KEY POINTS:
Kosovo Albanians proclaimed independence from Serbia overnight, ending a long chapter in the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia.
Kosovo is the sixth state carved from the Serb-dominated federation since 1991, after Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Montenegro, and the last to escape Serbia's embrace.
The Serbs have vowed never to give up the land where their history goes back 1000 years.
They will reject independence in defiance of the Albanians and their Western backers and will keep their grip on strongholds in northern Kosovo, making the ethnic partition of the new state a reality from the start.
"The influence of Belgrade has ended," Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said.
"The success of Kosovo's independence as a new beginning will be clearly measured by respect for the rights of minorities, especially Serbs," the former guerrilla promised.
Triumphant celebrations began hours before the declaration by Parliament early today NZ time. The snowy streets of the capital were packed. Cavalcades of cars circled with horns blaring and Albanian flags in every hand.
Eighty tonnes of fireworks have been imported for Kosovo's biggest party in its history - and that's just for the official celebration.
The European Union announced that it will provide a 2000-strong police and justice mission to the fledgling nation. It will include 700 police as well as judges, prosecutors and other legal experts, and will replace United Nations administrators over a 120-day period.
The announcement from Brussels drew immediate condemnation from the Serbian Government in Belgrade. Slobodan Samardzic, Serbia's Minister for Kosovo, called the decision "shameful".
The mission "officially recognises the independence of Kosovo", he said, "which remains an inalienable part of Serbia". Albanians in the divided northern city of Mitrovica will be partying as hard as anyone. The southern part of the city is festooned with Albanian flags, the roads strung with banners which declare: "Gezuar Pavaresia" - or "happy independence".
Yesterday, the festive mood had already taken hold; 14-year-old Mervan Gashi strode proudly with a double-eagle flag draped over his shoulders.
"We've waited so long for this day," said his friend Ilir Becaj, 13. "We're feeling great, and we're not worried about security because KFor" - the Nato force garrisoned across Kosovo since the end of its civil war - "will protect us."
"It's going to be the biggest party in the history of the world," declared Hajdari Hajdar, an elderly man in a beret and long black coat. "We've waited centuries for this. We are only in this miserable condition because of the Serbs, if it wasn't for them we'd be like the United States. For hundreds of years we've sent all our wealth to Belgrade. Not any more!"
But on the far side of the shabby bridge that both joins and divides this gritty industrial city, the mood was very different. Since the war ended in 1999, Mitrovica has been the most explosive corner of the Balkans, the flashpoint where paramilitaries enforced a strict ethnic split. Serbians live on the north bank of the River Ibar and the suburbs that climb the steep hills overlooking the town, and Albanian Kosovars are confined to suburbs south of the bridge. The communities are almost within spitting distance, but for eight years they have kept to themselves.
Violence erupted here in March 2004 when two dozen people were killed and hundreds of houses destroyed under the noses of Nato troops. That showed how easily one spark can start a conflagration. On Friday a bomb went off in the Serbian quarter, in a house next to the offices of the EU mission. There were no injuries.
The Serbian paramilitaries, who years ago forced Albanians out of their homes and across the bridge, hung out in the Dolce Vita coffee bar, strategically located within sight of the bridge. Yesterday this smoky den was crammed with short-haired, muscled young men, but the mood was laconic.
"For the moment things are quiet," said Alexander Veselinovich, 36, an electrical engineer born in the town. "But people are a little bit afraid because they have had negative experiences with these types of celebrations and they don't know what to expect. We accept UNMIK police who patrol here" - the UN force - "but we will never accept Pristina's institutions." Nor, he swears, will they accept the new policemen who are on their way from Brussels.
As usual in the Balkans, each side blames the other for violence. But what is indisputable is that fear or dislike of solitude have induced thousands of Serbians from the enclaves dotted across Kosovo to flee to the haven of northern Mitrovica. They have set up little shops in prefabricated kiosks that line the main road, and their desperation has made them difficult neighbours. "They have lost everything," Veselinovich points out, "and now they are trying to grab everything." And they are often hostile to the Albanians. In last month's presidential elections, 75 per cent of Mitrovica's Serbians voted for the ultra-nationalist Tomislav Nikolic. They are in no mood for conciliation which gives Mitrovica an air of volatility.
Despite all the fine words, ethnic integration has never been a realistic goal in Kosovo. What distinguishes this from earlier Balkan flashpoints is that the Serbians were perceived as, and often behaved like, arrogant colonialists. "The Kosovo Serbs don't speak Albanian," the political scientist Slobodan Markovic pointed out in Belgrade this week, "so there is no possibility of integration."
Solid in their conviction of superiority and their ancient right to this land, the Serbians expected the Albanian Muslim majority to kowtow to their greater power and wealth. And for generations they did so.
Now, at last, the Albanian Kosovars are officially in the driving seat. Today they get their own flag, their own national anthem; a constitution is under construction; and a new Kosovo Protection Force will be controlled by the Kosovo government. Embassies are expected to open in the US, Japan and the EU, including Britain.
- INDEPENDENT, REUTERS
KOSOVO
Today: Declaring independence from Serbia
Who lives there now?
The population of just under two million is split between an Albanian majority and a Serb minority who regard it as part of Serbia. Before the war of 1998-1999 it was Serbia's southern province and 120,000 ethnic Serbs live there, many north of the Ibar River. Half of that number live under Nato protection in scattered enclaves south of the river.
Will there be violence?
Serbia seems unlikely to intervene directly, and the Serbian population outside of Mitrovica is very isolated. While there seems no obvious incentive for Albanian-on-Serb violence on a wide scale, it always remains a possibility.
How will the world react?
Serbia said an independence declaration would be "a flagrant and unilateral act of secession of a part of the territory of the Republic of Serbia and ... therefore null and void". Russia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro are also likely to reject it. The United States and most EU countries were expected to recognise Kosovo. Cyprus, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Greece are against it.
