Troops ready for fresh Kosovo protests

Nato troops closed roads between Serbia and northern Kosovo and armed UN police guarded wrecked border checkpoints today preparing for more protests by Serbs incensed by the country’s declaration of independence.

For three days Kosovo’s Serbs have shown their anger by destroying UN and Nato property, setting off small bombs and staging noisy rallies.

In Jarnije and Brnjak, protesters used plastic explosives and bulldozers to wreck border checkpoint posts and tipped over metal sheds housing UN customs service offices. They vandalised and torched passport control booths and UN border patrol vehicles.

Serbs planned more protests today to express their anger at the swift recognition of Kosovo’s independence by world powers including the Britain, the United States, France – and now Germany.

Nato troops sealed off the northern border, concerned that Serbian militants could cross over to fight in Kosovo.

Serbs make up only a tiny fraction of Kosovo’s two million people, more than 90 per cent of whom are ethnic Albanians. Most of Kosovo’s Serbs live in the north, near the Serbian border.

Kosovo has not been under Belgrade’s control since 1999, when Nato halted a Serbian crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists. A UN mission has governed Kosovo since, with more than 16,000 Nato troops and KFOR, a multi-ethnic force, policing the province.

But Serbia – and Kosovo’s Serbs – refuse to give up Kosovo, a territory Serbs considered the ancient cradle of their state and religion.

Kosovo’s unilateral declaration was widely expected after internationally mediated talks between the two sides failed last year.

In Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet today approved recognition of Kosovo as an independent state.

But some nations – including Russia, China and Spain – back Serbia in rejecting the move as a violation of international law.

In Vienna, a Serbian defence official repeated that Serbia will not use force to retake Kosovo. But he warned ethnic Albanians against “provocations.”

The EU today formally launched its mission in Kosovo, which is expected have 1,800 members to help the new nation build its police force and judiciary, a decision Russia sharply criticised

Kosovo Serbs said they will regard the EU mission as an “occupying force” if it deploys in northern Kosovo.