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Serbs gear up for further demonstrations

"With Kosovo now the gun has been cocked and no one knows when and where the shot will ring out."

Anatoly Safonov, Russian envoy

Kosovo marked its first full week of independence with prayers and protests yesterday as outraged Serbs geared up for demonstrations across Europe.

Serbs refusing to let Kosovo secede from Serbia without a fight planned to stage their seventh straight day of protests in the ethnically divided northern town of Kosovska Mitrovica, where UN police and NATO-led peacekeepers maintained a presence aimed at discouraging any violence.

Serbs also planned rallies in Geneva, Vienna and other European capitals. Saturday's protests were peaceful -- a stark difference from the rioting that broke out on Thursday in Belgrade, where protesters stormed the US embassy and set part of it ablaze.

In Belgrade, fury over Kosovo's Feb. 17 declaration of independence showed no signs of abating.

Branislav Ristivojevic, an adviser to nationalist Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, said the only way to ease tensions in the Balkans would be for the US, "which has produced the crisis," to convene an emergency session of the UN Security Council and "reaffirm" Kosovo as part of Serbian territory.

In the Serb enclave of Gracanica, locals said yesterday that they felt abandoned by the Serbian government and were fearful of reprisal attacks by the ethnic Albanians who surround their village.

"We are afraid. Every night that we lie in bed we don't know in the morning what is going to happen," said Jovanka Petrovic, among worshippers at Gracanica's sole Orthodox church. "We are afraid to go to sleep. We are not free."

"There is no more Serbia. We have lost everything," said Ana Ivanovic, another worshipper.

But ethnic Albanians exulted in their independence and held out hope that the unrest and uncertainty would subside.

"People are still celebrating," said Artan Dedushaj. "It's only been a week and I think it's too early to see any changes in our new country. People keep celebrating every night, but this is something that all Albanians have waited centuries for -- and changes will come soon."

Meanwhile, the EU has withdrawn staff from Mitrovica, an EU envoy said on Saturday.

"We have temporarily brought back our personnel, but we will maintain our office in the north," EU envoy Peter Feith told reporters.

A top aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday said that Kosovo's move would strengthen terrorist forces.

"With Kosovo now the gun has been cocked and no one knows when and where the shot will ring out," said Anatoly Safonov, Putin's envoy for international cooperation against terrorism and organized crime, in an interview with the Russian news agency Interfax.

Safonov drew parallels with the Munich agreement of 1938, which permitted the German annexation of a part of what was then Czechoslovakia.
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