Serbia's top state prosecutor said yesterday that authorities were hunting for participants in riots that targeted the US and other embassies and Western commercial interests.
"We are collecting evidence and are identifying the culprits," Slobodan Radovanovic said in a statement.
Police said they had arrested nearly 200 rioters on Thursday night during the worst violence seen on Belgrade streets since the ouster of former strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.
MISSIONS ATTACKED
Rioters protesting international recognition of Kosovo's independence torched several offices of the US embassy's consular section and attacked the missions of Germany, Belgium, Turkey, Croatia and other countries. One person died and more than 150 were injured in the violence, in which nearly 100 stores were looted.
On Friday, the US State Department ordered nonessential embassy employees and families of US diplomats in Belgrade to leave Serbia.
"We are not sufficiently confident that they are safe here," US Ambassador Cameron Munter said in an interview.
The decision to implement what is known as an "ordered departure" would affect some of the 80 to 100 Americans who work at the embassy, but it was not clear how many family members would be affected.
Current plans call for them to remain abroad for seven to 10 days, the embassy said.
Other embassies said they had no plans to withdrawal dependents or staff from Belgrade.
The US and the EU have warned Serbia to boost protection of foreign diplomats and missions, and the UN Security Council has unanimously condemned the attacks.
Serbian leaders have appealed for calm and President Boris Tadic convened the National Security Council to consider how to prevent further outbreaks of violence.
"We are intensively engaged with a large number of personnel [in finding] the culprits and expect the work to be completed soon," Radovanovic said.
But hardline nationalist ministers continued to condemn the US and other nations that have recognized the independence of Kosovo, which Serbs consider to be their historical heartland.
CULPRIT
"The United States is the main culprit ... for all those violent acts," said Serbian Minister for Kosovo Slobodan Samardzic.
Protests over Kosovo's declaration of independence have increased tensions throughout the region.
On Friday, angry demonstrators confronted UN police in Kosovska Mitrovica, an ethnically divided town in northern Kosovo. Mobs chanting "Kosovo is ours!" hurled stones, bottles and firecrackers at the UN forces, who were protecting a bridge that divides Serbs from ethnic Albanians in the town. No one appeared to be injured.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2