U.S. Diplomats On Alert After Attacks

The U.S. ambassador to Serbia has asked the State Department to evacuate some diplomats from the embassy in Belgrade following an attack on the compound.

The envoy, Cameron Munter, has asked for the department to implement an "ordered departure" of all nonessential personnel and the families of all American staff at the embassy, a senior State Department official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the department has not yet approved the request.

The step comes as U.S. diplomats around the Balkans are on alert, girding for more anti-American violence after Serb rioters stormed and torched the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade.

Protests over the declaration of independence by the former Serbian province of Kosovo have increased tensions across the region. And new mass demonstrations are expected following recognition of Kosovo by the United States and other Western countries.

In the northern Kosovo town of Kosovska Mitrovica Friday, United Nations police guarding a key bridge were attacked by angry Serbs hurling stones, glass bottles and firecrackers.

The Serb demonstrators chanted "Kosovo is ours!" on their fifth day of protests since Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leaders declared independence.

American embassies in at least four former Yugoslav republics have stepped up security, ordering diplomats to stay home or limit their movements and warning Americans to use extreme caution outside.

A day after the fiery attack on the Belgrade embassy compound - in which at least one protester was killed - the mission was closed and U.S. diplomats in the Serbian capital were told not to leave their houses.

"U.S. Embassy officials have been advised to stand fast in their residences and avoid movement," the embassy said in a notice to American citizens in Serbia. "American citizens are urged to avoid the areas of demonstrations and to exercise extreme caution."

Kosovo's prime minister on Friday denounced the violent protests in Belgrade as reminiscent of Slobodan Milosevic's wartime rule, telling The Associated Press in an exclusive interview that Serbia must reject "the mentality of the past." [See below.]

"U.S. citizens are urged to avoid large crowds, maintain a low profile and review their personal protective measures," the embassy said, adding that it would also be closed on Monday.

In Podgorica, the capital of neighboring Montenegro, which was once joined with Serbia, the U.S. Embassy and international school shut down ahead of a mass protest that is feared could lead to violence, and it warned of vandalism against U.S. citizens and their property.

"Demonstrators may arrive in large numbers from other parts of Montenegro or Serbia by all modes of transportation throughout the day," the embassy said in a notice. "American citizens are urged to exercise extreme caution."

"The U.S. Embassy in Podgorica is now aware of at least two cases of vandalism directed at a vehicle with U.S. license plates and a vehicle with license plates from the municipality of Ulcinj, an area with a majority Albanian population," it said. "American citizens are encouraged to exercise caution when driving their vehicles."

In Bosnia, the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo told diplomats to defer travel until further notice to the city of Banja Luka, where protesters on Thursday hurled rocks and stones at the U.S. embassy branch.

In Kosovo itself, the State Department advised U.S. citizens against any travel to the northern part of the new country, where ethnic Serbs predominate. U.S. Ambassador Charles English also said that he decided to temporarily close the consulate in the northwestern city of Banja Luka, a day after protesters burned the U.S. flag and tried to storm the consulate building. Bosnian Serb officials could not discount the possibility of further violence.

Kosovo Official: Riots Were "A Reaction Against A Democratic World"

In his first interview since Kosovo declared independence on Sunday, Kosovo's prime minister Hashim Thaci called Thursday night's storming of the U.S. Embassy and attacks on other foreign compounds "terrible," and said it harkened back to the former Serbian leader's bloody 1998-99 crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo.

"The pictures of yesterday in Belgrade were pictures of Milosevic's time," Thaci, a former guerrilla leader of the now-disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army, said at his office in Pristina, the capital.

"What we saw were terrible things," he said. "It was a reaction against a democratic world."

But Thaci expressed confidence that NATO's peacekeeping force - and Kosovo's swift recognition by the U.S. and key European powers - would ensure the new nation remains secure.

"What we saw yesterday in Belgrade is past," he said. "My message to Serbs in Serbia is to look forward and not to work with the mentality of the past, with the mentality of Milosevic's time."

Pro-Western politicians accused hard-line nationalists in the government of Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica of inciting the violence in order to demonstrate Serbia's anger at Kosovo's independence bid. The European Union said Serbia's negotiations to join the bloc would be put on hold.

NATO forces tightened security on Kosovo's border with Serbia on Friday in an effort to keep protesters from crossing into the new country.

"Definitely there will be peace and stability," Thaci told the AP. "The security of Kosovo is a guarantee of NATO and no one can attack. Everything is under control."

