Kosovo

Well-organized Serbian gangs torched buildings Tuesday along the border between Serbia and Kosovo in a defiant rejection of the breakaway province's declaration of independence. Huge flames and walls of black smoke engulfed border posts and United Nations police and customs offices in the most serious violence to date over Kosovo's unilateral split from Serbia, declared Sunday by the ethnic Albanian government. U.N.

NATO peacekeepers reopened two demolished border checkpoints between Serbia and northern Kosovo on Wednesday as thousands of Serbs protested Kosovo's independence. For three days, Kosovo's Serbs have shown their anger over Sunday's declaration of independence by the ethnic Albanian leadership, destroying United Nations and NATO property, setting off small bombs and staging noisy rallies.

She purses her lips in a "tsk-tsk" when asked difficult questions. Questions about her life, about the husband who beats her, the father who denies her an inheritance and a place to live. Slightly hunchbacked, her thin frame barely fills the several layers of donated clothing she wears. At 26, she looks 15. She has three children and an elementary-school education. When she showed up at the door of a women's shelter here, purple bruises blotched her face and framed her shattered, crooked nose.

Re "Kosovo's hot potato," editorial, Jan. 26 Unfortunately, the United Nations proposal is but the latest example of a string of Western attempts to coerce people of the Balkans to live together, ignoring centuries of history in Europe and elsewhere. The one alternative that might actually help bring peace to the region -- new borders -- has been applied in an irrational fashion. Changing borders does not guarantee that human rights will be better protected in the new states than they were in the old. In Kosovo, however, it offers the only possibility of a solution, ceding the primarily Serb areas to Serbia and allowing full independence to the remainder of the territory.

Re "Russia's playing ball -- will we?" Opinion, March 22 How sweet the word "independence" is. Make no mistake: Just after independence is granted, Kosovo will declare itself a part of Albania. Just after independence is granted, Abkhazia and South Ossetia will declare themselves a part of Russia. Dimitri K. Simes is right -- we look first at the interests of the U.S. The core issue is: Whose support in foreign affairs do we need more -- Russia's or Albania's? As Simes says, "It's clear which track is best for U.S. interests."

Re "U.S., many in EU recognize Kosovo," Feb. 19 Kosovo declares independence, and nations with disaffected minorities such as Russia and China cry bad precedent. We need to remember the causative event: Slobodan Milosevic, with violence and threat of destruction, tried to expel Albanian Kosovars from their ancestral home. Similar to the Holocaust, this is an event that changed history. To all nations with disaffected minorities, including the U.S.: Don't think that violence or repression will change history in your favor.

The United States Embassy in Belgrade was reopened, its windows cracked and facade blackened from a fire that Serbs started last week during a protest against U.S. support for Kosovo's independence. Workers were still sweeping up the damage at the embassy, where the charred body of a protester was found after the rioters were dispersed.

More than 100 Serb police officers turned in their weapons, radios and badges in a deepening rebellion against the ethnic Albanian majority's declaration of independence from Serbia. The officers were suspended for 48 hours after rejecting the Albanian-dominated command in Pristina, the capital. Hundreds of Serb officers are demanding that they report only to the U.N. police force in the country.

Serbia's coalition government was formally dissolved, opening the way for an early parliamentary election. The decision was made at a brief Cabinet session two days after Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica announced that the government could not stay in office because of disunity over the conflicting goals of holding on to Kosovo and joining the European Union. "The government did not have a united and common policy anymore," a statement said. President Boris Tadic must disband parliament and set a date for the election, probably May 11.

Serbia's neighbors in Croatia, Hungary and Bulgaria dealt a blow to the Serbian campaign to overturn Kosovo's month-old independence by announcing they would recognize the new republic. In a joint statement issued in Zagreb, Budapest and Sofia, they said the decision was based on "thorough consideration." They also underlined the importance of protecting the Serb minority in Kosovo's 90% ethnic Albanian republic. "I don't expect a worsening of political and economic relations because there is no alternative to good neighborly relations," Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader told reporters.