Below The Beltway

Serbia proposes an ethnic division of Kosovo:
BRUSSELS — Serbia on Monday formally proposed dividing newly independent Kosovo along ethnic lines, a move that was immediately rebuffed by Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leadership in Pristina.
The proposal, submitted to the United Nations, is the culmination of a campaign by Serbia to entrench its political and administrative control [...]

A U.S. Intelligence official said yesterday that there was evidence that Serbian police let the attack on the U.S. Embassy happen:
The Serbian government decided to pull back its police in Belgrade last Thursday so that demonstrators could attack the U.S. and British embassies, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell told a Senate committee yesterday.
“We have [...]

Apparently, a group of Bosnian Serbs tried to attack the U.S. Consulate there:
BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Police fired tear gas at Bosnian Serb rioters Tuesday to prevent them from storming the building of the U.S. Consulate after protests against Kosovo’s independence.
A smaller group split away from the almost 10,000 peaceful protesters in Banja Luka [...]

Not that it should come as a surprise:
MOSCOW — Dmitri A. Medvedev, Russia’s first deputy prime minister and the presumptive successor to President Vladimir V. Putin, on Monday committed the Kremlin to long-term support in backing Serbia against an independent Kosovo.
Mr. Medvedev appeared in Belgrade, the Serbian capital, with Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica. It [...]

A member of the Serbian government has made the absurd claim that the United States is responsible for the violence that has erupted since Kosovo declared independence:
(CNN) — Serbian prosecutors said Saturday they were hunting rioters who targeted the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade leaving one person dead while a senior Serbian minister reportedly blamed Washington [...]

Over at Slate Christopher Hitchens writes that the independence of Kosovo means the death of a one of the final legacies of World War One:
 Someone with a good memory of the conversation once told me how Lord Carrington, then one of the “mediators” of the incipient post-Yugoslavia war, came to the conclusion that Slobodan Milosevic [...]

Not everyone on the streets of Belgrade yesterday was there to protest Kosovar independence:

Serbs in Kosovo are continuing to protest the nation’s independence:
(CNN) — Kosovo’s breakaway from Serbia provoked fresh unrest Friday as U.N. police were attacked by ethnic Serb demonstrators in northern Kosovo a day after angry demonstrations in the Serbian capital Belgrade left one person dead.
The Associated Press said protesters among a crowd of 5,000 trying [...]

Russia has just escalated the war of words over Kosovo’s independence from Serbia:
(CNN) — Russia has not ruled out using force to resolve the dispute over Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia if NATO forces breach the terms of their U.N. mandate, Moscow’s ambassador to NATO warned on Friday.
“If the EU works out a single [...]

A columnist for the Toronto Globe and Mail notes that Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia could give a boost to Quebec’s on-again-off-again independence movement:
QUEBEC CITY — Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence is a clear example of how powerless the federal government would be to stop Quebec from doing the same, according to influential Quebec [...]