He expressed hope that the violence that has broken out daily at border posts since Sunday's declaration will gradually ease as peacekeepers step up patrols and the EU deploys a 1,800-member police and justice mission.

Thaci, however, brushed aside concerns that Kosovo's statehood might not stand the test of time.

"Everything is clear. We have massive recognition," he said. "Kosovo is an independent state - sovereign and democratic."

"Kosovo has very good relations with all neighbors, and in the future we hope to have good relations with a democratic Serbia, too," he said.

Thaci is reviled in Serbia and among Kosovo's 100,000-member Serb minority because of his KLA past. During the war, he dressed in combat fatigues and used the nom-de-guerre "The Snake."

But on Friday, sporting a dark tailored suit, a crisp white shirt and a red pinstriped necktie and seated next to the Republic of Kosovo's new flag, he reached out to Serbs on both sides of the border.

"My message to Serbs of Kosovo is to continue to be part of the institutions of Kosovo," Thaci said. "I call them to join us in our vision for a new Kosovo, and for Kosovo to be a part of the EU and NATO."

"Kosovo is a country of everybody," he said.

Russia Lashes Out At West Over Kosovo

Moscow's envoy to NATO warned Friday that Russia may conclude it needs to resort to "brute military force" to earn respect on the world scene if all EU nations recognize Kosovo's independence and NATO oversteps its authority in Kosovo.

Dmitry Rogozin called the move to recognize Kosovo a "strategic mistake" but assured NATO that Russia was not planning to get involved in any armed confrontation over Kosovo.

He said Western countries were ignoring international law by recognizing Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia.

"If the European Union works out a single position and NATO goes beyond its current mandate in Kosovo, these organizations will conflict with the United Nations," Rogozin said in a televised hookup from Brussels.

"And we, I think, will proceed from an assumption that to be respected, we have to use brute military force," he said.

The Foreign Ministry's envoy to the Balkans, Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, told the Interfax news agency that Kosovo Serbs' rejection of Pristina's declaration could effectively split Kosovo in half.

"There is a prospect of self-isolation of Kosovo Serbs who don't accept the unilateral recognition of Kosovo's independence by Pristina," Botsan-Kharchenko was quoted as saying. "And that may lead to the effective division of Kosovo."

Rogozin said Moscow was alarmed by reports that authorities in Kosovo had closed the border with Serbia.

Local authorities patrol Kosovo's borders but main responsibility for security lies with NATO peacekeepers. NATO has more than 16,000 troops in Kosovo.

On Friday, NATO peacekeepers sent back several busloads of Serbs seeking to join a rally in the Kosovo Serb stronghold of Kosovska Mitrovica on Friday.

Rogozin said Moscow will monitor whether watch NATO forces in Kosovo overstep their U.N. mandate.

"Under no circumstances should the alliance get involved in politics," said Rogozin, a former leader of a Russian nationalist party. "It must remain neutral."

Despite escalating tensions with the West over Kosovo, he assured NATO that Russia would not get involved in any armed confrontation.

"I can guarantee you that there will be no war between Russia and NATO over Kosovo," though the Kosovo issue "will certainly hamper our dialogue," he said.

Rogozin said some Western nations made "a strategic mistake, similar to the invasion of Iraq," by backing Kosovo's independence.

"We are talking about the destruction of the international security system. This threatens to inflame conflicts in all parts of the world," he said.

Rogozin called the violent protests in the Serbian capital "national wrath that will be hard to curb," and criticized the West for making "a step toward a very cruel and emotional ethnic conflict" in the Balkans.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said Moscow regretted the violence in Belgrade. But blamed nations' decision to back Kosovo, saying they "should have realized the consequences," the Interfax news agency reported.

More than a dozen nations have recognized Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia, including the United States, Britain, France and Germany.

Russia, China and others, including EU member Spain, have rejected the unilateral declaration by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership.

The U.S. ambassador to NATO said Washington was "very disappointed" by Russia's hostility over Kosovo.

It is "very, very important that responsible states, responsible democracies urge calm" following Kosovo's declaration. "That is what we should be working on: seeking together, not inciting hatreds," envoy Victoria Nuland said.

Predominantly ethnic Albanian Kosovo, which has been governed by a U.N. mission and patrolled by NATO peacekeepers since 1999, had been widely expected to declare independence from Serbia after internationally mediated talks on its future fell apart last year.