Belgrade – Several hundred Kosovo Serbs set on fire customs and police stations at border crossings with Serbia on Tuesday in an eruption of violence after Kosovo's declaration of independence.
Local media reported that border crossings at Jarinje and Brnjak in northern Kosovo were set on fire in protest over ethnic Albanian policemen and customs officers taking charge of the crossing points. Members of the international police and military force (KFOR) looked on but didn’t intervene, the Serbian news agency Tanjug said.
Ten cars belonging to Kosovo and the United Nations police were also set on fire, but there were no injuries, the reports said. Kosovo police spokesman Veton Elsani said KFOR and police were rushed to the scene to quell the unrest. Kosovo's border crossings with Serbia have been manned by the UN administration (UNMIK) since the province was put under UN control in 1999.
Excerpted
http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Politics/?id=1.0.1892865164
NATO blocks Kosovo Serb links
February 19, 2008
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo -- North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops have closed the roads leading to border checkpoints Tuesday, cutting off the only link between northern Kosovo and Serbia, U.N. spokesman Besim Hoti said.
Earlier, smoke billowed from two posts separating Kosovo from Serbia and flames engulfed several U.N. vehicles set ablaze in protest against Kosovo's weekend proclamation of independence and anger over international recognition of the new nation. The attacks on U.N. border crossings showed the protesters' willingness to use violence to hold onto Kosovo - and could clear the way for Serbian militants to return to fight in Kosovo, a land Serb nationalists consider the cradle of their state and religion.
Kosovo has not been under Belgrade's control since 1999, when NATO launched airstrikes to halt a Serbian crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists. A U.N. mission since has governed Kosovo, with more than 16,000 NATO troops and a multiethnic police force policing the province.
http://www.serbianna.com/news/2008/01439.shtml
Kosovo seen as asset to Muslim world
February 19, 2008
Secretary General of the Organisation of The Islamic Conference, Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu says that the organization is rejoicing that Kosovo separatists have declared independence views the new state as an asset to Islam.
"There is no doubt that the independence of Kosovo will be an asset to the Muslim world and further enhance the joint Islamic action," Ihsanoglu statement read. Ihsanoglu also offered "our solidarity with and support to our brothers and sisters" in Kosovo.
Kosovo is a Serbian province whose illegal declaration of independence was recognized by some Western states. Since 1999, Kosovo's ISlamic separatists have ethnically cleansed Christian Serbs in the province.
After Sunday's Kosovar independence declaration comes President Bush's stamp of approval for a Republic of Kosovo and the nod of the four major European Union powers: France, Germany, Britain and Italy.
In all likelihood, the result will be Europe's 46th legally sovereign government, with a population that is 90 percent Muslim. What is far less clear is whether a weak, perpetually dependent Kosovar statelet — and make no mistake, this will be a toothless, weak and impoverished state — is in the United States' best interest.
The answer is no. Lawlessness and terrorism are likely to fester inside Kosovo — which is rife with organized criminal gangs and plagued by corruption. Slavic resentments emanating from neighboring Serbia and Russian revanchism are a certainty. Much as the Bush administration and European governments favor independence, it creates new problems where old ones lay dormant,
Excerpted
http://washingtontimes.com/article/20080219/EDITORIAL/322739956/1013