Serbian youths protest Kosovo’s independence
It seems that Denmark isn’t the only country that is having to deal with rioting youths. With Kosovo’s declaration of independence yesterday, several hundred Serbian youths have taken to the streets in Belgrade to protest and ultimately cause a riot.
Riot police using tear gas and batons dispersed hundreds of Serbian youths who ran riot through central Belgrade Sunday, targeting the embassies of Western backers of Kosovo’s independence.
The youths, who numbered about 800 at the height of the violence, smashed the windows of two McDonald’s restaurants, and those of the US and Slovenian embassies. Most of them appeared to be hardcore football fans.
The rioting lasted several hours and at least 50 people — among them 20 policemen — were injured during the rioting, radio B92 reported, quoting hospital officials.
Their injuries were not life-threatening, emergency service doctor Aleksandar Marinkovic told Beta news agency.
However, unlike those youths in Denmark, I doubt these youths are Muslim and I have a good feeling that they have a much more valid reason for protesting. I personally don’t know enough about the whole Kosovo/Serbia situation to say whether Kosovo declaring its independence was the right thing (feel free to chime in on what you think), but I feel that protesting in this case might be justified. However, when protesting turns into rioting then things have obviously gone too far and people should be punished.
In Denmark’s case, cartoons are never a good reason to protest, much less start a riot. If Christians threw a fit every time Jesus was disrespected, well I doubt that there would be much of a world left.
