Thaci: Kosovo won't be partitioned

PanARMENIAN.Net - Kosovo's Prime Minister on rejected a Serbian government proposal to partition Kosovo between its minority Serbs and dominant ethnic Albanians, saying Belgrade must accept that all of the territory is independent.



Hashim Thaci said Kosovo's territorial integrity is guaranteed by NATO and other international organizations and Belgrade cannot govern areas where minority Serbs live, as it proposed earlier this month.



"Kosovo is an independent, sovereign and democratic country," Thaci told reporters in the capital, Pristina. "Belgrade has to understand this."



More than 3,000 Kosovo Serbs gathered Tuesday in the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica to call upon the Serbian army and police forces to enforce the ethnic division.



Speaking before the crowd, Milan Ivanovic, a leader of Kosovo's Serbs, urged Belgrade to invite Russian forces to protect Serbs in the areas where they live in Kosovo. Russia has sided with Serbia in opposing Kosovo's Feb. 17 declaration of independence, the AP reports.



The Serbs, who have held daily protests since the declaration, burned an American flag to display their angry at the United States' support for Kosovo's statehood.



The United States and most countries in the European Union have recognized Kosovo as an independent state, but Serbia's authorities say the declaration was illegal under international law.