This clip became an international hit after being
posted on YouTube. The video footage shows two "ladies" making
their way from a ransacked grocery store, picking up chocolates and
drinks, into an Adidas shop, which had already been vandalized, bagging
shoes, jackets, and accoutrement along the way. The two blondes were
then followed by the videographer through the streets of Belgrade. One
girl shouts: "Go away - stop filming!" as the other tries
to pick up some fallen loot.
Riots in Kosovo and Belgrade were marked by an often perverse and
wearisome tendency to quarrels and disputes. Serb nationalists: Prime
Minister Vojislav Kostunica's authorities have repeatedly vowed to
reclaim the land, despite U.S. and other Western recognition of Kosovo's
statehood.
In the 12th Century, the Serbian ruler Stefan Nemanja seized control
of Duklja and parts of Kosovo. His successor, Stefan Prvovencani took
control of the rest of Kosovo by 1216, creating a state incorporating
most of the area which is now Serbia and Montenegro. In 1355, the
Serbian state fell apart on the death of Tsar Stefan Duan and
dissolved into squabbling fiefdoms. The timing fell perfectly within
the Ottoman expansion. The Ottomans brought Islam with them and later
also created the Vilayet of Kosovo as one of the Ottoman territorial
entities. Ottoman rule lasted for about 500 years. On February 17,
2008, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. It was the second
declaration of independence by Kosovo's Albanian-dominated political
institutions, the first having been proclaimed on 7 September 1990.
Unlike the 1990 Kosovo declaration of independence, which only Albania
recognised, Kosovo's second declaration of independence has been recognized
by several foreign states, including the United States of America.
In Washington DC, Condoleezza Rice said it was time for Serbs to accept
that Kosovo is no longer theirs and that it is time to let go of centuries
of grievance and sentimentality in the Balkans.