[NYTr] Neo-Nazis Arrested in Protest Against Kosovo Independence

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AP via The Washington Post - Oct 9, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/08/AR2007100801440_pf.html

Neo-Nazis Arrested in Protest Against Kosovo Independence

Associated Press

BELGRADE, Serbia, Oct. 8 -- Serbian police said Monday they had
detained 56 neo-Nazis who defied a ban and demonstrated to demand that
the contested province of Kosovo remain part of Serbia. The arrests
came after clashes broke out Sunday between members of the neo-Nazi
group, called the National Guard, and anti-fascists holding a
counter-demonstration.

The neo-Nazis had pressed ahead with their protest despite a ban
following an outcry by Jewish groups and others. Several people were
injured as the neo-Nazis threw stones at the anti-fascists.

The organizers of the counter-demonstration accused police of failing
to protect them, and the opposition criticized the government for being
too soft on extremists. They demanded an explanation from Interior
Minister Dragan Jocic as to why the neo-Nazis were allowed to gather in
the city of Novi Sad, about 30 miles north of Belgrade.

Kosovo, where ethnic Albanians make up 90 percent of the population of
2 million, remains formally part of Serbia. But it has been
administered by the United Nations and NATO since 1999, when NATO
airstrikes ended a Serbian military crackdown on ethnic Albanian
separatists in the southern province.

Kosovo Albanian leaders have repeatedly said they are seeking nothing
but complete independence. But Serbia insists the province must
technically remain part of Serbia.

In the Serbian parliament, Liberal Party leader Cedomir Jovanovic
demanded the resignation of nationalist Prime Minister Vojislav
Kostunica and blasted government leaders for failing to show up at the
anti-fascist rally. "It was their duty to send a message" against
fascism, Jovanovic said.

There was no immediate reaction from Kostunica, but Milos Aligrudic, a
lawmaker from the prime minister's Democratic Party of Serbia, called
for the banning of the groups that organized the antifascist
demonstration. He said they were as "equally extreme" as the neo-Nazis.