Independence Is Proclaimed By Kosovo
Serbia Condemns Break; U.S. Recognition Expected

By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, February 18, 2008

PRISTINA, Kosovo, Feb. 17 -- A new state emerged from the long and bloody unraveling of Yugoslavia when the Serbian province of Kosovo declared independence on Sunday. Its ethnic Albanian leaders promised to embrace Kosovo's embittered Serb minority and forge a multiethnic, democratic nation.

"From today onwards, Kosovo is proud, independent and free," Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said in an address to parliament.

The move was immediately condemned by Serbia and its ally Russia. But the United States is expected to quickly recognize the new state, as is most of the European Union, in return for an agreement by Kosovo's leaders to submit to European Union supervision.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said his country, which regards Kosovo as the cradle of its civilization and home to some of its most treasured Orthodox churches and monasteries, would never recognize the unilateral declaration.

"For as long as the Serbian nation exists, Kosovo will remain Serbia," Kostunica said in a nationally televised address from Belgrade, Serbia's capital. "We do not recognize the forced creation of a state within our territory."

Russia appears determined to prevent Kosovo from obtaining U.N. membership and took part in a closed-door emergency session of the U.N. Security Council on Sunday. "We expect the U.N. Mission in Kosovo and NATO-led Kosovo Force to take immediate action to fulfill their mandates . . . including voiding the decisions of the Pristina local government and adopting severe administrative measures against them," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Russia also says that recognition of the province's independence could spark violent separatism elsewhere in the world, including in the Caucasus, where several conflicts simmer. Some European Union countries, including Spain, have expressed similar concerns.

Russian-backed separatist leaders of two enclaves in Georgia -- Abkhazia and South Ossetia -- released statements Sunday saying that they would soon seek recognition of their independence, citing Kosovo as a precedent.

The United Nations has administered Kosovo since 1999, when the NATO military alliance bombed Yugoslavia to force then-President Slobodan Milosevic to withdraw his forces from the province of 2 million. Milosevic's government was accused of waging a vicious campaign, including ethnic cleansing, to suppress an insurgency led by Thaci.

But the NATO troops that moved into Kosovo after 78 days of airstrikes have since become guards around sealed Serb enclaves, home to 120,000 people. At a Serb monastery in Pec, called Peja by ethnic Albanians, Italian troops protect the holy site, which is surrounded by a massive new wall to shield elderly nuns from stone-throwing and other abuse by passing ethnic Albanians.

"We don't have eye contact with them anymore, so things are better," said one Serb woman at the church, who declined to give her name.

Thaci, other leaders and the local media have urged their compatriots to celebrate independence "with dignity" and to avoid inflaming the Serb population.

"The past should not be forgotten, but it belongs to the past and should be forgiven," the newspaper Koha Ditore said, referring to the brutalities inflicted on the ethnic Albanian population by Serb forces in the 1990s. Singers invited to perform at a celebratory concert Sunday night had to submit their lyrics to authorities to make sure there were no overly patriotic anthems on their song lists, according to Eliza Hoxha, a pop star in Kosovo.

"They want us to sing about love," Hoxha said, "and I think that's a good thing."

The streets of Pristina were thronged Sunday with crowds carrying the traditional flag of ethnic Albanians, a black eagle on a red background. But the trappings of independence will include a new flag that is not associated with any ethnic group. Ethnic Albanians make up 90 percent of Kosovo's population.

American flags were also plentiful on the streets of Pristina on Sunday, a recognition of the leading role the United States took in the 1999 bombing campaign and in the move toward independence.

President Bush, while expressing support for Kosovo's internationally supervised independence, tried to ease Serb concerns and vowed to help prevent violence in the ethnically torn region.

"On Kosovo, our position is that its status must be resolved in order for the Balkans to be stable," Bush said during a session with reporters on a trip to Tanzania.

Bush avoided a direct answer when asked whether the United States would recognize Kosovo, but he noted his past support for a plan formulated under former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari that calls for supervised independence.

"We are heartened by the fact that the Kosovo government has clearly proclaimed its willingness and its desire to support Serbian rights in Kosovo," he said. "We also believe it's in Serbia's interests to be aligned with Europe, and the Serbian people can know that they have a friend in America."

Kostunica harshly criticized the U.S. role in steering Kosovo toward Sunday's declaration.

"The president of the United States, who is responsible for this violence, as well as his European followers, will be inscripted in the history of Serbia with black letters, but also in the history of international law on which the world's order is based," Kostunica said.

The U.S. Embassy in Belgrade was stoned later Sunday, and grenades exploded in the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo.

At a special session of Kosovo's parliament Sunday, 109 legislators supported the declaration of independence through a show of hands. But 11 minority legislators, including Serbs, boycotted the vote.

Shortly after the declaration was announced, crowds along the newly pedestrian Mother Teresa Street erupted with shouts and tears of joy, and the streets crackled with fireworks and occasional gunshots.

"I'm 80 and I've waited all my life for this day," said Nezim Bajrakiari, who traveled to Pristina from his home near the Macedonian border to take part in the celebration. "I can die today."

Dance and drum folk bands, dressed in traditional costumes, snaked through streets adorned with posters of fallen ethnic Albanian fighters. Many of the country's current leaders are former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, a guerrilla force that challenged Serb rule in the 1990s.

"We are a new country now," said Orenc Nimani, 35, pulling out his trumpet for an impromptu concert on a street corner where vendors sold T-shirts celebrating Kosovo as the world's 193rd state. "We are your neighbors now."

Staff writer Peter Baker in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, contributed to this report.