NEW YORK (CNN) -- Kosovo on Monday began its campaign for global recognition a day after declaring independence from Serbia, but bitter divisions in the European Union and United Nations raised the specter of conflict over the Balkan territory.
Fireworks light up the night sky in Pristina, Kosovo, as thousands celebrate independence.
Kosovar Albanians parade an Albanian flag as they celebrate forthcoming independence in Pristina Friday
But while the move is broadly favored by the West, U.N. Security Council members Russia and China have expressed outright opposition and "grave concern" over Kosovo's unilateral decision.
Serbia insists it will not respond with violence to Kosovo's sovereignty claim, although it refuses to recognize the move.
In the Serb-dominated northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica, scores of Kosovo Serbs took to the streets waving Seriban flags in a demonstration against independence.
The U.N. Security Council was expected to meet to discuss the issue later Monday, with Serbian President Boris Tadic due to address the body on the breakaway his country bitterly opposes.
Asked on Monday whether the United States -- which has expressed support for Kosovo's seccession -- would officially recognize Kosovo, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, "Stay tuned." Watch mixed reaction to independence declaration
European Union foreign ministers were Monday also due to discuss the independence declaration, with several members, including Spain, who fear it will send signals to separatists withing their own borders, likely to oppose.
"Our position is that this declaration should be disregarded by the international community," as well as by the head of the U.N. mission in Kosovo, Moscow's U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin said on Sunday.
In Beijing Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao expressed grave concern over Kosovo move for independence.
"Kosovo's unilateral act can produce a series of results that will lead to seriously negative influence on peace and stability in the Balkan region ..." Liu said, according to China's Xinhua news agency. He called on Kosovo and Serbia to seek a solution under international law.
Fireworks lit the skies and crowds filled the streets of Kosovo's capital Sunday after the territory's parliament declared independence from Serbia.
"The day has come," Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, a former separatist guerrilla leader, told his parliament. "From this day onwards, Kosovo is proud, independent and free." Watch how U.N. is divided over Kosovo's future
The province has been under U.N. administration and patrolled by NATO troops since a 1999 bombing campaign that halted a Serb-led campaign against Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority.
"We are waiting instructions from New York how to react to it," U.N. Mission in Kosovo chief Joachim Rucker told CNN from the capital, Pristina, Monday, referring to the declaration. "But I'm not worried really."
Serbia said it will not oppose independence with violence, but Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said his country will never accept the establishment of a "false country" on its territory.
"Anything and everything that we couldn't achieve today will be obtained by new generations of Serbian people in the future," Kostunica said Sunday in a televised address.
Citizens of Serbia, we have to come together and show the whole world that we do not acknowledge the creation of a false state in our territory. The violence that has been perpetrated upon Serbia is very obvious."
Russia expressed similar concerns at Sunday's emergency Security Council meeting in New York.
"Our concern is for the safety of Serbs and other minorities in Kosovo," Churkin stated, adding that Russia will "strongly warn against any attempts at repressive measures should Serbs in Kosovo decide not to comply with this unilateral proclamation of independence."
About 100,000 Serbs still live in Kosovo, making up about 5 percent of the population, and Kostunica said Serbs have been killed or lost their land in the eight-plus years the country has been under international rule. But Fatmir Sejdiu, the nascent republic's president, pledged to create a nation "where all citizens of all ethnicities feel appreciated."
"Today is probably a day of trepidation for some of you, but your property and your rights will be respected in the future," he said.
Former U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark, who led the NATO alliance during the 1999 conflict, said "There was no way beyond moving to this step." But he urged the international community to work with Serbia to keep the country moving toward integration with Europe and "to help them understand their situation."
"I'm very sad that the Serbs are unable to understand what's happened," Clark told CNN. "But the magnitude of Serb repression of the Albanian majority there and the violence that accompanied the ethnic cleansing in 1998 and 1999 was just so overwhelming that I think the Serb people have to understand that the Albanians themselves have to have this separation."
