing day. Bush appeared to recognize Kosovo's independence during an interview with NBC News, only to have the White House try to withdraw the recognition and then finally reconfirm it after Rice's statement was released. Serbia then withdrew its ambassador from Washington in protest.
WTF?
They even know what the fuck they are doing down there?
In her statement, Rice also warned Russia that Kosovo should not be used "as a precedent" to support independence for pro-Moscow breakaway regions in the former Soviet Union.
Translation: It is O.K. for US, but NOT for YOU!!!!
No wonder the Russians feel threatened by the imperialistic, slavish, war-mongering liars!!!
Spain, which fears that Kosovo's independence could bolster separatist impulses among its own population, forcefully refused to recognize Kosovo statehood. Cyprus, Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovakia are also expected to decline to recognize Kosovo's independence....
Also going to split, Europe, 'eh?
Charles Grant, head of the Center for European Reform in London, said that from a public relations standpoint, the divisions "make the EU look a little bit silly as an organization, but in practical terms, the reality is it doesn't matter much because even the countries that don't really approve of independence are going along with the majority and not preventing things from happening."
Oh, never mind about that European split....
I'm starting to understand a bit why Serbs feel persecuted sometimes:
"by Dusan Stojanovic, Associated Press | February 19, 2008
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo - Thousands of angry Serbs demonstrated in this northern Kosovo town yesterday, chanting "This is Serbia" and "Down with America" a day after the territory's ethnic Albanian leadership declared independence from Serbia.
Carrying banners reading "Russia Help!" and posters of US flags with Nazi swastikas scribbled over them, about 5,000 protesters demanded that the Kosovo areas where ethnic Serbs live remain part of Serbia....
I can't really dispute that; not with nearly 10 million dead in Iraq and Afghanistan.
President Bush yesterday recognized Kosovo's declaration, saying that "the Kosovars are now independent."
.... The crowd, singing nationalist songs, marched to a bridge spanning the river that bisects Kosovska Mitrovica, with ethnic Serbs living in the north and ethnic Albanians in the south.
They faced NATO peacekeepers guarding the bridge, but there were no violent incidents....
Ethnic Albanians, who are mostly Muslim and account for more than 90 percent of Kosovo's 2 million people, saw Sunday's independence declaration as a final victory in the decades-long struggle over the impoverished territory. Kosovo's Serbs, mostly Orthodox Christians, vowed to defend the province they consider the ancient cradle of the Serbian state and religion.
About 800 Serbs staged a protest in a medieval Orthodox church in the town of Gracanica, near Kosovo's capital, Pristina. They denounced the United States and pleaded for Russia's help.
Some kissed red, blue, and white Serbian flags and carried banners saying "We trust Russia."
.... NATO peacekeepers and Kosovo police were out in force to prevent violence in Serb-populated areas, which make up 15 percent of Kosovo's territory.
An explosion early yesterday destroyed a UN car in Zubin Potok, a village about 6 miles northwest of Kosovska Mitrovica, police spokesman Besim Hoti said. The blast appeared to have been caused by a hand grenade thrown at a UN court, he said. There were no injuries.
It was the second explosion in the Serb-controlled area since the independence declaration.
The first blast rocked a UN building near Kosovska Mitrovica, causing slight damage but no injuries.
The UN had administrated Kosovo since 1999, when a NATO bombing campaign drove out Serbia's army after a brutal crackdown on Albanian separatists."Wow, they sure clean up that history.
Bill Clinton dumping Depleted Uranium on Serbia and importing "Al-CIA-Duhs" to fight the Balkan Wars.
Clinton's real legacy is so damn dirty, readers.
