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Belgrade hunting for rioters, US starts evacuation

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.
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