PRISTINA, Serbia — Tiny Kosovo — poor, mostly Muslim but feverishly pro-Western — braced itself Saturday for a historic declaration of independence from Serbia, a decade after a war that killed 10,000 people and after years of limbo under U.N. rule.
The province’s bid for statehood, expected today, and its quest for international recognition set up a showdown with Serbia and Russia. Moscow contends the move will set a dangerous precedent for secessionist groups worldwide.
Revelers took to the streets in giddy anticipation. Prime Minister Hashim Thaci — a former leader of the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army — marked the eve of the new nation’s birth by visiting a village where Serbian troops massacred ethnic Albanians in 1998.
“Tomorrow is a historic day in our effort to create a state,” Thaci said in Prekaze, about 25 miles southeast of the capital, Pristina.
Thaci was expected to call a special session of parliament this afternoon to declare an independent Republic of Kosovo and present a flag and crest.
In Pristina, the icing was on celebratory cakes and bottles of “Independence” wine chilled as the new reality sank in.
But Kosovo’s small Serb population greeted the secession as though it were an amputation. Many vowed never to accept the loss of a region they consider the heart of their ancestral homeland.
“I’m asking all the Serbs to reject the monster state of Kosovo and to do everything to prevent its birth,” said Marko Jaksic, a Kosovo Serb leader.
Although it is formally part of Serbia, Kosovo has been administered by the U.N. since 1999, when NATO airstrikes ended the late Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic’s brutal crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.
Ninety percent of Kosovo’s 2 million people are ethnic Albanian, most of them moderate or nonpracticing Muslims, the rest Roman Catholics.
With Russia, a staunch Serbian ally, determined to block the bid, Kosovo looked to the U.S. and Europe for swift recognition as the continent’s newest nation. That recognition is likely to come Monday at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, Belgium.
The EU gave its final go- ahead Saturday to send an 1,800-member mission to replace the current U.N. administration. The mission is designed to help build a police, justice and customs system for Kosovo.
Key facts about Kosovo
LAND
• Kosovo covers about 4,200 square miles — roughly the size of Connecticut — and borders Albania and Macedonia.
PEOPLE
• About 2 million — a vast majority of whom are ethnic Albanian (most are Muslim and the rest Catholic). The remaining residents are mainly Orthodox Christian Serbs.
STATUS
• Though it legally remains a province of Serbia, Kosovo has been run by the United Nations and NATO since 1999, when Slobodan Milosevic’s forces were ousted after a NATO air war launched to end his crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.
HISTORY
• Kosovo, the site of an epic battle between Serbs and Turks in 1389, is considered hallowed ground by Serbs and the birthplace of their identity. Ethnic Albanians say they are descendants of the ancient Ilyrians, Kosovo’s first inhabitants.
