Posted on 02/21/2008 11:04:42 AM PST by 11th_VA
BELGRADE, Serbia - Serb rioters broke into the U.S. Embassy Thursday and set fire to an office after a massive protest against Kosovo's independence that drew an estimated 150,000 people.
Masked attackers broke into the building, which has been closed this week, and tried to throw furniture from an office. A blaze broke out inside one of the offices and parts of the facade also caught fire.
Authorities drove armored jeeps down the street and fired tear gas to clear the crowd. The protesters dispersed into side streets where they continued clashing with authorities.
The neighboring Croatian Embassy also was attacked by the same group of protesters.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack strongly urged the Serbian government to protect the U.S. Embassy. He said the U.S. ambassador was at his home and was in contact with U.S. officials.
More than a dozen nations have recognized Kosovo's declaration of independence on Sunday, including the United States, Britain, France and Germany.
But the declaration by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership has been rejected by Serbia's government and the ethnic Serbians who populate northern Kosovo. Russia, China and numerous other nations have also condemned the declaration, saying it sets a precedent that separatist groups around the world will seek to emulate.
Kosovo, which is 90 percent ethnic Albanian, 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 has governed Kosovo since, with more than 16,000 NATO troops and KFOR, a multiethnic force, policing the province.
But Serbia — and Kosovo's Serbs, who make up less than 10 percent of Kosovo's population — refuse to give up Kosovo, a territory considered the ancient cradle of Serbs' state and religion.
Earlier Thursday, police estimated that about 150,000 people had attended a rally in the Serbian capital. The crowd waved Serbian flags and carried signs reading "Stop USA terror." One group set fire to a red-and-black Albanian flag.
The U.S. embassy in Belgrade burns after masked attackers broke into the building and set an office on fire at the end of a massive protest against Western-backed Kosovo independence, in the Serbian capital, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008. More than 150,000 Serbs gathered at the rally vowing to retake the territory which is viewed as Serbia's religious and national heartland. (AP Photo)
You started making crap up, now you’re being called an it and you’re crying about it.
Sorry, but I sympathize with the Serbs. We can thank Clinton for supporting Al Qaida in Albania against the Christian Serbs, who were our allies in WWII. And now we support Kosovo breaking away to form a new Islamic Republic. Another stupid Bush policy! (and I voted for him twice).
No, the poster is more rational than the POTUS or anyone else who thinks you can build nations effectively if only you really, really, really care. And, how in the name of all that is decent can that man justify pissing away hundreds of billions of dollars of American treasure and spill God knows how much American blood in the sands of Afghanistan and Iraq to keep Al-Qai'da out of those countries, and then help create a bridgehead for them into the heart of Eastern Europe?
I guess history was another subject The President didn't do well at in school.
Kosovo cannot be compared to either Croatia or Bosnia-Hercegovina since Kosovo is and always has been an integral part of Serbia. Serbian outrage is more than justified in this case and the fact that the USA along with its friends did an end run around UN 1244 (which guaranteed Kosovo as part of Serbia) shows to the world the actual value of the "Western guarantee". International law has been subverted and Pandora's Box has been opened.
All this so that the USA can have a base in Kosovo with which to further surround Russia.
Is it really worth it?
Does anyone feel a draft?
See #339. We’re thinking the same.
I don’t disagree with that at all. I’m just saying this is going to haunt the U.S. for a long long time.
We’ll look back on this as Bush’s “Carter Moment”.
The serbs were Christian and the Kosovos are muslim. The only bonehead is you who is obviously DEVOID of facts.
Looks like genocide all over the place
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/811333/posts
Kosovo becoming an islamic state is gonna bite us in the arse.
The KLA helped train alqueda fighters, the same alqueda fighters who OUR troops are up against.
Wake up!
Exactly
Muslims taking over Europe and we help them by taking land away from the serb native population
Bush has truely sickened me
clinton and wesley clark should be in the hague on war crimes
I wish more people liek yourself would know the full history and what is going onthere
as for the media are not telling Americans what really happened, many seem to think that it was the serbs what started this but forgetting and not wanting to know about how albanian muslims with the help of islamic extremists have been spreading islam
Let the serbs deal with their own country and deal with the albanian muslims who are trying to take their country away
this is sheer stupidity by Bush now where is the left about war crimes
Uhuh, fine. Yes I read Tom Clancy, but I also read real world analysis. And are you telling me we never f’d up like idiots ? Would this have been your reasoning after Bay of Pings, Vietnam retreat, Iran hostage crisis, and a number of other screwups ?
Real crises in the world are borne of being wrong how much it really matters to the other guy. And then you’re all of a sudden locked in a course you cannot change. I believe we’re seeing a things play out that have been set in motion in ‘91, and that our ‘smart guys’ are misreading Russian resolve on this issue.
“But now that we are in...we have to do what is right”
Doing what’s right = withdrawing the recognition of Kosovo and turn the US tanks on the Germans/EU-NATO and BACK SERBIA. THAT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO.
There are also proven ties to Al-Qaeda in Chechnya. We don’t particularly meddle with the Russians issues there. It’s the same with the Balkans. Al-Qaeda has also proven ties to Saudi Arabias ruling circles. Yet we do business with them. It’s political realism. We have to fight Al-Qaeda and other Islamists to a maximum, but we are riding us into deeper trouble when engaging in Europes bloody backwater (known as the Balkans). I’m not sticking up for any side in the Balkan conflict. We should not have armed the Muslims there.
Did Monty pick on me for saying that the Serbs are NOT nice people? Yes he did. Why is Monty such a mean person? Perhaps he needs to stop eating sugar...
They are talking about sharia law in England now I kid you not, I know as that is where I am from originally.
Hence the reason why I came here with my family and became an America the legal way after a long time
You are a font of disinformation!
Princip was a member of Young Bosnia.
The Young Bosnia movement was a group made up of Serbs, Croats, and Bosnian Muslims, committed to the independence of the South Slavic peoples from Austria-Hungary.The first conspirator along the parade route was the Muslim Mehmed Mehmedbasic!
While I usually give little credence to conspiracy theorists, maybe this is the NWO's way of gradually weaning us from our belief in the importance of territorial integrity. Today they take a small corner of Serbia to create Kosovo, and tomorrow they take part of the American Southwest to create Greater Azatlan. Either way, a very, very, very dangerous precedent was set this weekend.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.