First week of independence

Refusing to let Kosovo secede from Serbia without a fight, up to 1,000 protesters gathered briefly in the ethnically divided northern town of Kosovska Mitrovica in a seventh day of demonstrations denouncing Kosovo's independence.

They listened to a Belgrade rock band play on a stage decorated with a poster of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a sign reading: "Russia Help!" Moscow supports Serbia's resistance and has declared Kosovo's independence illegal.

Serbs also organized anti-independence rallies Sunday in other European capitals.

In the Austrian capital of Vienna, about 5,000 protesters waved pro-Serbia banners, and a few burned, spit or stomped on American flags before some demonstrators fanned out across the city, throwing bottles as riot police pursued them.

In Geneva, 3,000 people massed outside U.N. offices, and in Brussels, Belgium, several hundred Serbs gathered outside EU offices chanting "Kosovo is Serbia" and waving placards that read "Ask any lawyer" and "Don't legalize it."

Sunday's protest in Mitrovica was peaceful, and the smallest of daily rallies held there for a week - a stark difference from the rioting that broke out Thursday in Belgrade, where demonstrators stormed the U.S. Embassy and set part of it ablaze.

The U.S. ambassador to Serbia warned leaders in Belgrade to prevent future violence against diplomatic missions. "I'm very angry at what happened. It had better not happen again," Ambassador Cameron Munter told The Associated Press in an interview.

In Kosovo's ethnic Albanian-dominated capital, Pristina, the curious gathered around a sculpture spelling out "NEWBORN" in giant yellow letters and covered in graffiti scribbled by revelers after lawmakers proclaimed independence on Feb. 17. "We love you Kosovo!" someone signed in English.

"We celebrate this important day with historic responsibility and a very satisfying result bringing huge recognition from the entire world for an independent Kosovo," Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said Sunday while visiting the grave of the late pacifist President Ibrahim Rugova, revered among ethnic Albanians for his drive for statehood.

Thaci, a former guerrilla leader of the now-disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army - which fought a 1998-99 war with Serbian troops that claimed 10,000 lives - reached out anew to Kosovo's Serbian minority.

"I will be beside them to help them to integrate in Kosovo's democratic institutions," Thaci said. "They, as citizens of this country, should be comfortable with this new reality since Kosovo is a homeland to all its citizens, and all the rights of minorities will be respected."

But in Belgrade, fury over Kosovo's declaration of independence showed no signs of abating.

Branislav Ristivojevic, an adviser to nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, said the only way to ease tensions would be for the United States, "which has produced the crisis," to convene an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council and "reaffirm" Kosovo as Serbian territory.

Serbs view Kosovo as the heart of their homeland and their Serbian Orthodox faith, and have refused to let it go despite recognition from the U.S., key European nations and other countries.

In the Serb enclave of Gracanica outside Pristina, locals said they felt abandoned by the Serbian government and were fearful of reprisal attacks by the ethnic Albanians.

"We are afraid. Every night that we lie in bed we don't know in the morning what is going to happen," said Jovanka Petrovic, among Sunday worshippers at Gracanica's Orthodox church.

"There is no more Serbia. We have lost everything," said Ana Ivanovic, another worshipper.

But ethnic Albanians exulted in their independence and held out hope that the unrest and uncertainty would subside.

"People keep celebrating every night," Artan Dedushaj said. "This is something that all Albanians have waited centuries for - and changes will come soon."

(c) AP

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a s said:

	... kosovon people have been occupied and massacred by serbs militery and police and they deserve their independence, and the war criminals should be found sooner rather than later as they wont rest. and serbians goverment knows that very well, that kosovans have been there long before they came. and it's been hundrets of years that kosovons have paid that by blood.
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