Word: serb
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...overlooking the Ibar River, and the young men in black T-shirts are content to smoke their Marlboros and nurse their cokes, eyeing the more prosperous opposite bank of the river. They never cross the bridge, of course, because the Ibar marks the dividing line between Mitrovica's Serb north side, and its ethnic-Albanian south side - enclaves that have, for the past decade, been so separate that they might as well have been different countries. In fact, the reason the "Descendants" are burning Old Glory is ostensibly to protest Washington's support for the "fake state" of Kosovo...
...outcome came as a surprise. Most pollsters and political analysts predicted the defeat of the Democrats, who came under heavy fire after the formerly Serb province of Kosovo declared independence on February 17 and was recognized by most E.U. countries. During the campaign, Kostunica and the Radicals portrayed the E.U. as an evil empire bent on stealing a part of Serbia, while Tadic was labeled as traitor who was ready to sacrifice Kosovo for a distant promise of E.U. membership. The Radicals, whose chairman Vojislav Seselj is on trial for war crimes at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former...
...Belgrade's decision to hold elections in Kosovo is part of a broader effort by Serbia and Kosovo's Serb minority, which makes up about 10% of the population, to maintain control over the breakaway state. The defiant phrase KOSOVO IS SERBIA! has cropped up all over the place, from a tennis tournament in California (where a banner bearing those words was confiscated from Serbian fans) to the European swimming championships in the Netherlands - where a Serbian medalist was suspended for wearing the slogan on his T shirt. Hard-line nationalists in Belgrade who continue to reject Kosovo...
...independence came off quietly at first. Beginning with the U.S. and major European powers, 39 countries have now formally recognized Kosovo. But problems started when the new government and its Western backers tried to extend authority into the Belgrade-backed, NATO-secured "enclaves" where most of Kosovo's Serbs have lived since the 1999 Kosovo war. The government in Belgrade urged Serbs working for the U.N., including police and customs officers, to quit their jobs, then rehired about 800 police at double their former salaries. On March 17, U.N. and NATO peacekeepers tried to arrest a group of Serb judges...
...Kosovo Albanian?led government in Pristina has refrained from rising to Serbia's bait. Lutfi Haziri, a prominent member of the largest party, the Democratic League of Kosovo, says: "We will work very hard to integrate Serbs as much as we can." But how long their restraint will last depends in part on whether the E.U. mission can marginalize Serb hard-liners like Ivanovic. For that to happen, the U.N. Secretary-General will have to ignore Russia's griping about the illegality of Kosovo's declaration of independence and get on with handing over authority to the Kosovar government...