Thaci said Kosovo's declaration of independence "marks the end of the breakup of the former Yugoslavia," which triggered years of bloodshed across the Balkans.
Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic launched a crackdown against ethnic Albanian insurgents led by Thaci in 1998 and refused to yield to Western pressure to halt the campaign. When NATO responded by launching airstrikes against Serbia and Montenegro, the last remaining Yugoslav republics, Yugoslav troops drove hundreds of thousands of Kosovars out of the region and killed thousands more.
Milosevic died in 2005 while awaiting trial for war crimes before a U.N. tribunal in The Hague.
The United States and leading European nations, including France, Britain and Germany, have supported Kosovo's move toward independence. But Russia, the Serbs' historical ally, has opposed independence, fearing it would incite other separatist movements in its backyard.
But no country supported the Russian call for the U.N. to declare Sunday's declaration "null and void," said Sir John Sawers, the British ambassador to the world body.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged all parties "to refrain from any actions or statements that could endanger peace, incite violence or jeopardize security in Kosovo and the region."
Ecstatic Kosovars celebrate the proclamation of independence in Pristina, as their leaders defied warnings from Serbia and Russia
"It's the biggest day for a million years!" declared an ecstatic Kosovar, celebrating his country's independence along with tens of thousands of other ethnic Albanians in Pristina last night.
Fireworks exploded over the city, thousands of cars paraded through the streets, horns blaring and bonnets strung with Albanian flags, while men and women in traditional costume banged drums and danced and sang.
Kosovo became the world's 193rd nation state yesterday. For the Albanians who constitute 90 per cent of Kosovo's people, the declaration marked the end of generations of oppression by Serbs, who claim Kosovo as their historic homeland but for centuries have accounted for a minority of its population. Yet for all the euphoria, there was a decorous, almost sombre edge to the festivities. Kosovo takes to the world stage with the less than unanimous backing of Europe and amid angry denunciations by Serbia and Russia.
The declaration of independence by Prime Minister Hashim Thaci was immediately followed by a statement from his Serb counterpart, Vojislav Kostunica, vowing that Serbia would never recognise it. In Mitrovica, the main flashpoint of ethnic tensions during the Balkans' dark days, grenades were thrown, although they caused no injuries. Jubilant Kosovars shrugged off the threat.
"We don't worry about Serbia," said Mehmet Osmani, 49, a Pristina businessman celebrating with his brother. "Serbia lost Kosovo totally in 1999. This is the last moment they can tell us what to do – now we are equal. The Serbs are nervous now but in time they will calm down. And that goes for Serbians living in Kosovo. No one will do them any harm."
Nine years after the Nato bombing campaign – sparked by fears that Slobodan Milosevic was planning ethnic cleansing against the Kosovars – the country's 39-year-old Prime Minister announced the long-awaited birth of the new country. "This day has been long in coming," he said, "But ... from this moment on, Kosovo is proud, independent and free."
The former guerrilla and political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army showed scant emotion as he read out the declaration. Referring to his own life, he said: "My family, like yours ... never wavered and never lost faith in our countrymen. From the brother who left his family to fight, to the farmer who would not cede his land, to the women and men who opened their homes and taught our children, to the student who stood up and said 'No more' ... we never wavered and never lost faith in our countrymen."
MPs cheered as Kosovo's new flag, with the country's outline on yellow under six gold stars on a dark blue background was hoisted above the assembly. Also witnessing the scene was the family of the late writer turned pacifist leader Ibrahim Rugova, the man who did more than anyone to foster Kosovo's sense of destiny. This was not the first time Kosovo has declared itself independent – Mr Rugova announced it way back in 1992.
Seven miserable years followed during which the government of Milosevic drove Albanians out of public life to keep the province in subjection. Kosovo has been straining at the leash ever since Serbia's defeat in the 1999 bombing campaign but was held back by the compulsion of its international backers to obtain international consensus for the move. It never arrived.
