Thaçi warns Serbia

"We understand and respect peaceful reactions, guaranteed by the law, but we will not allow the territorial integrity of Kosovo to be compromised," Thaci, a former guerrilla commander, said.

Kosovo's Albanian majority declared independence from Serbia with Western backing on February 17. Serbs in the north reject the secession, fuelling fears the country is destined for partition.

"I am constantly in contact with NATO to prevent anyone from touching even one inch of Kosovo's territory," Thaci told reporters in Racak. Serbs massacred Albanians in the village in 1999 before NATO went to war to drive out Serb forces.

Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica has pledged Serbia would continue to rule parts of Kosovo where "loyal citizens" looked to Belgrade for government.

"Serbia will do everything to implement its jurisdiction and state prerogatives for all loyal citizens in Kosovo -- Serbs and non-Albanians," Kostunica said after meeting Russia's likely next president Dmitry Medvedev on Monday.

Belgrade has promised to keep providing jobs, schooling and infrastructure for Serb areas of Kosovo. On Monday, dozens of Serb army reservists lobbed rocks and bottles at Kosovo police on Kosovo's eastern border, injuring 18 officers.

DAILY PROTESTS

Serbian Economy Minister Mladjan Dinkic said Belgrade should stop servicing Kosovo's foreign debt following independence.

"Under the circumstances, Serbian taxpayers' money will go to Albanians ... That's insane," he told a news conference at his party's headquarters.

Since 1999 Serbia has continued to service Kosovo's debt at a cost of some $150 million a year as part of efforts to maintain its claim on the territory.

The United States and major European Union powers have recognized Kosovo, nine years after going to war to save its 90-percent Albanian majority from ethnic cleansing by Serb forces.

Russia backs Serbia in its rejection of the secession and a deal to bring Serbia into Russia's South Stream gas pipeline project was a show of support for Belgrade, Medvedev said.

Medvedev traveled to Belgrade on Monday to agree on a schedule for construction of the pipeline.

The gas deal was intended to show "our support, moral, material and economic, for a state which is in a very difficult position, a state which unfortunately, by the will of a number of other states, has had its territorial integrity put in doubt," Medvedev said.

Around 120,000 Serbs remain in Kosovo, just under half in the north in a slice of land that runs adjacent to Serbia and where Serbs seem intent on cutting remaining ties with Pristina.

NATO's 16,000-strong peace force has stepped up security in the region, particularly the flashpoint town of Mitrovica, where Serbs and Albanians are divided by the River Ibar.

The force last week took control of two northern border crossings after they were burned down by Serb mobs.

The EU, which is deploying a 2,000-strong police and justice mission to Kosovo, has withdrawn its small team from the Serb stronghold of north Mitrovica due to security concerns.

(c) Reuters

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FORTESA said:

	... VIVA KOSOVA!
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February 27, 2008
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Daniel (Srebrenica Genocide Blog) said:

... The attack on and subsequent burning of the U.S. embassy (and other embassies in Belgrade) by masked Serb hooligans is a terrorist act. Recently, Serbian propagandist Dr Darko Trifunovic uttered terrorist threats against the Kosovo Albanian civilians. In his latest piece titled "It's Time for Us to Show our Teeth" published in ultra-nationalist Serbian newspapers "Glas Javnosti", Serbia's self-proclaimed "terrorism expert," discredited Srebrenica genocide denier, and former identity theft criminal Dr Darko Trifunovic called for Kosovo Albanian civilians to be bombed, quote: "As soon as Pristina declares independence... Belgrade must order tanks to attack Kosovo, including the artillery bombings of the Province until Kosovo is returned under sovereignity of Serbia..." Dr Darko Trifunovic was fired from the position of the Foreign Service of Bosnia-Herzegovina after being involved in a document forgery and falsification of BiH citizenship - an identity theft crime. He traveled through many European states with forged documents until his fraud was uncovered and the BiH authorities took away his passport. Currently, he is a member of several leftist apologist organizations on record for denying Srebrenica genocide, and they are: International Strategic Studies Association (ISSA), Defense & Foreign Affairs publications, the Global Information System (GIS). He authored the 1st Srebrenica Report (published by the Republika Srpska Government - the Bosnian Serb Government responsible for committing Srebrenica genocide in the first place) in which he claimed that only 100 Bosniaks (Muslims) died in the massacre....

report abuse vote down vote up

February 27, 2008
Votes: +0