WRAP Reax from Albanians and Serbs; ADDS UN building explosion
(20 Feb 2008) Northern Mitrovica (Serbian side) ++NIGHT SHOTS++ 1. Wide shot of building, United Nations vehicles in front, after an explosion lightly damaged a UN courthouse 2. Close up damaged side window of one of the UN vehicles 3. Various of building and damaged UN vehicle South Mitrovica (Albanian side) 4. Residents in coffee house watching television showing Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci about to declare independence 5. Close of television screen 6. Various of people celebrating, cheering and clapping as independence is declared 7. Wide of coffee house 8. Various of cars honking their horns in celebration and waving US and Albanian flags 9. Various of people dancing in the street in celebration 10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Vox Pop, South Mitrovica resident: "It's normal we are happy, we have been waiting for many years to be (here) this day. We hope so (that when) today finishes we have our independence. But still we as citizens of Mitrovica, never felt free, we did not have the right to be here, like in the north side of Mitrovica - I'm living in the north side, I just came today to (be) first, to be here in the south." 11. SOUNDBITE: (English) Vox Pop, South Mitrovica resident: "Yes all my family is happy. You can see an old man is very happy. He cried from happiness because Kosovo is now independent." 12. Men wearing traditional Albanian headdress dancing 13. Various of people dancing to drums 14. Wide of bridge crossing the river Ibar which connects North and South Mitrovica North Mitrovica (Serbian side) 15. Barbed wire on bridge which connects North and South Mitrovica 16. Serbs in coffee house watching Thaci make address 17. Close of television screen showing Thaci 18. Various of Serb residents watching 19. Wide of bridge STORYLINE Half of the residents of the ethnically divided city of Kosovska Mitrovica cheered in jubilation, and the other half stayed defiantly silent as Kosovo declared itself a nation on Sunday, mounting a historic bid to become an "independent and democratic state". Residents watched on television as Kosovo's ethnic Albanian leadership convened an extraordinary session of parliament on Sunday to declare independence. "Kosovo is a republic, an independent, democratic and sovereign state," parliament speaker Jakup Krasniqi said as the chamber burst into applause after a unanimous vote to approve the document. In the snow-covered mining city of Mitrovica, where the Ibar River divides the Serbs in the north and ethnic Albanians in the south, the reaction to the declaration could not have been any more different. Ethnic Albanians in the south cheered and applauded across the city. In coffee houses, people who watched the announcement by Krasniqi and Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, erupted in jubilation and applause. In the streets, revellers fired guns into the air, waved red and black Albanian flags and honked car horns in jubilation at the birth of the world's newest country. "We have been waiting for many years to be (here) this day. We hope so (that when) today finishes we have our independence," one ethnic Kosovo-Albanian man said. He said he travelled from the predominantly Serb north side of Mitrovica to witness the event. "I just came today to (be) first, to be here in the south," he said. People broke out into spontaneous dance in the streets in the south. "All my family is happy. You can see an old man is very happy. He cried from happiness because Kosovo is now independent," another man said. In north Mitrovica, streets were eerily quiet. Peacekeepers stepped up patrols throughout the region. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
