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NATO Reopens Kosovo Checkpoints

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The Associated Press

Published: February 21, 2008

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo - NATO peacekeepers reopened two demolished border checkpoints between Serbia and northern Kosovo on Wednesday as thousands of Serbs protested Kosovo's independence.

For three days, Kosovo's Serbs have shown their anger over Sunday's declaration of independence by the ethnic Albanian leadership, destroying U.N. and NATO property, setting off small bombs and staging noisy rallies.

Chanting "We won't give up Kosovo," some 3,000 demonstrators marched to a bridge in the tense Serb stronghold of Kosovska Mitrovica dividing the two communities. U.N. policemen sealed off the bridge and NATO helicopters hovered overhead.

Protesters expressed their anger over the swift recognition of Kosovo's independence by world powers including the United States, France, Britain - and now Germany. Some carried the flag of Spain, one EU nation that has refused to recognize Kosovo for fear it will encourage its own pro-independence movements.

Protesters demolished two crossings separating Kosovo from Serbia and torched U.N. border patrol cars Tuesday, but NATO troops reopened the roads Wednesday, which they had sealed off for about 24 hours out of concern Serbian militants could cross over.

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