After a year of intensive negotiations with both sides, the UN special envoy Martti Ahtisaari concluded that a compromise between Serbs and Kosovars was impossible, and instead recommended "independence supervised by the international community".
That was expected to become a reality last year until Russia changed its mind and vetoed the proposal in the UN Security Council. It has been nearly a year since Mr Ahtisaari's report was delivered but the EU, stiffened by the US, has finally got up the courage to defy Moscow and Belgrade.
As Mr Thaci underlined before parliament, the challenges this tiny state faces are daunting. With the youngest population in Europe, 40 per cent unemployment and little in the way of industry or exports, it will have a hard job making its way in the world. Serbia has long threatened to implement a "secret plan" of retaliation if Kosovo broke away, which could include cuts in energy exports and road blockades. Serbia has also threatened diplomatic and trade measures against states that recognise Kosovo's independence.
Mr Thaci's speech was filled with references to the multi-ethnic nature of the new state. But the Serb government has instructed Kosovo's Serbians to boycott its institutions and has vowed to regain the province.
Ever since the end of the war, Kosovo's Serbians have followed orders from Belgrade to ignore the Albanian administration while accepting the role of the UN and Nato. With the UN mission Unmik to be phased out and replaced by a 2,000-strong European force of police, prosecutors and judges, relations with the Serbians are likely to worsen, as Belgrade has condemned the EU mission as illegal.
Yesterday, hand grenades aside, there were no signs of the violence of Kosovo's earlier rites of passage. Kosovars had been implored by their government to "celebrate independence with dignity for a bright start". "If I am happy, the Serbians should be happy, too," said one reveller last night. "Every Serbian who is honest and did not commit crimes is welcome to live with us."
The Independent
When is a state not a state? When it's a place named Kosovo. What will be recognised today by a core of European nations and the United States is a kind of protectorate where the EU takes over the supervisory role played thus far in Kosovo by the United Nations.
The issue of recognition has exercised the minds of international lawyers for months. Kosovo will have its own flag and government, but has agreed to limitations on its own sovereignty. An EU police and justice mission will have some executive powers, and 16,000 Nato troops will remain there. It will not have a UN seat, which, admittedly, is not a necessary prerequisite for statehood.
But Britain says that when an exchange of letters takes place between the British and Kosovo foreign ministers today, it will constitute the recognition of the state of Kosovo. But other EU countries – including Bulgaria, Cyprus and Slovakia – believe just as strongly that Kosovo is not a state. They say it has been severed illegally from the rest of Serbia without the consent of Belgrade.
Both sides in the argument point to resolution 1244, the framework resolution that in 1999 set up the UN administration in Kosovo after the 11-week war that ended Slobodan Milosevic's reign of terror over the ethnic-Albanian majority in the province.
Russia argues – as it did when the Nato bombing campaign began without UN authorisation in the face of the threat of a Russian veto – that Kosovo's declaration of independence is illegal because, once again, it has been done without specific UN blessing.
However supporters of Kosovo's independence say it reflects the spirit of resolution 1244, which called for a "political solution" for the province and established an "international civilian presence" which would be maintained until the UN decided otherwise.
Countries such as the US, Britain and Germany believed that agreement with Russia, which had staunchly backed Serbia during the last two years of negotiations, was never going to be possible in a UN framework. The former Finnish president, Marti Ahtisaari, drew up an internationally approved plan calling for supervised independence. But Russia's threat to veto it at the UN prompted a final round of negotiations by a troika of US, Russian and German diplomats.
Those talks ended in failure at the end of last year with Kosovo refusing to compromise on independence, while Belgrade refused to offer more than autonomy. The Ahtisaari plan was formally endorsed by Kosovo's Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, in his independence speech in parliament yesterday.
The second bone of contention preventing all 27 EU states from recognising Kosovo is the unilateral border change, which could serve as a precedent in other "frozen conflicts", as Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, has pointed out.
