Pristina– Safar 11 1429/ February 18, 2008 – Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia yesterday, looked forward today to recognition by the Western powers who went to war to save its Albanian majority, but Russia served notice the new state will never be forced on its Serb allies in the territory. Fireworks brought to a close a day of celebration in the Kosovo capital Pristina, where parliament adopted a declaration of independence from Serbia and proclaimed the new Republic of Kosovo a sovereign state. Kosovo’s two million Albanians were left guessing which country would be first to recognize the sixth state to be carved from Serb-dominated former Yugoslavia, closing a long chapter in its bloody demise, Reuters reported. European Union foreign ministers meet today to discuss Kosovo’s secession. Swift recognition is expected from Britain, Germany, France and Italy as well as the United States. At an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council, Western powers resisted a Russian bid to block Kosovo’s independence, and said NATO and the EU would take responsibility for the region’s stability.
Proposing the independence declaration to parliament, Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said Kosovo would be a country of “all its citizens”, a gesture to the 120,000 Serbs still living here. But Serbia and Russia swept that aside. “We’ll strongly warn against any attempts at repressive measures should Serbs in Kosovo decide not to comply with this unilateral proclamation of independence,” Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said in New York. Serbs in Kosovo, led by the Serb-dominated north and with the full backing of Belgrade, reject the territory’s secession, reinforcing an ethnic partition that NATO and the United Nations have failed to erase since the 1998-99 war.
Protests were called for midday today in Serb towns in Kosovo. A U.N. car was torched overnight in the northern Serb town of Zubin Potok, witnesses said, following hand grenades lobbed at EU and U.N. buildings in the Serb stronghold of Mitrovica within hours of the declaration. Most of the EU’s 27 members will recognize Kosovo and will underwrite it with a 2,000-strong rule-of-law mission to take over supervision of the new state from the United Nations. But at least six EU members are reluctant. “Today’s events … represent the conclusion of a status process that has exhausted all avenues in pursuit of a negotiated outcome,” seven Western states on the U.N. Security Council said in a statement. They said the status quo had “become unsustainable.”
Russia has warned that Kosovo’s secession would have repercussions in breakaway regions across the world. China, which has claimed self-ruled Taiwan as its own since their split in 1949, said it was “deeply concerned” by the development. But Kosovo Albanians say there is no going back after Serb forces killed thousands and drove out almost one million in a two-year war against separatist guerrillas. NATO bombed for 11 weeks in 1999 to force a withdrawal of Serb forces, and the United Nations took control. The Serb-dominated north has resisted attempts by the U.N. mission to extend its writ north of the River Ibar.
The proclamation of independence was made by leaders of Kosovo’s 90 per cent ethnic Albanian majority, including former guerrillas who fought for independence in a 1998-99 war which claimed about 10,000 civilian lives. “We, the leaders of our people, democratically elected through this declaration, proclaim Kosovo an independent and sovereign state,” said the text read out in parliament by Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci. “This declaration reflects the will of the people. All 109 deputies present at the session in the capital Pristina voted in favor with a show of hands. Eleven deputies from ethnic minorities, including Serbs, were absent.
Kosovo is “an independent, sovereign and democratic state”, parliament speaker Jakup Krasniqi announced after the vote. Jubilant Kosovars in the snow-covered city had begun celebrating the night before in advance. But in Belgrade, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica branded the southern region “a false state” in a televised address to his nation just minutes after the vote in Pristina. He said Kosovo was propped up unlawfully by the United States which was “ready to violate the international order for its own military interests”. Kosovo will be the sixth state carved from the former Serbian-dominated Yugoslav federation since 1991, after Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Montenegro. It will be the world’s 193rd independent country.
Serbs in the north of Kosovo will reject independence, cementing an ethnic partition that will weigh on the new state for years to come. Kosovo covers about 10,900 square kilometers, roughly the size of Belgium, and borders Albania and Macedonia. Of the two million population, 90% are ethnic Albanian; most are Muslims, and the rest are Catholics. The remaining 10% are mainly Orthodox Christian Serbs.
HA/IINA

Posted by: Sofian Abdelaziz Zakkout, info@al-amana.org

Source: http://www.islamicnews.org.sa/en/1.php