Word: kosovo
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Some local leaders took a huge responsibility yesterday," the French general in charge of NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo said on Wednesday after violent protests in northern Kosovo. "The leaders should think deeply of their responsibility when they trigger this type of demonstration...
...Serb-dominated northern part of Kosovo, meanwhile, Kosovo Serbs descended on two border posts, torching one and blowing up the other, before NATO troops from the territory's 16,000-strong peacekeeping force arrived to take control of the posts. There were no casualties. Local Serbian leader Marko Jaksic, the head of the self-styled Serbian National Council in the northern town of Mitrovica, justified the attacks, saying that Serbs will not tolerate "symbols of a monster state" on their territory...
...recognition because the mission will likely replace the United Nations-approved administration in the territory. (The EU failed to reach unanimity on the issue, leaving the decision up to its member states.) Serbia's ambassadors have been recalled from the U.S., France, and other countries that have recognized Kosovo's independence...
...Although Kosovo's declaration of independence has been expected for months, the scale of the response - both among Serbs and by foreign governments opposed to the decision - has surprised many. It is not clear how long the protests will be sustained, but for many Kosovo Albanians, as well as U.N., EU and NATO officials in the territory, it has gone on long enough...
...Serbs opposing Kosovo's independence will certainly take heart from the fact that Russia, China and a number of European Union members, including Cyprus, Spain, Romania and Slovakia, have refused to recognize the new state. Russia and China can block Kosovo's access to the United Nations and other multilateral organizations, and the refusal of some EU member states to recognize the country could complicate decision-making over the future EU mission in the territory. Opponents of independence fear that the move will set a dangerous precedent for separatists elsewhere, and Russia has been particularly vigorous in its opposition...