KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo — Thousands of Serbs chanting “Kosovo is Serbia” marched Tuesday to a bridge dividing them from ethnic Albanians while others torched U.N. border checkpoints and cars to protest Kosovo’s declaration of independence.
NATO troops later closed down the roads leading to the checkpoints, cutting off the only link between northern Kosovo and Serbia, said Besim Hoti, a U.N. spokesman. The move appeared to be due to fears that the reduction of U.N. control of the border could allow Serbian militants to return to fight in Kosovo, a land Serb nationalists consider the cradle of their state and religion.
Smoke billowed from two checkpoints separating Kosovo from Serbia, and flames engulfed several U.N. vehicles set ablaze to protest Kosovo’s weekend proclamation of independence.
For two days, Kosovo’s Serbs have shown their determination to shun the declaration by destroying U.N. and NATO property, setting off small bombs and staging noisy rallies through the Serb stronghold of Kosovska Mitrovica.
Kosovo has not been under Belgrade’s control since 1999, when NATO launched airstrikes to halt a Serbian crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists. A U.N. mission has since governed Kosovo, with more than 16,000 NATO troops and a multiethnic force policing the province.
The top U.N. official in Kosovo, German diplomat Joachim Ruecker, condemned the attacks, saying, “Any violence is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”
Serb authorities in the divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica in the north called on Belgrade to “urgently take steps” to protect Serbia’s territorial integrity and protect its citizens — a covert way of inviting Serbia’s military intervention.
Later, about 2,000 young Kosovo Serbs marched to a bridge that spans the Ibar River dividing the town between Serbs and ethnic Albanians, wrecking a NATO car in downtown Mitrovica with sticks and stones along the way.
International recognition of Kosovo’s declaration of independence — led by the U.S., Australia and the European Union’s biggest powers — appeared to feed Serbs’ anger over a unilateral move the government in Belgrade rejected as illegal.
