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)
http://www.coniglios.com/index.php/component/option,com_rsgallery2/page,inline/id,5/Itemid,95/
Mladic
Oh, and my previous post is not to be equated/related to the Serbian/KLA engagement in Kosovo because that was not, as much as the Albanian Lobby has claimed and media blown out of proportion, again, that was not a directed campaign of murder/genocide against a particular ethnic group.
Less than 10,000 dead or missing were actually registered in Kosovo post NATO bombing campaign, consistent with a Serbian regulars engaging KLA insurgency groups. A large number was displaced during the campaign but that is not anywhere near what was done in Bosnia by either of the three groups.
The Georgians I know are not the least bit concerned.
They say the Abkhaz will never be allowed to do what has happened with Kosovo.
I say they are pawns because we have wooed them to become nearly an American protectorate and it sticks in Putin like an unwelcome splinter.
Now there is Kosovo. Putin is nearly at the end of the rope,
and will return the favors soon enough, I think.
Excuse me?
Well it’s pretty well believed in Russia that NATO security guarantees are not worth the paper they’re written on. They just might test that belief. And somehow I doubt calling that bluff is a losing proposition.
"The fact that (independence has) not happened as peacefully as people had hoped is the direct result of the incitement to violence by extremist elements in Belgrade, implicitly and privately supported by the Russians," said Richard Holbrooke, a former negotiator in the Balkans under former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
New Kosovo citizens - in their fourth country without moving
Olivera Millic has lived in this house for 78 years. She’s never left her village but has already been a citizen of three countries and from this week she’s the citizen of a fourth.
She has to work in the field as hard as she did as a young girl because it’s not clear which country is responsible for paying her pension.
A few metres from Olivera’s house, NATO has spent more money in the last 24 hours than she’s earned in her whole life.
check out my post above, which made me laugh really hard.
Flights are resuming between the two countries!!!
Oh great. We stab one of our staunchest allies in the back to appease Muslims that are going to (try to) kill us anyways.
Yes, I know.
And, the status of Ratko Mladic is a relevant major issue that needs to brought to the discussion in this forum and elsewhere.
“the status of Ratko Mladic is a relevant major issue”
I believe you are correct. The two listed in that category were added on the 18th (3 days ago). I figure he and Karadzic are on edge about now. I’m off to bed for the night, but I always encourage everyone to seek out as much info as possible.
“And still, every Western nation seems helpless to control thei muzzie population.”
“They’re not helpless - they just don’t have the will.”
One did...on a couple occasions. We all saw how that went.
“All I know is that we need to get the Hell out of Kosovo before the ground thaws.”
“I definitely agree but I wouldn’t wait that long to get our people out, I’d start the process now. Russia will not roll over on this.”
It’s not happening. Don’t forget Camp Bondsteel.
http://hannah.smith-family.com/archive/000959.html
No, I'm saying that Bush's recognition of Kosovo's independence in an unrelated event and not one that Clinton can be blamed for.
“The Europeans allowed the Muzzies to invade in every aspect of their lives and land so they need to clean up their own backyard for their survival but if they choose to give the Muzzies more land they have to live with the consequences. Kosovo is theirs to give away.”
No, it should have been Serbia’s to give away. Serbia chose not to give Muzzies land and fought back, so US promptly bombed them and convinced us that we HAD to do this...that there could be no agreements between the two sides, all the while telling Kosovars PRIOR TO AFOREMENTIONED SIT-DOWN between the two parties, that they were in going to be independent no matter what the hell happened.
That may be so but the Balkans would not have been the issue to break it.
No matter how Europe looks at NATO if you take the US out of their military equation they have a big whole.
OK, mistake, old maps....Old maps showed it an empty lot.
Why on earth, when you are bombing,...
with depleted uranium, unarmed civilians,...
gathered on a life supporting bridge,...
wearing white tee shirts with targets on them,...
when you are bombing elementary schools, in session, full of tiny children,...
when you are bombing undefended hospitals, treating as many Muslim Albanians as Serbian Orthodox,...
when you are bombing open the southeastern gates of Euroweenia,...
supporting a Muslim Jihad,...
would you then target and bomb, ...
an empty lot,...
containing the fifteen year old Chinese Embassy?
Yeah all those 800 year old Orthodox churches just popped out of thin air in the middle of an Islamic country!
It was a miracle!
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