Kosovo prepares for historic day
17/02/2008| IslamWeb
Thousands of Kosovans have massed in anticipation of becoming the world's newest country, hours before a possible declaration of independence by the breakaway province.
Car horns blared and fireworks lit up the sky as people waving Albanian flags poured into the capital Pristina on Saturday night, in expectation that the territory's parliament would declare independence from Serbia later on Sunday.
Earlier on Saturday, Hashim Thaci, Kosovo's ethnic Albanian prime minister, said "the influence of Belgrade has ended."
"The success of Kosovo's independence as a new beginning will be clearly measured by respect for the rights of minorities, especially Serbs," he told the state public broadcaster.
Independence is expected to be declared at around 1400 GMT on Sunday to the strains of "Ode to Joy", the anthem of the European Union, according to local news media.
Another possibility is that after Thaci has asked the province's president for a special session of parliament to convene he will name a future date when Kosovo will secede.
The breakaway Serbian province has been run by a United Nations mission since 1999, when a Nato bombing campaign drove out forces loyal to Slobodan Milosevic, the late Serbian president, after an armed conflict with ethnic Albanian fighters.
Lieutenant-General Xavier de Marnhac, the commander of Nato peacekeepers in Kosovo, said his troops "will react and oppose any provocation that may happen during these days, whether from the Albanian or the Serb side".
New laws
North of the River Ibar, Serbs held a day of prayer and protest to demonstrate they will never accept the secession of land where a 90 per cent Albanian majority has struggled for its own state for almost two decades.
Pristina expects countries including the United States and several EU members to announce their recognition of the new nation on Monday.
On Friday, Kosovo's parliament convened to approve a procedure to adopt new laws that would come into effect upon independence, including measures to guarantee the safety of Serbs.
For its part, the EU on Saturday launched a 2,000-member police and judicial mission to help facilitate Kosovo's transition to independence.
'Illegal secession'
They delivered a petition to the embassy of European Union president Slovenia, condemning EU support for Kosovo's "illegal" secession.
Al Jazeera's Nazanin Moshiri in the Serbian capital said that while there was widespread opposition to the secession there was little appetite for military intervention and the focus would be on the legality of the move.
"There may be moves [from Serbia] trying through their key ally Russia and through the UN security council trying to get some last minute diplomacy possibly to keep some parts of northern Kosovo within Serbia," she said.
"But there is very little the government in Belgrade can really do to prevent the declaration of independence and very little to stop Western powers from recognising it."
In the divided northern city of Mitrovica, Milan Ivanovic, the Kosovo Serbs' leader, has rejected the EU police mission and predicted a public boycott.
"The EU mission is not welcome. We will boycott it and use all methods of civic resistance," he said.
Serbs make up 120,000 of Kosovo's 1.8 million people and they want to stay a part of Serbia.
On Friday Boris Tadic, the Serbian president, said he "will never give up fighting for our Kosovo and I will, with all my might, fight for Serbia to join the European Union."
PHOTO CAPTION
Albanians walk past Albanian flags in celebration of the upcoming proclamation of independence of Kosovo, in Tirana February 16, 2008.