Serbs attack Kosovo border points as tensions mount
Foreign Desk Report

PRISTINA—Angry Serbs on Tuesday set fire to two border crossings linking Kosovo to southern Serbia, police said as international tensions grew over the territory’s independence.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the United States that Kosovo’s independence was “dangerous” for the world but US President George W. Bush insisted the move would bring peace. The arson attack was the latest violence in reaction to the declaration of independence made by Kosovo on Sunday and which has since been formally recognised by the United States and the main European powers.
Serbia has vowed to fight the split by its former province and groups of Serbs attacked and set fire Tuesday to crossings at Jarinje and Banja on its northern border with Serbia. Kosovo police spokesman Veton Elshani told the fires had been set by “angry” groups of Serbs, but there were no reports of casualties. In another incident that police could not confirm, a Serb media source told that a customs building had been set on fire by Serb protesters in the town of Zubin Potok. There have been anti-independence riots in Belgrade with mobs stoning the US and European embassies. On Thursday a huge rally is planned in Belgrade by Serbia’s main political parties who all oppose Kosovo’s independence.
Russia has been Serbia’s main partner in opposing independence and Lavrov said he warned US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over the implications of the break during telephone talks on Monday. “We confirmed our principled position on the unacceptability of the unilateral action by Pristina,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
“The dangerous consequences were underlined of such a move, which is fraught with dangers for the foundations of world order and international stability formed over the course of decades,” the statement continued. The United States has been an equally strong supporter of Kosovo’s independence and Bush Tuesday called it a historic move but acknowledged there are differences with Russia.
“History will prove this to be a correct move, to bring peace to the Balkans. This strategy has been a long time coming,” Bush told reporters in the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam. “And now it is up to all of us to help the Kosovas to realise their peace,” he added. The US president called on the Kosovars “to honour their commitment to support the right of non-Albanians, non-Kosovars inside their country.”
He added: “We have been working very closely with the Russians as we have with the Europeans and other nations on Kosovo’s independence because we believe it’s the right thing to do.
Bush said the independence declaration and US support for it “wasn’t a surprise to Russia.” “There is a disagreement, but we believe as do many other nations that history will prove this to be a correct move,” he added.
Serbia has withdrawn its ambassadors to the United States and other countries that recognised Kosovo’s independence.
Its anger has reached such a pitch that Serbia’s ambassador to Nigeria, Dragan Mraovic, likened Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci to Osama bin Laden in an open letter to a Nigerian newspaper which backed independence.