Serb tantrums lead to violence against US embassy

CNN:

Violence broke out Thursday as tens of thousands of Serbs protested Kosovo independence and reportedly set fire to the facade of the U.S. embassy in Belgrade, according to news agencies.

Riot police fired tear gas at Serb rioters as protesters wearing masks broke into the embassy.

U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said; "We are in contact with the Serbian government to ensure that they devote the appropriate assets to fulfill their international obligations to help protect diplomatic facilities in this case."

The embassy was closed and not staffed, a U.S. official told CNN. The United States was among the first countries to offer official recognition of independent Kosovo.

The violence was part of a much bigger, peaceful demonstration where up to 150,000 people chanted 'Kosovo is Serbia," and vowed to never accept the province's independence.

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Photographs showed demonstrators, many of them wearing their reservist uniform, hurling rocks and setting tires alight to create a wall of smoke before they charged past the checkpoint shouting "Kosovo is ours! Kosovo is Serbia.

U.N. police said the demonstrators had come by bus from the Serbian town of Kursumlija and were largely army veterans who had fought with the Serbian side in Kosovo's 1998-1999 war, AP reported.

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This tantrum appears to be about as spontaneous as a Friday afternoon cartoon riot. The evidence suggest that the government chose this infantile way to express its displeasure at events it can no control because of its previous bad conduct. The Serbs appear to be going out of their way to create enemies where there were none before.

Perhaps the vets would like the experience of losing a war over Kosovo again. Are there any emotionally mature leaders in Serbia?