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Sunday March 16, 03:15 PM A month after independence, Kosovo threatened by possible Serb secession PRISTINA (AFP) - A month after it declared independence, Kosovo has come under a threat of possible secession of its Serb minority amid fears of fresh violence that could compromise the international community's efforts to push the new state on a promising path. Ethnic Albanians, who make up 90 percent of Kosovo's population of almost two million, proclaimed independence on February 17, fulfilling a long dream to separate from Serbia proper. But Serbia, backed by its long-time ally Russia, has rejected the move, insisting that "Kosovo is and will always be Serbian." But the refusal could not harm a wide-spread joy throughout Kosovo. "People are relaxed, there is no longer any tension. There is an attitude of responsibility, although some feared an exaggerated euphoria," said Kosovo Albanian analyst Azem Vlassi. While calm prevailed in Pristina and most of the landlocked territory bordering Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania, in the northern part, populated mostly by the Serb minority -- some 40,000 of 120,000 still living in Kosovo who also rejected the independence -- tensions have remained high. In the ethnically-divided Mitrovica, the main town in the area, hundreds of young Serbs gathered for daily protests on the bridge over the Ibar river, a natural border between the northern Serb-populated part and the southern, Albanian district. The Serbs here refuse to accept Kosovo institutions and have vowed to set up their own parliament soon. The latest incident came in a show of force with the international authorities in Kosovo, when a group of several hundred Serbs took over the town's court, run by the United Nations ever since its mission had begun administering the province after the 1998-1999 war. Shortly after the independence was declared, the border posts between Serbia and northern Kosovo were burnt down and Serb policemen serving with Kosovo's multi-ethnic police left their posts. "We expected provocations. Their level is as foreseen and their intensity will diminish", Vlassi estimated with optimism. But this systematic challenge burdens heavily a future deployment in northern Kosovo of the announced European Union civilian mission, aimed at replacing the existing UN-run one. "The EU and Kosovo authorities will not be accepted in the north which will remain separated for at least four or five years," warned Vlassi. In Belgrade, Serbian nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica described the EU mission as "illegal," as it was set without UN approval. He warned Brussels that any cooperation would be impossible. Kostunica's stance has already brought Serbia into a serious political crisis, with his government collapsing and his coalition with pro-European President Boris Tadic ending, thus provoking early elections, called for May 11. Kosovo's independence did not only cause a political storm in Serbia, but also revived a climate of cold war between the West and Russia, Belgrade's staunch supporter. It set a "terrible precedent, which will de facto blow apart the whole system of international relations," Russian President Vladimir Putin said recently. It has also raised tensions in the Balkans with wide-spread fears that the Serbs in Bosnia would also demand their independence or union with Serbia proper. In Macedonia, a party representing the Albanian minority -- which makes about one-fourth of the republic's population of more than two million -- walked out from the ruling coalition protesting Skopje's decision not to recognize Kosovo yet. So far, the newly proclaimed state of Kosovo has been recognized by 27 countries, among them the United States and major European powers. But several EU members -- Romania, Spain, Greece, Portugal and Cyprus -- have opted to refrain from recognition of Kosovo. This could be a blow to Kosovo's authorities' desire to be recognized by 100 states by the end of the year.
