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Kosovo Declares Itself A Free Nation

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By WILLIAM J. KOLE and NEBI QENA, The Associated Press

Published: February 18, 2008

PRISTINA, Kosovo - A decade ago, Kosovo rumbled with artillery fire as ethnic Albanian separatists battled Serbian forces. On Sunday, the booms came from celebratory fireworks after parliament declared independence - a final act of defiance that dismantled the last remnant of the former Yugoslavia.

Lawmakers achieved what the bloody 1998-99 war that claimed 10,000 lives could not: They pronounced the disputed province the Republic of Kosovo, and pledged to make it a "democratic, multiethnic state."

As thousands of jubilant ethnic Albanians poured into the streets - firing guns in the air and waving red-and-black Albanian flags - their leaders looked for swift recognition from the United States and key European powers and braced for a bitter showdown with Serbia and its ally Russia.

By contrast, police in the Serbian capital Belgrade fired tear gas and rubber bullets in skirmishes with protesters who opposed the declaration. Groups of masked thugs ran through downtown Belgrade smashing windows and ransacking tobacco stands. At least 30 people were injured, about half of them police officers, hospital officials said.

Hundreds of protesters rallied outside the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade. Others broke windows at McDonald's restaurants and at the embassy of Slovenia - which holds the European Union's rotating presidency. Later in the evening, police kept a group of protesters from approaching the Albanian embassy.

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.

The European Union and NATO, mindful of the Balkans' turbulent past, appealed for restraint and warned that the international community would not tolerate violence.

President Bush said the United States "will continue to work with our allies to the very best we can to make sure there's no violence."

Underscoring fears of renewed unrest, an explosion lightly damaged a U.N. building housing a courthouse and a jail in Kosovo's tense north, home to most of its roughly 100,000 minority Serbs. No one was injured. An unexploded grenade was found near a motel that houses EU officials.

Meanwhile, Serbia's government minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, said Serbia would increase its presence in the roughly 15 percent of Kosovo that is Serb-controlled in an apparent attempt to partition the province.

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