Kosovo's independence recognized
PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) - February 18, 2008 Kosovo's leaders sent letters to 192 countries seeking formal
recognition and Britain, France, Germany and U.S. were among the
countries that backed the request. But other European Union nations
were opposed, including Spain which has battled a violent Basque
separatist movement for decades.
"The Kosovars are now independent," President Bush said during
a trip to Africa. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Bush
"has responded affirmatively" to Kosovo's request to establish
diplomatic relations.
"The establishment of these relations will reaffirm the special
ties of friendship that have linked together the people of the
United States and Kosovo," Rice's statement said.
As word of the recognition spread, ethnic Albanians poured into
the streets of the capital Pristina to cheer and dance.
The republic's new flag - a blue banner with a yellow silhouette
of Kosovo and six white stars representing each of the main ethnic
groups - fluttered from homes and offices. But Serb-controlled
northern Kosovo was tense with thousands demonstrating against
independence and an explosion damaging a U.N. vehicle. No one was
hurt.
By sidestepping the U.N. and appealing directly to the U.S. and
other nations for recognition, Kosovo's independence set up a
showdown with Serbia - outraged at the imminent loss of its
territory - and Russia, which warned it would set a dangerous
precedent for separatist groups worldwide.
Russia persuaded the U.N. Security Council to meet in emergency
session Sunday in an attempt to block Kosovo's secession. The
council was to meet again later Monday.
Kosovo had formally remained a part of Serbia even though it has
been administered by the U.N. and NATO since 1999, when NATO
airstrikes ended former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic's
crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists, which killed 10,000
people.
Ninety percent of Kosovo's 2 million people are ethnic Albanian
- most of them secular Muslims - and they see no reason to stay
joined to the rest of Christian Orthodox Serbia.
Despite calls for restraint, tensions flared in northern Kosovo,
home to most of the territory's 100,000 minority Serbs. An
explosion damaged a U.N. vehicle outside the ethnically divided
town of Kosovska Mitrovica, where thousands of Serbs demonstrated,
chanting "this is Serbia!"
The crowds marched to a bridge spanning a river dividing the
town between the ethnic Albanian and Serbian sides. They were
confronted by NATO peacekeepers guarding the bridge, but there was
no violence.
Another 800 Serbs staged a noisy demonstration in the
Serb-dominated enclave of Gracanica outside Pristina, waving
Serbian flags and singing patriotic songs.
"Our obligation is to stay in our homes and live as if nothing
happened yesterday," said protester Goran Arsic.
In a first sign that Serbia was attempting to retake authority
in the north of Kosovo, some Serb policemen started leaving the
multiethnic Kosovo police force on Monday and placed themselves
under the authority of the Serbian government in Belgrade, a senior
Kosovo Serb police official said, speaking on condition of
anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
There were about 320 Serb policemen in the U.N.-established
force that has run Kosovo since 1999. The departure of Serb
policemen in the force would likely trigger a confrontation with
the U.N. administration.
Kosovo is still protected by 16,000 NATO-led peacekeepers, and
the alliance boosted its patrols over the weekend in hopes of
discouraging violence. International police, meanwhile, deployed to
back up local forces in the tense north.
EU nations stood deeply divided over whether to recognize Kosovo
as their foreign ministers met in Brussels, Belgium, to try to
forge a common stance. At the end of the meeting, the ministers
adopted a statement clearing the way for some member nations to
endorse independence.
Kosovo's declaration was "a great success for Europe, a great
success for the Kosovars and certainly not a defeat for the
Serbs," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in Brussels.
Spain, however, said the independence bid was illegal under
international law.
On Sunday, Kosovo's lawmakers achieved what a bloody 1998-99
separatist war with Serbian forces could not: They pronounced the
disputed province the Republic of Kosovo, and pledged to make it a
"democratic, multiethnic state."
The proclamation sent thousands of jubilant ethnic Albanians
into the streets overnight, where they waved red-and-black Albanian
flags, fired guns and fireworks into the air and danced in the
streets.
Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu played down the fears of renewed
unrest Monday, saying the government needed to set about the
business of building a democratic country.
"It will be a big day today because we have lots of things that
we need to start and finish," Sejdiu said. "We need continuous
work and commitment, and we are fully dedicated to fulfilling the
promises to better our state."
The 192 letters seeking recognition included one to Serbia. But
the Belgrade government made clear it would never accept Kosovo's
statehood. Serbia said it would seek to block Kosovo from gaining
diplomatic recognition and membership in the U.N. and other
international organizations.
"The so-called Kosovo state will never be a member of the
United Nations," Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said.
Serbia's Interior Ministry filed criminal charges on Monday
against the three Kosovo leaders for proclaiming independence -
Sejdiu, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and parliament Speaker Jakup
Krasniqi. The charges were only symbolic because Serbia has not had
jurisdiction over Kosovo since the 1999 war.
Serbia's government has ruled out a military response as part of
a secret "action plan" drafted earlier this week, but warned that
it would downgrade relations with any foreign government that
recognizes Kosovo's independence.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has argued that independence
without U.N. approval would set a dangerous precedent for "frozen
conflicts" across the former Soviet Union, where separatists in
Chechnya and Georgia are agitating for independence.
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Associated Press Writer Dusan Stojanovic in Kosovska Mitrovica
and Jovana Gec in Belgrade contributed to this report.