Kosovo Declares Its Independence From Serbia Andrew Testa for The New York Times

People signed the back of a sculpture, reading Newborn in English, at its unveiling on Sunday in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo. More Photos >

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By DAN BILEFSKY Published: February 18, 2008

PRISTINA, Kosovo The province of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on Sunday, sending tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians streaming through the streets to celebrate what they hoped was the end of a long and bloody struggle for national self-determination. Timeline: Kosovo Steps Toward Self-Determination

Multimedia Kosovo Declares IndependencePhotographs Kosovo Declares Independence Endgame in KosovoAudio Slide Show Endgame in Kosovo

Related Times Topics: Kosovo | Serbia Blogrunner: Reactions From Around the Web Enlarge This Image Damir Sagoli/Reuters

Kosovos prime minister, Hashim Thaci, left, shaking hands with President Fatmir Sejdiu in Parliament on Sunday. More Photos Enlarge This Image Dimitar Dilkoff/Agence France-Presse Getty Images

People in Pristina gathered in the streets to celebrate. Some waved flags, danced in jubilation and fired guns in the air. More Photos > Enlarge This Image Marko Drobnjakovic/Associated Press

Police officers in Belgrade, Serbia, carried away an injured colleague during clashes outside the United States Embassy. More Photos >

Kosovos bid to be recognized as Europes newest country after a civil war that killed 10,000 people a decade ago and then years of limbo under United Nations rule was the latest episode in the dismemberment of the former Yugoslavia, 17 years after its dissolution began.

It brings to a climax a showdown between the West, which argues that Serbias brutal subjugation of Kosovos ethnic Albanian majority cost it any right to rule the territory, and the Serbian government and its allies in the Kremlin. They counter that Kosovos independence is a reckless breach of international law that will spur other secessionist movements across the world.

As Albanians danced in the streets and fired guns in the air in the capital, Pristina, international reaction was sharply divided, suggesting that the clash between the principles of sovereignty and selfdetermination was far from resolved.

Britain, France and Germany were expected to be the first to recognize the new nation as early as Monday, while other nations, fearing separatist movements within their own borders, have said they will refuse. Russia demanded an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to proclaim the declaration null and void, but the meeting produced no resolution.

The United States and additional European Union member states were expected to recognize Kosovos independence in the coming days.

President Bush, speaking in Tanzania, said the United States would continue to work to prevent violence in Kosovo, while reaching out to Serbia. He said that resolving the conflict in Kosovo was essential to stability in the Balkans and that the Serbian people can know that they have a friend in America.

In declaring independence, Kosovos prime minister, Hashim Thaci, a former leader of the guerrilla force that just over 10 years ago began an armed rebellion against Serbian domination, struck a note of reconciliation. Addressing Parliament in both Albanian and Serbian, he pledged to protect the rights of Kosovos Serbian minority. I feel the heartbeat of our ancestors, he said. We, the leaders of our people, democratically elected, through this declaration proclaim Kosovo an independent and sovereign state.

Kosovo, a desperately poor, predominantly Muslim landlocked territory of two million, has been a United Nations protectorate since 1999, policed by 16,000 NATO troops. Its unemployment rate is about 60 percent and average monthly wage is $250.

Electricity is so undependable that lights go out in the capital several times a day. Corruption is rife and human trafficking threatens to entrench a lawless state on Europes doorstep.

Ethnic Albanians from as far away as the United States poured into Pristina over the weekend, braving freezing temperatures and heavy snow to dance in frenzied jubilation. Beating drums, waving Albanian flags and throwing firecrackers, they chanted: Independence! Independence! We are free at last!

A 100-foot-long birthday cake was installed on Pristinas main boulevard.

In an outpouring of adulation for the United States, the architect of NATOs 1999 bombing campaign against Serbian forces under President Slobodan Milosevic, revelers unfurled giant American flags, carried posters of former President Bill Clinton and chanted, Thank you, U.S.A. and God bless America.

Hundreds of people, many waving Albanian flags, celebrated in Times Square. Revelers in cars drove in circles around the area, leading chants whenever they passed the crowds gathered on the sidewalks.

That spirit of exaltation contrasted sharply with the despair, anger and disbelief that gripped Serbia and the Serbian enclaves of northern Kosovo. In Belgrade, Serbias capital, as many as 2,000 angry Serbs converged on the United States Embassy, hurling stones and smashing windows.

In the Kosovo Serb stronghold of Mitrovica, a grenade was thrown at a United Nations building, the police said. No one was injured.

Vojislav Kostunica, the prime minister of Serbia, which has regarded Kosovo as its heartland since medieval times, vowed that Serbia would never recognize the false state.

In an address on national television on Sunday, he said Kosovo was propped up unlawfully by the United States and called the declaration a humiliation for the European Union. The Serbian government has ruled out using military force in response, but was expected to downgrade diplomatic ties with any government that recognized Kosovo.

