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Serb rioters invade US embassy |
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Written by Peter Beaumont - Guardian Unlimited
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Friday, 22 February 2008 |
Furious Serbs protesting at western support for Kosovo's unilateral
declaration of independence set fire to the American embassy in Belgrade last
night, as hundreds of thousands of demonstrators converged on the Serbian
capital. The attack on the embassy came after hundreds of protesters, watched
passively by police, peeled away from the main rally to invade the building in
the centre of the capital, using sticks and metal bars.
Witnesses described how the doors to the unprotected embassy - closed after
being attacked earlier this week - were knocked in and used to start a fire in
an office while demonstrators cheered. Firefighters swiftly put out the flames.
A charred body was later found in the embassy. "It was found at the part of the
building set on fire by the protesters," an embassy spokeswoman, Rian Harris,
said. She said all embassy employees were accounted for. Belgrade's Pink TV said
the body appeared to be that of a rioter.
The British embassy also came under attack last night. David Miliband, the
foreign secretary, said damage to the building was "limited" and staff were
safe. In a statement, he said: "While the Kosovo issue raises strong feelings in
Serbia, no cause can justify such displays of violence. We have made clear to
the Serbian government that we expect them to fully uphold their obligations to
protect our embassy and other diplomatic premises."
The US ambassador to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, said Washington would be asking
the security council to unequivocally condemn attacks on embassies. "I'm
outraged by the mob attack," he said.
Groups of protesters also broke into a McDonald's restaurant and other
western-owned businesses in Belgrade.
Police last night also were guarding the independent B-92 television station -
viewed by nationalists as pro-western - as youths started gathering nearby.
The rally was the largest since demonstrators filled the streets in 1999 to
protest at Nato bombing and stormed the parliament building in October 2000 to
oust the nationalist autocrat Slobodan Milosevic.
Papers and chairs were thrown out of the embassy's windows, while one protester
climbed up to the first floor of the building, ripped the US flag off its pole
and briefly put up a Serbian flag in its place. The attack on the building and
the neighbouring Croatian embassy followed claims by European defence chiefs
meeting in Slovenia that security in the Balkans was "under control".
The rally came after the government ordered Serbian schools closed for the day
and the state rail company made free trains available to bring protesters to the
capital. Organisers say the rally was intended to demonstrate Serbia's
commitment to holding on to the former province of two million people, where
ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbs by nine to one.
In the south, protesting Serbs also attempted to attack a third border crossing
into Kosovo - at Merdare, 30 miles north of Pristina - after destroying two
other border crossings earlier this week and driving off UN personnel and
Kosovan police. Several hundred Serbian army reservists, many wearing military
fatigues, used rocks and sticks to pelt lines of white helmeted ethnic Albanian
riot police who were blocking the border and preventing the Serb demonstrators
from surging into Kosovo.
Source: Guardian Unlimited
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