U.N. Police Attacked by Serbs

The countdown until the U.N. demands America pacify the Serbian protesters in Kosovo began when U.N. forces came under attack by Serbians after French peace keepers refused to allow Serb nationals access to the Serbian areas in Kosovo:

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo (AP) – Serbs protesting Kosovo’s independence for a fifth straight day Friday attacked U.N. police guarding a key bridge in northern Kosovo with stones, glass bottles and firecrackers.

The U.S. Embassy in the Serbian capital Belgrade announced it would evacuate family members of the staffers following an attack on the compound Thursday. Serb protesters set fire to the embassy, angered by U.S. recognition of Kosovo’s declaration of independence over the weekend.

Serbia’s prime minister appealed for calm. Serbian President Boris Tadic called an emergency meeting of the national security council and said the rioting that engulfed the capital overnight must “never happen again.”

“I most sharply condemn the violence, looting and arson,” Tadic said in a statement. “There is no excuse for the violence. Nobody can justify what happened yesterday.”

Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leaders declared independence from Serbia on Sunday. The province, which is 90 percent ethnic Albanian, has not been under Serbia’s control since 1999, when NATO launched air strikes to halt a Serbian crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists. A U.N. mission has governed Kosovo since.

Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said Friday the violence was reminiscent of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic’s bloody crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo.

In Serb-dominated northern Kosovo, demonstrators waved Serbian flags and chanted “Kosovo is ours!” Police tried to keep protesters off the Kosovska Mitrovica bridge over the Ibar River. The bridge, which divides Kosovo Serbs from ethnic Albanians, has long been a flash point of tensions in Kosovo’s restive north.

“Kosovo is Serbia and we will never surrender despite blackmail by the European Union,” Dragan Deletic, a Serbian government official, told the crowd which responded by chanting “Kosovo is Serbia.”

Several EU countries, including Britain, Germany, France and Italy, have recognized Kosovo.

Tensions among demonstrators was higher than usual Friday because French NATO peace keepers on Kosovo’s border refused to allow the passage of several busloads of Serbs who wanted to join the Kosovo Serb rally Friday.

There were fears that Serbian soccer hooligans, the same ones who attacked the U.S. and other embassies in Belgrade on Thursday, were among those on the buses. Some of the hooligans apparently managed to evade the blockade, leading the clashes at the bridge.

I wonder how “soccer hooligans” managed to evade those oh so professional U.N. Peace keepers? By bribing them with underage girls?

If the newly minted Kosovo realizes that the U.N. can’t protect their borders, whose going to get the call to station troops in that “quagmire” that will be a waste of our precious blood and treasure? That’s at least how we on the right can frame it when President Obama sends troops there.