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)
It is to me. Too bad President Bush can't see that!
p.s. read my tagline.
Maybe Putin should do his fake TU-95 flyovers a little closer to home.
I used to work with a Serbian woman (a very hard worker, trustworthy and intelligent) and asked if it was possible to figure out who owned the parcels of land there. She looked at me as if she had never thought of that. I said, if we didn't have land title in the US we'd be fighting like that too. But property rights keeps us civilized because we want to protect our rights and those of our fellow property owners (at least in theory). We take out our differences in court, not on the streets.
She slowly nodded her head, but there was much more to the problem than that. Communism made things worse, as it always does.
“Any sympathy anyone on this forum had for Serbia should be gone at this point”
Nonsense, utter nonsense.
I was for the Serbs all through the Bosnia conflict. Theirs was the _right_ side to be on, because they were fighting Islam. The enemy of my enemy, remember?
I still support their struggle. They understand what it will take to defeat Islam’s surge, and they have the stomach to undertake the struggle. I hope - when the time comes - that WE will have as much.
When you blatantly support their enemies by recognizing Kosovo’s independence, how can you NOT expect retaliatory measures, like the burning of the embassy?
I’m for whatever it takes to vanquish Islam. No apologies.
I want it gone from the earth.
- John
Correct, however as a correction Armenia has also troops in Iraq. Also Russia is trying to have part of Christian Georgia secede... Georgia also being our ally and also having troops in Iraq.
Thank you. Amsterdam, take note.
79% of Kosovo land belonges to either Serbs either Orthodox Church.
There was an excellent book, “August 5th, 1985”, written by some retired Nato generals and admirals that describes WW3 starting in Yugoslavia when Soviet and US troops go at it.
They were off on their timeline but things sure seemed familiar.
Some of what W does is inexplicable to me.
Michael Frazier
Ouch! I quickly c&p’d into a text file so I could get out of there fast. ;)
Will read in a bit.
Just another reason to despise Communism.
The Georgians are withdrawing troops from Kosovo very soon.
It looks like someone’s not going to let the Muslims take over without a fight.
Bush is the idiot
eagleburger is right ina few years we will be bombing Kosovo as helped to set up an islamic state.
this is sheer stupidity, we should have never have helped to ethnic cleanse Kosovo of serbs and we should have never have rewarded islamic nutters with their own country .
I cannot believe what is going on, Bush, Rice have had too much to drink me finks
Clinton and wesley clark should be done for war crimes and the media think this all started when the serb army went in but forgetting and not reporting what the albanian muslims were doing before hand.
If I were a serb seeing my coiuntry taken away from me, my coiuntry men being ethincially cleansed then I too woiuld be out tonight demonstrating
The serbs have every right to go into Kosovo again as it is their country who on earth is Afghanistan, Britain, Germany, France and America to say that we are taking a part of your country away and we are making a new country for these Islamic terrorists
Yoiu can bet that in a few years we will be bombing Kosovo because of the Islamic extremists there
utter stupidity
What do you call that????????
....Hypocrites each and everyone.
“And still, every Western nation seems helpless to control thei muzzie population.”
They’re not helpless - they just don’t have the will.
I hate the creep. He ranks as low as Billdo to me.
I also think Russia will have to do something about this. Has Bush lost his mind?
Good for them. We should do so as well.
Yes, I know.
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