He has accused Europe of double standards for backing Kosovo's independence but not supporting independence for the Basque country and for Turkish northern Cyprus. But advocates of Kosovo's independence argue that the UN-administered Serbian province was always a special case, and that comparisons with other separatist conflicts are not valid.
Britain believes that the declaration of statehood, with international support, will provide the necessary clarity to enable Kosovo to revive its economy, ending the uncertainty over its status that kept investors away. But there are fears, even among Kosovo's supporters, that the power of the EU mission risks undermining the fledgling state, rather than reinforcing it.
STR/AFP/Getty Images
Anti-riot police used tear gas and batons to disperse hundreds of Serbian youths who went on a several hour-long wild rampage in the streets of central Belgrade yesterday, targetting embassies of Western backers of Kosovo's independence
Click on the photo to enlarge it!
Serbs opposing Kosovo's independence vented their anger and frustration on buildings belonging to the Western powers they accuse of carving the province from the heart of Serbia.
In Belgrade, a group of 2,000 mainly young men converged on the US embassy, where they ripped up paving stones, prised tiles off buildings and lobbed stones, bottles and firecrackers at the building and the 500-strong contingent of riot police guarding it.
Many chanted patriotic songs and shouted "Kosovo is the heart of Serbia" but the slogans from a few individuals were more ominous. "Kill and hang them until there's no Albanians left!" some protesters cried. Several police officers were injured as they moved in to disperse the crowd.
Meanwhile in Mitrovica, the divided city in the Serbian enclave of Kosovo, three hand-grenades were hurled at buildings belonging to the European Union and the United Nations, which have largely backed the creation of Europe's newest nation. There were no reported injuries but the incidents were a reminder of the potentially volatile times ahead in this notoriously troubled corner of the Balkans.
"The Albanians can celebrate all they want, but this stillborn baby of theirs will never be an independent country as long as we Serbs are here and alive," Djordje Jovanovic told the Associated Press near one of the bridges spanning the river that divides the two communities in Mitrovica.
The Serbian Prime Minister, Vojislav Kostunica, was quick to brand the southern region a "false state" and call for peaceful protest rallies in the days ahead. "This unprecedented case of lawlessness was brought about by the destructive, brutal and immoral policies of force imposed by the United States," he said in a television address to the nation minutes after Kosovo severed ties. "Millions of Serbs already are thinking of the day of freedom which must come."
But the rhetoric from others, like the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo, was decidedly more bellicose. "Serbia should buy state-of-the-art weapons from Russia and other countries and call on Russia to send volunteers and establish a military presence in Serbia," Bishop Artemije said. Moscow has refused to recognise the newborn state and has called for an immediate meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss annulling the independence declaration.
International institutions including Nato, which has 16,000 peacekeepers stationed in Kosovo, urged "maximum restraint and moderation". And while a small minority caused trouble on certain streets in Belgrade, the sub-zero temperatures combined with an acceptance of the inevitable meant there was not the immediate widespread popular rage that some had feared over what is a highly emotional issue.
Many residents seemed stoical. "I know I won't be able ever to return to my home and that is depressing," said a Serbian housewife, Milijana Stankovic, who fled Kosovo when the forces of Slobodan Milosevic retreated. Her husband has struggled to find work in Belgrade, where the economy is spluttering along, and life is a daily grind.
But now that Kosovo has officially broken away, she says it is time to look forward rather than back. "We are simple people. We cannot go against the force."
(CNN) -- Kosovo's breakaway from Serbia provoked fresh unrest Friday as U.N. police were attacked by ethnic Serb demonstrators in northern Kosovo a day after angry demonstrations in the Serbian capital Belgrade left one person dead.
Serbs throw a firecracker towards police guarding a bridge in the ethnically divided Kosovo town of Mitrovica.
The demonstrators were waving Serbian flags and chanting "Kosovo is ours!" on what was the fifth day of protests since Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders declared independence from Serbia on Sunday.
