SERBIA:Serb mobs razed two border posts between Serbia and newly independent Kosovo yesterday, as tension rose in pro-Belgrade regions that refuse to be ruled by the fledgling country's ethnic-Albanian majority.
No one was hurt as Nato peacekeepers stepped in to restore order after local police abandoned checkpoints which were then demolished and set ablaze by a gang of more than 1,000 men who massed on the border.
"Around 1,000 Serbs arrived from Kosovo and another 150 from Serbia. greeted each other and broke out into huge violence . . . that lasted 45 minutes," said a United Nations policeman at one of the frontier posts.
"The post was guarded by the Serb [members of the Kosovo police force]. Albanian policemen were not there. [The mob] immediately said they would not attack officials."
A Kosovo Serb policeman at the scene said: "We couldn't do anything, we just moved away as there were only a few of us compared with the group of very angry Serbs."
Slavisa Ristic, mayor of the nearby Serb town of Zubin Potok, said the violence occurred after Serbs heard ethnic-Albanian customs officials were arriving to man the border with Serbia.
"We cannot allow institutions of a non-existing state to be imposed upon us and to pay taxes to some independent Kosovo," he told a Serb news agency.
The unrest fuelled unease about 30km (19 miles) further south in Mitrovica, a Kosovo-Serb stronghold, where three hand grenades exploded overnight and about 1,000 Serbs again marched to the bridge dividing them from the Albanian part of town to denounce Sunday's independence declaration. No one was hurt in any of the incidents.
Led by drummers, the protesters waved Serb flags and banners saying "Kosovo is Serbia", and distributed leaflets calling on people to march every day at 12.44pm - to underline their claim the independence move breaches UN resolution 1244.
The US, Germany, Britain, France and several other countries have said they will recognise Kosovo's sovereignty, which Serbia says breaks international law. Russia warns it could spark another conflict in the Balkans.
Some EU members have refused to recognise Kosovo, fearing it would embolden their own separatist movements - the flag of one such nation, Spain, was waved by at least one protester in Mitrovica yesterday.
Serbia has withdrawn its ambassador to several countries that have recognised sovereign Kosovo, but has drawn back from a threat to slap a trade and fuel embargo on the state of two million people - 1.9 million of whom are Albanians still celebrating independence after living under UN rule since Serb forces were ousted in 1999.
"These were isolated incidents that will not undermine the greatness of the dignified celebrations of independence by the citizens of Kosovo," said prime minister Hashim Thaci, who led rebel forces during a 1998-1999 insurgency against Belgrade.
"Everything is under the control" of Nato's 17,000 peacekeepers, Kosovo's government and the UN, he said. Over the next four months, the UN mission is due to be replaced by a 2,000-strong team of EU officials, police, judges and border guards.
Mr Thaci met Javier Solana in the Kosovan capital Pristina yesterday, the Spanish EU foreign policy chief becoming the first major international official to visit the new state. "We are good friends of Kosovo, and Kosovo is good friends with the European Union," Mr Solana said.
"The joy that has been shown on the streets of Pristina and all over Kosovo has now to be converted into constructive and positive energy to move towards the development of society," he said, adding the EU would help "on the ground" and "economically" to boost a poor, tiny country where unemployment is about 80 per cent. "The European perspective of all of the countries of the region is open," Mr Solana added in a nod to Serbia, where prime minister Vojislav Kostunica has threatened to cut ties with Brussels over its support for Kosovo's sovereignty.
Mobs in Belgrade have stoned US and European embassies in riots against Kosovo's breakaway move, and a huge rally is planned in the Serb capital tomorrow.
Kosovo's parliament adopted legislation yesterday to create passports, symbols of state and a foreign ministry. It also covers policing, municipal affairs, diplomatic immunity and the protection of heritage sites on its territory, the site of legendary Serb battles and home to some of the most precious medieval churches of Serb Orthodoxy.