| (Watch The Riots In Belgrade Here…) |
Belgrade demo (broadband) – Download (WM)
Belgrade demo (broadband) – Watch (WM)
Belgrade demo (dial-up) – Download (WM)
Belgrade demo (dial-up) – Watch (WM)
Riot police in Belgrade were unable to stop angry demonstrators from burning the US embassy, with flames damaging at least one office inside the building. The embassy said a charred body was found in the embassy after the attack. "It was found at the part of the building set on fire by the protesters," embassy spokeswoman Rian Harris told reporters. She said all embassy staffers were accounted for and Belgrade’s Pink TV reportedly said the body appeared to be that of a rioter.
More details were not immediately available.
The incident took place after a smaller group of protesters broke off from a larger demonstration against the recent declaration of independence by the ethnic Albanian majority government in Kosovo, a former province of Serbia.
The attackers, many of them wearing masks, used fire bombs and rocks to attack the building, which was closed earlier this week.
SERBIAN FLAG
Eyewitnesses monitored by BosNewsLife said at least one protester climbed up to the first floor of the building, ripping the American flag off its pole and briefly putting a Serbian flag in its place. The protesters then burned the American flag before Serb police chased the demonstrators away from the building.
The attack came after a massive demonstration in Belgrade protesting Kosovo’s recent declaration of independence, and the decision by the United States and several European countries to recognize the independence move. A number of the protesters carried signs that read "Stop USA terror." The United States was the first country to recognize Kosovo’s souvereignity.
There were also more peaceful moments, with priests leading people in prayer. Kosovo is seen as the cradle of Serbian religion and culture. Serbian Orthodox Christians have expressed concerns that Kosovo’s independence will increase attacks against them and their churches and monasteries.
Dozens of churches and other sybols of the Serbian Orthodox Church have been destroyed, often by ethnic Albnian mobs seeking revenge for persecution during the Milosevic years, churches and rights groups say. Yet, the Serbian Orthodox Church has urged Serbs to stay in Kosovo.
CHRISTIANS STAYING?
"Our message to you, all Serbs in Kosovo, is to remain in your homes and around your monasteries, regardless of what God allows our enemies do," said Bishop Artemije, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo this week, shortly before the independence declaration was made by Kosovo’s parliament.
Serbs are a tiny minority in Kosovo, where over 90 percent of Kosovo’s two-million strong population are ethnic Albanians, many of whom were oppressed under late Serbian President Slobodan Milosvic.
Kosovo has seen an international presence since 1999 when NATO forces Serb forces to withdraw from the province. (Parts of this BosNewsLife News story aired on the Voice of America (VOA) network. www.voanews.com)
