Chris Cantell Discusses World News: Belgrade in a riot

On Thursday, the capital of Serbia was swept in a storm of demonstrations and even attacks aimed at foreign embassies. It seems the U.S. Embassy suffered the biggest damage as it was set on fire. It was Serbs' reaction to Kosovo's declaration of independence. Serbia and Serbs living in Kosovo and representing about 10 percent of the population refuse to give it up, mainly because it is a common belief that the origins of Serbian state and religion lay here. Hovewer, since the war 1999 Kosovo had been under the authority of the United Nations with NATO led forces as the security guarantee, but at least officially it was still under the sovereignity of Serbia. On February 17, 2008, Kosovo's Albanian leadership declared inpependence and it became the Republic of Kosovo. Over a dozen states recognized its new status, notably the United States, France, Britain and Germany. Well, the consequences were quite tumultuous. Masked attackers broke into to the building of U.S. Embassy and set it on fire around 7 p.m when it was closed. Afterwards, a charred body of one of the rioters was found on the premises. Police and firefighters got to the sight after 45 minutes and managed to put up the fire and ride down the mob using tear gas. Then the protesters scattered into the streets and other clashs with police were reported. Also numerous shops were looted including McDonald's. In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said in his statement: "We want to strongly urge them, and we are in contact with them, to make sure that they devote the assets to deal with this situation," referring to the Serbian government.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080221/ap_on_re_eu/serbia_kosovo_independence;_ylt=AolbcsyqBdB25uaxk4LofNqs0NUE

by Zuzana Zelenakova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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