Would be interesting to see how this event gets spun, whether all Serbs get blamed for the actions of a few, just as in the past....
Some 250,000 people, according to city authorities, attended Thursday's peaceful official rally in Belgrade, listening to speeches and songs in a melancholy atmosphere. Serbia's Interior Ministry put the number at half a million.

But several hundred young male rioters split off, smashed their way into the U.S. embassy and set fire to part of the building, the second time in a week that it had beePublish Postn attacked.

A crowd of about 1,000 cheered "Serbia, Serbia" as one ripped the Stars and Stripes off its pole and others jumped up and down on a balcony, holding a Serbian flag.

Some 130 people were injured in street clashes, including 50 police and some journalists, and almost 200 were arrested. European and U.S. leaders criticized police for a slow reaction.

Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica, whose fiery anti-Western rhetoric has been at the forefront of Serbia's diplomatic battle to keep Kosovo, said the peaceful rally "was magnificent and showed what the people of Serbia thought about Kosovo."

In a statement to state news agency Tanjug, he condemned the violence, saying it "directly inflicts damage to our fight" to protect national interests.

Liberal commentators have attacked him for stoking up tension in the hope that the West would back off from supporting Kosovo so as not to risk a nationalist backlash in Serbia.

"This was a disgrace, it was hooliganism of the worst kind," said Miroslav Markovic, walking his dog past looted, broken kiosks near Belgrade's train station. "The government should have been prepared and not have encouraged these people." Publish Post

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080222/wl_nm/kosovo_serbia_dc_75