(18 Feb 2008)

Mitrovica
1. Various top shots of Kosovo Serbs demonstrating against Kosovo's declaration of independence
2. Close of demonstrators burning US flag
3. Protesters burning and stamping on Albanian flag
4. United Nations police dressed in riot gear
5. Close of placard
6. Mid of protester
7. Wide of police
8. Top shot of rally

Gracanica
9. Wide of Serb protesters holding flag
10. Wide of Serbian Orthodox church
11. Various of protesters outside church
12. SOUNDBITE: (Serbian) Agoje Kuraci, Kosovo Serb:
"This is all a plot between (Kosovo President) Hashim Thaci and (US) President (George W. ) Bush. We will never let go of Kosovo. Kosovo is not independent and Kosovo will remain a part of Serbia. They are fascists if they think they can take Kosovo away from us."
13. Wide of protesters
14. Wide of NATO helicopter in sky
15. Orthodox Serbs taking part in demonstration

Zubin Potok
16. Wide of street and sign reading: "Zubin Potok"
17. Various of burnt-out car outside un building

STORYLINE:

Thousands of Kosovo Serbs, chanting "This is Serbia," demonstrated in the divided northern town of Kosovska Mitrovica on Monday, a day after the ethnic Albanian leadership declared the province's independence from Serbia.

Carrying banners reading "Russia Help!" and posters of US flags with Nazi swastikas scribbled over them, about five-thousand protesters demanded that the parts of Kosovo where Serbs live remain within Serbia.

AP Television footage showed a group of protesters burning US and Albanian flags.

The crowds, singing nationalist songs, marched to a bridge spanning a river that divides Kosovska Mitrovica in two, with Serbs living in the north and ethnic Albanians in the south of the mining town.

They were confronted by NATO peacekeepers guarding the bridge, but there were no violent incidents.

Another 800 Serbs also staged a noisy demonstration outside a Serbian Orthodox church in the Serb-dominated enclave of Gracanica outside Pristina.

"This is all a plot between (Kosovo President) Hashim Thaci and (US) President (George W. ) Bush. We will never let go of Kosovo. Kosovo is not independent and Kosovo will remain a part of Serbia. They are fascists if they think they can take Kosovo away from us," said one protester, Agoje Kuraci.

Russia has supported its ally Serbia's claim to Kosovo, while the US has supported Kosovo's drive for independence.

Tensions have soared in Serb-controlled areas representing 15 percent of Kosovo's territory after the declaration of independence on Sunday.

Earlier, an explosion destroyed a United Nations car in Zubin Potok, a village about 10 kilometres (six miles) northwest of Kosovska Mitrovica, a local police spokesman said.

An explosive device, probably a hand grenade, had been hurled at a UN court.

There were no injuries, but the car was destroyed, the spokesman said.

AP Television footage showed the burnt out car and damaged building.

It was the second explosion in the Serb-controlled region of Kosovo.

The first explosion rocked a UN building near Kosovska Mitrovica, causing slight damage but no injuries.

On Sunday, lawmakers achieved what a bloody 1998-99 separatist war with Serbian forces could not: They pronounced the disputed province the Republic of Kosovo, and pledged to make it a "democratic, multiethnic state."

The proclamation sent thousands of jubilant ethnic Albanians into the streets overnight, where they waved red-and-black Albanian flags, fired guns and fireworks into the air and danced.


tolerate violence.

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