Two people killed during Kosovo riot

Kosovo Albanian leaders appealed for calm after two people died on Feb. 10 in clashes between police and Albanians protesting a UN plan they say falls short of full independence from Serbia. At least two other protesters were in serious condition after the riot in which UN and Kosovo police used tear gas and rubber bullets against Albanians trying to break through barricades around the parliament in Pristina. About 80 people were injured and more than a dozen demonstrators were arrested. Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Agim Ceku met opposition leaders the next day and issued a statement condemning the protests, which had brought 3,000 people onto the streets of the capital before turning violent. A UN plan unveiled this month by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari would, if adopted by the UN Security Council, set Kosovo on the path to statehood, eight years after NATO bombs drove out Serb forces and the United Nations took control. Kosovo Albanian leaders have accepted the plan, which provides for a powerful European overseer and self-government and protections for the 100,000 Serbs. But some among the 90 percent Albanian majority complain it will prolong Kosovo's limbo status and leave Serbia with a permanent foothold. The protesters called for an independence referendum and rejected talks with Serbia, which in 1998-99 killed 10,000 Albanians and expelled 800,000 in a war with guerrillas. Serbia opposes the amputation of its medieval heartland, but the Albanians living there reject any return to Serb rule. The United States and the European Union have backed Ahtisaari's blueprint, drafted after months of shuttle diplomacy and fruitless Serb-Albanian talks in 2006. On the day of the protest, Russian President Vladimir Putin repeated that Moscow would only support a solution acceptable to both sides–something Ahtisaari says is virtually impossible. "If we see that one of the parties is not happy with the proposed solution, we should not support that decision," Putin said. The West has already delayed the process twice to avoid radicalizing Serbia. Ahtisaari said the day before the protest he saw no chance of the two sides agreeing, "even if I negotiated all my life." The UN has agreed to delay talks on its proposals until Feb. 21 at the request of Serbian President Boris Tadic. Ahtisaari hopes to present the plan to the UN Security Council in late March. Many of the protesters chanted: "No negotiation. Self-determination," demanding a referendum on independence, while throwing stones and sticks at police officers. The protest was organized by the Kosovo Albanian group Self Determination, which advocates immediate independence for the province and the withdrawal of the international community. Ahtisaari unveiled his proposal for Kosovo's future a week ago. The plan does not explicitly call for Kosovo's independence from Serbia, but spells out conditions for self-rule–including a flag, anthem, army, constitution and the right to apply for membership in international organizations. The plan, which needs approval by the UN Security Council to come into force, was endorsed by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders but rejected by Serbian officials in Belgrade who refuse to give up the province, considered Serbia's historic heartland. "We're demonstrating against Ahtisaari's package, which does not reflect the will of the people of Kosovo, but only the privileges of one minority, the Serb minority, which is being manipulated by Serbia," said Albin Kurti, the leader of the protesters, who was arrested by police during the demonstration. Protest organizers say the self-rule envisioned for Kosovo's Serb minority could lead to the creation of a separate Serb entity within Kosovo. Kurti also said the protesters were opposed to ethnic Albanian leaders who made "many concessions to Serbia without bringing independence." "Freedom does not come in packages," the protesters also chanted.