Serbs vent ire over Kosovo independence

By Ellie Tzortzi

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Protesters took to the streets in key Serb centres across the Balkans on Monday to vent their anger at Kosovo's declaration of independence a day earlier.

A march by several thousand people in Banja Luka, capital of the Bosnian Serb Republic, turned violent as protesters -- who demanded their own independence from Bosnia -- threw stones at the U.S., French and German consulates.

"Kosovo is Serbian", "Serbia is one joint state", read placards they carried. They chanted "Kill, Kill Shiptars", a pejorative name for Albanians, and praised Ratko Mladic, the indicted war crimes fugitive who led Bosnian Serbs in the 1992-95 war against Bosnian Muslims and Croats.

The protests there fizzled out before France became the first major country to recognise Kosovo but police in the Serbian capital Belgrade, where various marches were planned later in the day, were on alert.

Earlier, some 7,000 people gathered in Republic Square, the heart of the capital, carrying Serbian flags and singing anti-Albanian slogans.

"This country is getting smaller and smaller. We are marching to show that we're against it," said Jelena, 24, a student who added Serbs could not abandon their religious heritage in Kosovo, home to many ancient Orthodox monasteries.

Some of the demonstrators raised their hands in a Nazi salute, but most sang anti-Albanian slogans.

The march was more peaceful than the night before when rioters pelted the U.S. embassy with stones and attacked the mission of current European Union president Slovenia, that have both backed Kosovan secession.