THACI: KOSOVO WON’T BE PARTITIONED

PanARMENIAN.Net
26.03.2008 13:55 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Kosovo’s Prime Minister on rejected a Serbian
government proposal to partition Kosovo between its minority Serbs
and dominant ethnic Albanians, saying Belgrade must accept that all
of the territory is independent.

Hashim Thaci said Kosovo’s territorial integrity is guaranteed by
NATO and other international organizations and Belgrade cannot govern
areas where minority Serbs live, as it proposed earlier this month.

"Kosovo is an independent, sovereign and democratic country," Thaci
told reporters in the capital, Pristina. "Belgrade has to understand
this."

More than 3,000 Kosovo Serbs gathered Tuesday in the ethnically
divided city of Mitrovica to call upon the Serbian army and police
forces to enforce the ethnic division.

Speaking before the crowd, Milan Ivanovic, a leader of Kosovo’s Serbs,
urged Belgrade to invite Russian forces to protect Serbs in the areas
where they live in Kosovo. Russia has sided with Serbia in opposing
Kosovo’s Feb. 17 declaration of independence, the AP reports.

The Serbs, who have held daily protests since the declaration, burned
an American flag to display their angry at the United States’ support
for Kosovo’s statehood.

The United States and most countries in the European Union have
recognized Kosovo as an independent state, but Serbia’s authorities
say the declaration was illegal under international law.