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Show Sunday, February 17. 2008 DAILY HERALD A9 Kosovo prepares to declare independence WilliamjJ(OLE ASSOCIATED PRESS W Mi PRISTINA, Serbia -Tiny Kosovo poor, mostly Muslim but feverishly braced itself Saturday for a historic declaration of independence from Serbia, a decade after a war that killed 10,000 people and years of limbo under U.N. rule. The province's bold bid for statehood, expected Sunday, and its quest for international recognition set up an ominous showdown with Serbia and Russia. Moscow contends the move will set a dangerous precedent for secessionist groups worldwide. Revelers took to the streets in giddy anticipation. Prime Minister H ashim Thaci a former leader of the guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army marked the eve of the new nation's birth by visiting a village where Serbian troops massacred ethnic Albanians in ft ;4S. - "Tomorrow is a historic day our effort to create a state," Thaci said in Prekaze, about 25 miles southeast of the capital, Prist ina. Thaci, a former leader of the Kosovo Libera tion Army, was expected to call a special session of parliament Sunday afternoon to declare an independent Republic of Kosovo and unveil a new flag and national crest. In a televised address later Saturday, Thaci said "everything is a done deal." "We are getting our independence," he said. "The world's map is changing." In the provincial capital Pristina, the icing was on celebratory cakes and bottles of "Independence" wine chilled as the new reality sank in. "Independence is a dream for all the people of Kosovo, M .4 in JT Kosovars celebrate in central Pristina, in the province of Kosovo, crush a rebellion, Kosovo prepared to declare independence on of a corner of Europe'Umg bloodied by ethnic strife. and I am very happy, like everybody," said Lumturije Bytyqi,20. But Kosovo's small Serb : population greeted the secession as though it were an amputation. Many vowed never to accept the loss of a region they consider the heart of their ancestral homeland. "I'm asking all the Serbs to reject the monster state of Kosovo, and to do everything to prevent its birth," said Marko Jaksic, a Kosovo Serb hard-linleader. g The dancing and that pulsed through e drum-beatin- 1. "-Hill-i- rf'' S. ( 1998. I the size of Connecticut, threatened to touch off a diplomatic crisis and possible unrest, Russian President Vladimir Putin, arguing that independence without U.N. approval would set a dangerous precedent for "frozen conflicts" across the former Soviet Union and around the world, pressured the Security Council to intervene. In the Serbian capital Belgrade, about 1,000 protesters waved Serbian flags and chanted "Kosovo is the heart of Serbia." Officials ruled out any military response, but warned that Serbia would downgrade relations with any foreign government that recognizes WRITER ..I.Lllll.LIIIPII UM.IHMJII1 Pristina awash in red and black Albanian flags with the distinctive double-heade- d eagle contrasted sharply with the gloom gripping the ethnically divided northern town of Kosovska Mitrovica, a Serb stronghold and a flashpoint for violence. "We are Serbs and this will always be Serbia," said a defiant Djordje Marie, 18. "We are ready to defend our territories at all costs, including with our lives." Although it is formally part of Serbia, Kosovo has been administered by the U.N. since l.L.I.JJUMU.l..l-ll..l..-J,JJJUllll1- Kosovo's independence. NATO, which still has 16,000 peacekeepers in "Kosovo, boosted patrols in the tense north and in scattered isolated enclaves where most of the Serbs live in hopes of easing the chances of violence, and international police deployed Saturday to back up local forces. Some Serbs have suffered reprisal attacks carried out by OARKO BANDICAssoclated Press ethnic Albanians seeking to Serbia, on Saturday. A decade after Serbia sent in troops to avenge the bloodshed of the 1998-9- 9 war. There were conSunday, a bold and historic move to carve a new country out cerns that edgy Serbs might pack up and leave, but the head of the influential Serbian continent's newest nation. That Orthodox Church appealed to 1999, when NATO airstrikes ended the late Yugoslav leader recognition was likely to come them Saturday to "stay in their homes and guard this holy SerSlobodan Milosevic's brutal Monday at a meeting of EU bian land." crackdown on ethnic Albanian foreign ministers in Brussels, Belgium. Many ethnic Albanian Kosseparatists. naThe EU gave its final ovars, their Ninety percent of Kosovo's 2 million people are ethnic Albationhood almost upon them, exSaturday to send an most moderate or nian mission to pressed disbelief that it would Muslims, the rest replace the current U.N. adactually happen. For others, ministration. The mission is Roman Catholics the joy was tempered by the and they see no reason to stay joined to designed to help build a police, what lies ahead: Building a the rest of Christian Orthodox justice and customs system for multiethnic society and lifting Kosovo. Serbia. themselves out of poverty and 50 percent unemployment. Thaci announced the creWith Russia, a staunch Serbian ally, determined to block ation of a new Cabinet minisBut new posters implored the bid, Kosovo looked to the ethnic Albanians, at try to focus on minority rights. people U.S. and key European powBut the imminent indepen- least to relax and enjoy the ers for swift recognition as the dence of the territory; roughly moment. d go-ahe- 1,800-memb- ..Jll x SpECOAU I f! ! Best Open Fit I Technology Value IT I 2 HEARING AIDS FOR THE PRICE OF 1 SI EMENS " " " Intuitive technology. Easy on the ears. integrates select key technologies in reliability and quality. With proprietary-technologies to protect from ear wax, sweat and moisture, as well as manufacturing' innovations to ensure long-terperformance, no other comparable solution offers as much as INTUIS. The INTUIS .dilliL ii m i Edison Stanford IWW WIV VUCil jjj Vl J Hearing Centers Your Hearing is Our Concern For a limited time 777N500W INTUIS Life is I Doctors Park 005 i Provo 330 j W. 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