Demonstrations were planned for Monday in Serbian enclaves across Kosovo. Serbs said they were under orders from Belgrade to ignore the independence declaration and remain in Kosovo to keep the northern part of the territory under de facto Serbian control, raising questions about Serbias long-term aims.

At the Security Council, Russia argued that the proclamation violated the 1999 resolution that established the United Nations mission in Kosovo. Our position is that the declaration should be disregarded by the international community and declared null and void, said Vitaly I. Churkin, Russias ambassador to the United Nations.

But Alejandro D. Wolff, the deputy American ambassador, said, In our view, this declaration is logical and consistent and completely in line with the 1999 measure.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon pleaded with all parties to refrain from any actions or statements that could endanger peace, incite violence or jeopardize security in Kosovo or the region.

The Security Council agreed to a request by Russia and Serbia to hold an open meeting on Monday that will be addressed by the Serbian president, Boris Tadic.

Kosovos declaration followed nearly two years of United Nations-sponsored negotiations between it and Serbia. Those talks failed, as did a Security Council effort in December to resolve Kosovos future.

The European Commission, the European Unions executive branch, appealed for calm, while NATOs secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said the alliance would respond swiftly and firmly against anyone who might resort to violence.

Kosovos sovereignty remains severely circumscribed, making it reliant on the international community. NATO still provides international security, while the European Union has agreed to send an 1,800-strong police and judicial mission to help run the territory after the United Nations leaves.

Ulrich Wilhelm, the spokesman for the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said Germany would decide what to do on Monday.

Kosovo played a central role in the collapse of the Yugoslav federation built by the Communist strongman Josip Broz Tito, who died in 1980. Albanian nationalism erupted in Kosovo in 1981, leading to bloody clashes.

In the 1980s, Mr. Milosevic used Serbs enormous sense of grievance that their ancestral heartland was now dominated by Muslim Albanians to come to power in Serbia. By 1989, he had abolished Kosovos autonomy, fired tens of thousands of Albanians from their jobs, suppressed Albanian language education and controlled the territory with a heavy police presence.

Ten years ago, Mr. Milosevics forces moved against the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army, killing a guerrilla leader and his family at their compound. As violence escalated, NATO intervened in a 1999 bombing campaign, causing hundreds of thousands of Albanians and Serbs to flee.

An estimated 10,000 civilians were killed in the 1998-99 conflict, many of them Albanians, while 1,500 Serbs died in revenge killings that followed.

For the ethnic Albanians who make up 95 percent of Kosovos population, independence marks a new beginning.

Independence is a catharsis, said Antoneta Kastrati, 26, an Albanian from Peja, who said her mother and older sister were killed by their Serbian neighbors in 1999. Things wont change overnight and we cannot forget the past, but maybe I will feel safe now and my nightmares will finally go away.

In Mitrovica, a 70-year-old Serbian engineer who would give only his first name, Svetozar, said: I will stay here forever. This will always be Serbia.

Kosovos declaration created immediate ripples in the former Soviet Union, where small, Russian-backed separatist areas one in Moldova and two in the republic of Georgia have existed since the early 1990s. Two of them Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia announced their intention to seek recognition as independent states.

Conversely, several of the European Unions 27 member states including Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Slovakia and Romania oppose recognizing Kosovo because they fear encouraging secessionist movements within their own borders.

In Brussels, officials were drafting a statement for a foreign ministers meeting on Monday. Senior European Union officials said they expected it to acknowledge Kosovos independence declaration without explicitly endorsing it.

The declaration of independence raises the prospects of a new constitution and emblems of nationhood, including a new flag bearing a map of Kosovo topped by six stars.

But in a sign of how hard it will be to forge the kind of multiethnic, secular identity that foreign powers have urged, the distinctive two-headed eagle of the red and black Albanian flag, reviled by Serbs, was everywhere Sunday, held by revelers, draped on horses, flapping out of car windows and hanging outside homes and storefronts across the territory.

Warren Hoge contributed reporting from the United Nations, C. J. Chivers from Moscow and Nicholas Kulish from Berlin.

Kosovo declared 'fully independent' bbc news

Kosovan Prime Minister Hashim Thaci (r) called the decision a 'historic turnaround' for the state Continue reading the main story

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Western powers overseeing Kosovo have announced the end of their supervision of the tiny Balkan nation. Kosovo had been overseen by a group made up of 23 EU countries, the US and Turkey since 2008, when it unilaterally declared independence from Serbia. US President Barack Obama said Monday marked a "historic milestone" for Kosovo, which he said had made "significant progress". But Serbia dismissed the sovereignty announcement as meaningless. It does not recognise the secession of Kosovo and regards it as part of Serbia. "The supervision of Kosovo is finished," Dutch diplomat Pieter Feith, the highest international representative in Kosovo, told a press conference. "The International Steering Group has decided to end the period of [Kosovo's] supervised independence," he said, speaking in Albanian.

