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Belgrade's U.S. Embassy Set Ablaze

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By SLOBODAN LEKIC, The Associated Press

Published: February 22, 2008

Updated: 02/21/2008 11:24 pm

BELGRADE, Serbia - Angry Serbs broke into the U.S. Embassy and set fire to an office Thursday night as rioters rampaged through Belgrade's streets, putting an exclamation point of violence to a day of mass protest against Western support for an independent Kosovo.

At least 150,000 people rallied in Belgrade, waving Serbian flags and signs proclaiming "Stop USA terror," to denounce the bid by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority to create their own state out of what Serbs consider the ancient heartland of their culture.

The United States has been a strong advocate of Kosovo's independence from Serbia and was among the first countries to recognize the new state, stoking deep resentment.

The United States strongly criticized the violence and the Serb response. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the embassy "was attacked by thugs" and Serb police didn't do enough to stop it. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States warned Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic that it would hold them personally responsible for further damage.

Protesters burned American flags, and the mob that attacked the embassy tore down the U.S. flag there. Crowds also ransacked a McDonald's, looted stores and fought with police in front of other diplomatic compounds in a display of the resentment seething in Serbia over the secession of what has been its southernmost province.

A charred body was found in the U.S. Embassy after the fire was put out, but all staff were accounted for, embassy spokeswoman Rian Harris said. Belgrade's Pink TV said the body appeared to be that of a rioter.

At the mass rally earlier, Kostunica attacked the United States and others for supporting Kosovo's independence. "Is there any other nation on Earth from whom the great powers are demanding that they give up their identity, to give up our brothers in Kosovo?" he said to the crowd.

Coming after smaller outbursts of violence in Belgrade, as well as attacks on a U.N. building and police checkpoints in Kosovo, the surge of rioting underlined the determination of Serbs not to give up Kosovo quietly.

The Serbian government has said it won't resort to military force, but the street violence could be a tactic to slow moves by more countries to follow the United States, Britain, Germany and France in quickly recognizing Kosovo's independence.

Kremlin Underlined Its Displeasure

Russia and China lead the states standing with Serbia, worrying that Kosovo's example could encourage separatist sentiment elsewhere. The Kremlin has underlined its displeasure by hinting it might back separatists in pro-Western nations such as the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

Serbian officials dismissed violence earlier in the week as "insignificant," and no police were guarding the U.S. Embassy compound even though it had been targeted previously. American officials said the offices had been closed at midday because of security concerns.

Milorad Veljovic, a top Interior Ministry official, said security forces had the situation under control and that mobs had been broken up.

Masked men smashed their way into the compound's consular building, tore down the U.S. flag and tried to throw furniture from an office. They set fire to the office, and flames shot up the side of the building.

U.S. State Department officials said no protesters got into the embassy's main chancery section, a separate area that was manned by a U.S. Marine guard unit and some security personnel.

Police arrived about 45 minutes after the blaze broke out, and after the rioters left the building. A half dozen firetrucks also appeared and quickly doused the flames.

The violence fueled growing fears in Washington that Serbia was turning to the virulent nationalism of its past.

But Serbian analysts predicted that the country would ultimately embrace the West as it came to terms with losing its medieval heartland.

'Kosovo Is Serbia'

In recent days, Western leaders have looked on with growing alarm as Kostunica, who helped lead the revolution that overthrew Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, has replicated the nationalist rhetoric of the late dictator, who used Serbs' outrage that their ancestral heartland was dominated by Muslim Albanians to come to power in Serbia.

"As long as we live, Kosovo is Serbia," Kostunica told the crowd in Belgrade. "We're not alone in our fight; President Putin is with us," he said, speaking of President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

In a sign of the divisions within Serbia's government, the pro-Western president, Boris Tadic, was absent from the rally, on a state visit to Romania.

Western diplomats said their hope for a moderate, outward-looking Serbia had been buttressed by the recent re-election of Tadic, who campaigned on the argument that holding on to Kosovo did not justify sacrificing Serbia's future in Europe.

Information from The New York Times was used in this report.

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