Serbia: Anger, disbelief over proclamation of Kosovo independence  · Global Voices
Ljubisa Bojic

Orthodox Church, cc-licensed photo from Flickr by decafinata.
Kosovo provincial parliament declared unilateral independence from Serbia, yesterday. In his reaction Vojislav Kostunica, prime minister of Serbia, criticized America for inspiring these acts against a sovereign country. He said:
“The United States have also humiliated the European Union, and forced it to trample on the principles it is built upon,” Koštunica added, and warned that Europe, “which has lowered its head”, will be responsible “for all the serious consequences that Kosovo's independence carries with it.”
Kosovo and Metohija is province in southern Serbia. Metohija means monastery land. This reefers to great number of historical monuments mostly represented in about 2000 Christian orthodox monasteries.
Ivan Jankovic sums up all the news that stroke southern Europe yesterday:
The declaration was celebrated loudly with firecrackers and music on the streets of Pristina and other cities in the province. On the other side [in Serbia], it was not so happy. Except few bomb explosions in front of UNMIK building in [northern] Kosovska Mitrovica [where Serbs are majority], riots happened in Belgrade, Novi Sad and other cities. Hooligans […] were mad, so they crashed everything that came in their way. They stoned Slovenian and American embassies, McDonald restaurants etc. […] This caused great material damage.
Petarj cited local news and president of Socalist Party of Serbia, Ivica Dacic:
[…] [Less than 100] of citizens and police have been wounded in street clashes that broke out after unilateral declaration of Kosovo independence. Protesters attacked police in front of American and Slovenian embassies. […] [Dacic said:] “We should protect all foreign embassies in Belgrade, but those countries should think about their attitudes. They took 15% of territory from us. What should we do? Should We Applaud them? Breaking story was that crowd destroyed a kiosk. Kiosks are destroyed every day, but Kosovo is taken from us only once […].
Popkitchen titledher blog post “confused”. She adds:
[…] There is no one reason why I would wish to have smaller […] country than it is. The fact, that international law is neglected indicates how unimportant we are […].
Zivot says:
[…]Of course I am against independence. This is similar to one simple situation. Think one person coming to my house and taking away one of the rooms from me. So if that person stays there so long and finally proclaims the room his or her own.  My comparison is ridiculous, because this [Kosovo] problem is greater in its proportions. […]
He then cites words of medieval Serb nobleman Stefan Nemanja ):
[…]Where our word is heard […], know my child, that is still our land, no matter who governs it.  Emperors change, countries vanish, but people and their language stay, so conquered people and land will come back to the people and country they originate to”
Cika Miloje reacts to B92 blog post titled Independent Kosovo by writing:
[…] Kosovo was under Turkish governance since Battle of Kosovo (in 13th century), all up to 20th century. This time, we shall wait less, until Muslims get into some kind of big conflict with America. Taiwan is produced by America so it can defend its “independence” from China. Relations of China and Taiwan are getting closer and it may take few decades until they merge on economical grounds. East Germany got stolen from Germany. Marionette regime was placed in power there. It lasted 50 years, and now the country is united. I know the latest news sound like Armageddon to us, but history is long term process, and everything changes. […]
Mariopan reacts to the same post by foreseeing implications of this unilateral decision:
[…] This is not end of anything […], this is beginning. As soon as tomorrow or day after tomorrow, every ethnic group in the world will start terrorizing someone and proclaiming independence of some territory. I am so glad this circus will kick off around the globe so [they will understand implications of their actions when its late]. The [international community] tried hard to find a model to make this happen. So they made it and deserve to suffer all the consequences. […]
In his personal blog Avram says:
[…] It’s all the same to me. I am not so patriotic [to say out laud, all the time] “Kosovo is Serbia but I see double standards applied by the West, in first row, USA and EU. They broke UN declaration which guarantees territorial integrity to all internationally recognized countries. To be frank I would love to see Kosovo independence triggers independence declarations of all autonomous regions around the world, like that one in Spain. Abut republic of Srpska [entity of Bosnia Herzegovina], I am not sure what the situation is there. This is not autonomous province like Kosovo, but it would be nice if they could proclaim independence too. If Kosovo can do it, why can’t the others?
This is only small chunk of reactions which are written throughout Serbian blogosphere as we speak.