Kosovo: Protesters in North Burn EU Flag

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo - Up to 2,000 Serb protesters rallied against Kosovo’s independence in the new nation’s tense north on Monday, a few setting fire to EU flags in what has become a daily challenge following the country’s secession from Serbia.

Protesters gathered beneath a banner reading “Kosovo is Serbia” in the ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica — as they have every day since Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leadership proclaimed statehood on Feb. 17.

Serbs — who consider Kosovo the heart of their ancient homeland and the cradle of their Serbian Orthodox faith — reject Kosovo’s independence as illegal.
Protesters also burned a poster showing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice with Serbia’s pro-Western president, Boris Tadic.

Tadic opposes Kosovo’s independence but advocates maintaining economic and political ties with the U.S. and other Western countries, despite their recognition of Kosovo’s statehood.

Serbia’s hard-line Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, in contrast, advocates severing relations with all states that recognize Kosovo’s independence.

U.N. police guarded the main bridge separating the town’s Serb and ethnic Albanian sides. Monday’s protests were peaceful.

In Serbia, Kostunica reiterated that the Kosovo state “does not exist” as far as Belgrade is concerned. He said the Serbian government would seek to “maintain jurisdiction” in Serb-populated areas of Kosovo.

“There will be no stability in the region and the world until that decision is annulled,” he said in Belgrade, adding that Serbia will not normalize relations with countries that have recognized Kosovo until they reverse their decisions.

Earlier, a senior Serbian official entered Kosovo to visit Serb communities — a move Kosovo’s deputy prime minister denounced as a provocation.

Slobodan Samardzic, Serbia’s minister for Kosovo, was making a one-day visit to meet with Kosovo’s Serb minority and with Kosovo’s top U.N. official, Joachim Ruecker.

Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian deputy prime minister, Hajredin Kuqi, called Samardzic’s visit a “provocation” by Serbia.

“Unfortunately, the government of Serbia is continuing with provocation regarding Kosovo’s future,” Kuqi told The Associated Press.

“I hope they are understanding the position that Kosovo is now an independent state,” he said. “They need to build some bridges for cooperation with Kosovo, but … they are provoking us, provoking our people and raising tension in Kosovo.”

Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority fought a 1998-99 separatist war with Serbian forces in which 10,000 people were killed. More than 90 percent of Kosovo’s 2 million people are ethnic Albanians.

Samardzic visited a construction site southeast of Pristina where Serbia’s government has been building houses for some of Kosovo’s 100,000 minority Serbs.

A day earlier, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci — marking Kosovo’s first full week of independence — urged Serbs to integrate with Albanians and pledged that the new state’s ethnic Albanian leadership would respect minority rights.

But Samardzic has ignored such statements, and publicly supported Kosovo Serbs who set fire to a border post in the tense north last week.

Ruecker said the U.N. reconsidered its original decision to keep Samardzic out of Kosovo on condition that he issue a public statement “making it very, very clear that he distances himself from violence and the visit is about ensuring peace and calm with the Kosovo Serbs.”

Ruecker said he also insisted meeting Samardzic so to “tell him what we think of some of his recent statements.”

In Serbia, Dmitry Medvedev — widely expected to be Russia’s next president — visited Belgrade on Monday for a key gas pipeline deal — a trip that underscored Moscow’s close ties with its traditional ally.

Moscow, which insists that independence without U.N. approval risks encouraging separatist movements worldwide, has emerged as Belgrade’s primary ally in the Kosovo crisis.