The latest incident follows violent outbreaks in Belgrade which culminated in an attack on the U.S. Embassy that left one person dead and dozens injured, earning Serbia a stern rebuke from a senior U.S. diplomat on Friday.
Speaking to CNN, Undersecretary for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns said Serbia had a "fundamental responsibility" to protect U.S. diplomats and citizens, adding that Washington would hold Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and his government "personally responsible" for assaults on U.S. interests.
"What happened yesterday in Belgrade was absolutely reprehensible," said Burns. "This kind of thing should not happen in a civilized country."
Speaking on Thursday, Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, said: "Those scenes that we saw are regrettable. The Serbian government has repeated time and time again that any solution to the Kosovo problem -- other than a peaceful and mutually accepted compromise solution -- would lead to instability in the region. Unfortunately, this fell on deaf ears."
Serbian riot police were guarding the U.S. Embassy on Friday, one day after the charred body of a protester was found and dozens of people were reportedly injured in an attack by angry demonstrators.
Serbian TV showed someone trying to set fire to the U.S. flag at the embassy, which was closed and unstaffed when the masked protesters attacked. Riot police fired tear gas and lines of armored vehicles were deployed on the streets before the embassy perimeter was secured.
Belgrade fire officials said the body was found in an "unoccupied area" of one of the embassy buildings near the area reached by the demonstrators.
Thursday's violence was part of a much bigger, peaceful demonstration where up to 150,000 people chanted "Kosovo is Serbia," and vowed to never accept the province's independence.
Addressing the crowd, Kostunica said "Kosovo is Serbia's first name," calling Kosovo's declaration of independence illegal and vowing to do all he could to get it annulled.
The U.S. Embassy's consular section remained closed on Friday as officials were advised to stay at home amid continuing fears over anti-Western protests, according to a statement on the embassy Web site.
The Embassy warned American citizens to avoid areas of demonstration and to exercise "extreme caution."
Kosovo declared independence last Sunday and the United States was among the first countries to offer official recognition of its split from Serbia. Watch a discussion on the history of tense relations between Serbia and Kosovo »
Also Friday, Russia -- which has not recognized Kosovo's sovereignty -- said it has not ruled out using force to resolve the dispute over the territory if NATO forces breach the terms of their U.N. mandate.
"If the EU works out a single position or if NATO steps beyond its mandate in Kosovo, these organizations will be in conflict with the U.N., and then I think we will also begin operating under the assumption that in order to be respected, one needs to use force," Moscow's ambassador to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said, in comments carried by Russia's Interfax news agency.
A spokesman for Russia's Foreign Ministry warned that Kosovo's declaration would have a "negative impact."
"What happened in Belgrade yesterday is regrettable. But we would want to draw your attention to the fact that the forces that supported the unilateral recognition of Kosovo's independence should have realized the effects of the move," spokesman Mikhail Kamynin told Interfax.
Russia, which has close ties with Serbia, has refused to recognize Kosovo's sovereignty, triggering a terse diplomatic standoff with the U.S. and several EU member states including the UK, France and Germany which have already recognized its independent status.
The U.S. Ambassador to NATO said Washington was "very disappointed" by Russia's position on Kosovo, The Associated Press reported.
"We've been very disappointed by Russia's reaction and we've been concerned about any efforts, whether they are Serb or from elsewhere, to incite violence at this delicate time," said Victoria Nuland.
NATO has led a 15,000-strong peacekeeping operation -- known as KFOR -- in Kosovo since 1999 under the terms of a U.N. Security Council mandate authorized following a 78-day bombing campaign by the military alliance against Serbia.
Following Kosovo's declaration of independence last weekend, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said KFOR would "respond swiftly and firmly against anyone who might resort to violence in Kosovo."
MOSOCOW, Russia (AP) -- Russia's foreign minister claimed that NATO and the EU have been considering using force to keep Serbs from leaving Kosovo following its declaration of independence, according to remarks broadcast Monday.
