(31 Dec 2008) SHOTLIST
Gracanica, Kosovo
1. Wide of sign reading: Gracanica
2. Mid of market with New Year's decorations
3. Close of security barrier with peacekeepers in background
4. Wide of church guarded by peacekeepers
5. Close of soldier with automatic rifle
6. Mid of NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) peacekeepers on foot patrol
7. Mid of cross on top of church
8. Wide of KFOR peacekeepers walking
9. MId of peacekeeper's boots as he walks
10. Wide of street scene
11. SOUNDBITE: (Serbian) Ranko Antic, 54, local Serb:
"There's no money. You can't expect anything good. There won't be any lavish celebrations. We get minimal assistance. As far as the situation goes it's calm at the moment, but you see what happened in Mitrovica just last night."
12. Wide of municipal offices with Serb flag
13. Mid of woman selling festive decorations
14. SOUNDBITE: (Serbian) Vlada Savic, 31, local Serb:
"I expect things to get better, for the people here to live a bit better and to be safer, for politics to work in our favour. What is going on is a catastrophe."
Pristina, Kosovo
15. Wide of city streets
16. Wide of main street with Christmas tree
17. Mid of people walking
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Abit Hoxha, 26, ethnic Albanian:
"I don't believe this can be sorted out in days or weeks or even months. It's been only ten years since the war now and I expect these tensions to go on for at least another five years."
19. Wide of Pristina streets
20. Sign reading: (Serbian) Koha Ditore
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Agron Bajrami, Editor in Chief, daily Koha Ditore newspaper:
"There's always capacity for trouble as long as there is unclear situation with the Serb minority and with Serbia and as long as the international community itself is not clear in the position towards independence. I think that we have seen the majority of the Western states have recognised and are fully supporting the independence here, but not all of the Western states and majority of the world states of UN nations is not still convinced that they should recognise this state. So we will have to see whether there will be more clarity into the vision which the international community has about Kosovo and the region in general and more clarity or more solution towards reaching a certain agreement with Serbia regarding the new reality here. Of course, (the) economy will play a big role because we have seen that the whole of the world is having troubles and we are not an island. We are not going to be able to live outside of that troublesome year 2009."
22. Wide of Pristina
STORYLINE
New Year's Eve finds Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority and its Serbian minority preparing for the celebrations separately, wrapping up a year that saw the former Serbian province become the world's newest state amid ethnic tensions that continue to split the two.
Just hours before the New Year celebrations began, hundreds of Serbs hurled stones and set ablaze several Albanian shops in retaliation for a stabbing attack on a Serb man in the ethnically divided city of Kosovska Mitrovica.
An ethnic Albanian man was also wounded by gunfire in the melee, but police could not say if he was directly targeted by rioters.
The attacks triggered North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's (NATO) peacekeeping troops, Kosovo Force (KFOR), to put additional forces on the ground to prevent further rioting.
The incident was the latest instance to raise fears over the new country's stability as it enters the new year.
But the mood was sour for the remaining Serbs who oppose Kosovo's statehood and seek to further Serbia's foothold in Kosovo.
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