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)
Mexico govnered California for only about 20 years after Spain cut and ran. Twenty years owmership. Before that, it "belonged" to Spain (via the dictum of the Pope who divided the world between Spain and Portugal) and before that, to its native peoples. Native "Mexicans" (i.e., Aztecs, Olmecs and Mayans, etc.) never lived there.
Must be all those Islamo... wait, what?
Mlada Bosna were proponents of Greater Serbia, organized by Serbian Military Intel chief Col. Apis.
“We are trying to turn it into “Land of the Mosques”!”
Apparently the same policy we use here in the US.
but then that is me... Please read my post at #285. You will see I don't particularly admire any of those three ethnic groups. If you like the Serbs, then accept the facts that they were monsters just like the Muslims...
wideawake is worried about the embassy, you know, the deep issues.
ping
Exactly. Political correctness be damned. The Orthodox Christians are the victims here, not the perpetrators. Al Queda is Al Queda, whether it’s in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Indonesia or Kosovo, and its aims are the same everywhere: submission of the West to Islam.
serbs would have been a good ally against the fanaical muslims yet instead clinton wanted to show appeasment and help muslims ethnically cleanse the serb fromtheir homeland.
I was posted there and to see the serbs in fear, to see what the albanians have done to the villages, lives and churches of the serbs is truely distrubing yet some here want to think that it’s the serbs fault all because of a flag
unbelievable
The reason why the serbs went in was because of ethnic cleansing just because christina ammanpour doesn’t repoir that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen
The fanatical albanian m,uslims helped by bin ladens men and saudi arabia have been helped by Clinton and wesley clark, by some Americans who have no idea what has really happened there because they don’t see everyting on the media and now they are being rewarded by Bush the idiot
Bush has had an awful lot of "Carter Moments". The man whom the neocons claimed would be as great as Ronald Reagan will end having been as inept as Jimmy Carter.
I bet that is all this is about! I would not go to a soccer game in any part of the world. I had a coworker from England back in the late 90's that went to a Dallas Cowboys game. He could not believe there were women and children in the stands. He said it was a nice experience compared to what he was used to in his home country!
I sure hope this country will remain a safe haven for
those fleeing the muslime horde.
As a FReeper up thread said, Pandora's box is opened. And you're correct, a very, very dangerous precedent has been set.
I think that the declaration of independence by Kosovo is going to give Putin the opportunity to show that Russia is still a power to be reckoned with. Kosovo may be 90% Muslim today, but if history is any indicator, it may be 10% Muslim by this time next year.
Our recognition of Kosovo is a direct slap in the face to Serbia and Russia. Russia would like nothing more than to re-exert it's influence in Eastern Europe and this gives them a legitimate excuse to do so.
Hold on to your hats gang. WWIII may have just begun.
He’s making Carter look confident and capable. Carter’s screw-ups were small beans compared to this - Bush is screwing up the war against Islamic conquest and re-igniting the Cold War in one swift, fell stroke.
I have a feeling that this is going to be a Hot War.
“This decision was very badly received by many conservative people in Poland. Actually many people cheering for the Serbs burning American embassy, this something unbelievable what Bush administration achieved.”
That’s a very interesting point. The Poles certainly have been one of our most steadfast allies in the recent past (troop support in Iraq etc) and have no love-loss for the Russians. They have definitely aligned themselves with NATO and US interests. It has been often noted here on FR how faithful the Poles have been with the US through thick and thin. That they are cheering the burning of the US Embassy should give us pause.
I see a lot of what the US did in Serbia as part of a plan to check Russian influence in the region and thus part of a NATO strategy. But the Poles have much more to worry about in this respect than we do. That they are cheering this development indicates just how wrong-headed US inolvement in Serbia has been.
Bravo, Dio! It takes a proper man to acknowledge the truth, even when it is hard to do so. Kudos! Hvala!
Carter gift to the world today is present day Iran.
The Serbians did not commit genocide in Bosnia. 'Srebrenica' was a fake massacre manufactured out of the body parts accruing to any war-zone and eagerly seized upon by Clinton's administration. Why? To silence critics of US foreign policy in the Balkans - the whole "Monica's war" thing.
The Serbians DID fight and kill Muslims. But if you want to pick an actual genocidal madman out of the Balkan mire, I can only refer you to the hellish career of Muslim General Nasir Oric. He really enjoyed his work in the name of Allah. He really did kill thousands of civilians. And it is likely enough that is their bodies, not the bodies of Muslims, which have with hells own wit formed the case against the blameless Serbians. A useful link here
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