Turnaround Kosovan Prime Minister Hashim Thaci called the decision a "historic turnaround" for the state. "This is an international success for Kosovo which confirms that the international community respects Kosovo," he said. He acknowledged that there was still work to be done, above all integrating the Serb majority in northern Kosovo, which is out of the ethnic-Albanian government's control. A Nato-led peacekeeping force in charge of security and a European mission on the rule of law will continue to operate in the country. But Mr Obama said that the state had already made great strides. "With the optimism, energy and determination characteristic of its people, Kosovo has made significant progress in solidifying the gains of independence and in building the institutions of a modern, multi-ethnic, inclusive and democratic state," he said. More than 90 countries, including the US and most of the EU, have recognised Kosovo. However many others, such as Russia, Georgia and China, have refused to do so. Some fear encouraging secessionist movements in their own countries. Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dacic stressed Belgrade would never recognise Kosovo's independence "supervised or unsupervised", and dismissed the decision as meaningless.

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Kosovo's independence is legal, UN court rules

Decision in favour of Kosovo's independence could have far-reaching implications for other separatist movements

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inShare0 Email Peter Beaumont theguardian.com, Thursday 22 July 2010 15.39 BST

Albanians ride past a banner that reads "Free Kosovo" in Tirana. Photograph: Hektor Pustina/AP Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia in February 2008 did not violate international law, the international court of justice (ICJ) said today in a groundbreaking ruling that could have far-reaching implications for separatist movements around the world, as well as for Belgrade's stalled EU membership talks. The long-awaited ruling - which the court took up after a complaint to the UN from Serbia - is now likely to lead to more countries recognising Kosovo's independence and move Pristina

closer to entry into the UN. At present, Kosovo's statehood is backed by 69 countries but it requires more than 100 before it can join the UN. Announcing the decision, the court of justice president, Hisashi Owada, said international law contains no "prohibition on declarations of independence". Although both Belgrade and Pristina had said they were confident of a ruling in their favour, speculation began to emerge a few hours before today's announcement in the Hague that the decision - which is not legally binding - had gone Kosovo's way. Prior to the judgment, the US vice-president, Joe Biden, had made it clear that the US would not contemplate a retreat from Kosovo's newly independent status. Key considerations that the UN's top court examined - arising out of dozens of submissions by UN member states as well as by Kosovo's own leadership - have focused on issues of sovereignty, the slim volume of precedent in international law, and how formerly large states such as the USSR broke up along administrative borders. Serbia has continued to demand Kosovo be returned, arguing it has been the cradle of their civilisation and national identity since 1389, when a Christian army led by Serbian prince Lazar lost an epic battle to invading Ottoman forces. The ruling is expected to have profound ramifications on the wider international stage, bolstering demands for recognition by territories as diverse as Northern Cyprus, Somaliland, NagornoKarabakh, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Transnistria. The ICJ's ruling is not, however, expected to have an immediate impact on the situation on the ground in Kosovo, where a small area with a Serb majority has itself split away around the north of the town of Mitrovica, which has about 100,000 residents. That deadlock has sometimes erupted into violence, despite intense international efforts, with Serbs and Kosovans running their own areas. Kosovo sparked sharp debate worldwide when it seceded from Serbia in 2008, following the bloody 1998-99 war and almost a decade of international administration. The 1998-99 war, triggered by a brutal crackdown by Serb forces against Kosovo's separatist ethnic Albanians, left about 10,000 ethnic Albanians dead before ending after a 78-day Nato bombing campaign. Hundreds of Serbs were also killed in retaliatory attacks. Today's ruling will reinforce Kosovo's resistance to any kind of renegotiation - particularly over the status of the Serb majority areas in the north. Kosovo's foreign minister, Skender Hyseni, said before the ruling that reopening negotiations was "inconceivable". Speaking yesterday, the Serbian foreign minister, Vuk Jeremic, had warned that even in the event of a ruling against it, Belgrade would not be ready to give up its claim on Kosovo.

"Serbia will not change its position regarding Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence and necessity of a compromise," he said. "Our fight for such a solution will probably be long and difficult, but we will not give up." Jeremic, who was in The Hague for the ruling, had said earlier that he expected the decision to vindicate Serbia, which would lead to new negotiations on both sides. A US state department legal adviser, Harold Koh, said: "Serbia seeks an opinion by this court that would turn back time ... [and] undermine the progress and stability that Kosovo's declaration has brought to the region."Leading the other side of the argument is Serbia's traditional ally Russia, which has fought against its own separatist movement in Chechnya. Moscow has demanded Kosovo's independence be annulled, and last year was joined in its opposition by Spain and China, each also facing major secessionist movements.