Hydrablog

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/29/AR2006062900314.html
Serbian Prime Minister Makes Charged Visit to Kosovo
By Matt Robinson
Reuters
Thursday, June 29, 2006; A23 [Kostunica visits Kosovo] [not very promising] [on top of which is montenegro’s susescion from Serbia by close vote] [******]
GRACANICA, Serbia, June 28 -- Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica took Serbia's claim to Kosovo to the heart of the breakaway province on Wednesday, commemorating the medieval battle there that Serbs see as the bedrock of their nation. [****]
Kosovo police and NATO armored vehicles secured his route through the U.N.-run province, anxious to avoid a violent reaction that could derail talks on the Albanian majority's demand for independence from Serbia. [****]
About 1,000 Serbs applauded his arrival at the monastery town of Gracanica, the scene of ceremonies to mark the 14th-century Battle of Kosovo in which Serbs confronted invading Turks. [****]The occasion is also St. Vitus's Day in the Serb Orthodox calendar.
Kostunica paced slowly through the stone courtyard of the monastery, flanked by priests and a Gypsy brass band. [*****]
"There is no better place to repeat what all Serbs should know -- that Kosovo always was and always will be part of Serbia," he told the crowd, which chanted "Serbia, Serbia!"
"No one is on firmer, truer ground in the talks on Kosovo's final status than Serbia," he said.
Riot police, mostly local Kosovo Albanians, scuffled with pro-independence activists trying to block Kostunica's route through the impoverished territory. About 120 people were detained.
The United Nations had billed the trip as a "private, religious visit." But it drew accusations of provocation from ethnic Albanians.
"He used this not as a religious rite but as a political parade," said Kosovo government spokeswoman Ulpiana Lama.
The United States and Western European governments are pushing for a decision this year on Kosovo's final status, seven years after NATO bombing drove out Serb forces and the United Nations took over. Diplomats say the province will likely win some form of independence, under European Union supervision.
Kostunica has visited Kosovo only one other time since Serbia lost control in 1999, after NATO intervened to halt the killing of Albanian civilians in a two-year war between Serb forces and separatist rebels. About 10,000 Albanians died in the violence.
For Serbs, June 28 is a date steeped in history. Their 1389 defeat north of the capital, Pristina, ushered in 500 years of Ottoman Turk rule and holds almost mythic status for Serbs. It is central to Serbia's claim to Kosovo as the cradle of the nation, the place where Orthodox Christian Serbs fought in vain to halt advancing Muslim Turks. [****]
Exactly 17 years ago, Slobodan Milosevic, the Serb strongman, inflamed passions with a speech to a crowd of 500,000 at the site of the battle. He warned of battles to come, in an address laden with nationalist rhetoric. [*******]
In the decade that followed, Yugoslavia was torn apart by wars in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. Milosevic died in March while facing war crimes charges.
Kosovo's Serbs have left in droves since 1999. About 100,000 remain, roughly half the prewar Serb population. Targeted for revenge, they live in enclaves under the protection of peacekeepers.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company