Serb nationalists burn NATO flag

June 13, 2011 — BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serb nationalists — furious over the holding of a NATO conference in Serbia — on Monday burned a NATO flag and put up a huge banner at a Belgrade bridge denouncing the Western military alliance.

About 200 ultranationalists gathered outside pro-Western President Boris Tadic's office, chanting anti-NATO slogans and singing Serb nationalist songs. They accused Tadic of treason. Tadic has "allowed occupation of Serbia, throwing the country at Brussels' and Washington's feet," said Zoran Krasic, senior official from staunchly anti-Western Serbian Radical Party.

The Radicals tried to enter the presidency to hand Tadic a letter but were prevented by the police. Dozens of nationalists also scuffled with riot police at similar protests on Sunday. Nationalists are angry over NATO's bombing in 1999 of Serbia, which ended the country's rule in Kosovo. They argue that Serbia should move closer to Russia rather than NATO.

But Tadic's pro-Western authorities have stepped up cooperation with NATO, joining the Partnership for Peace program for ex-communist nations. The holding of the NATO annual conference in Belgrade is seen as a sign of improving ties.

Also Monday, activists from other nationalist groups spread the banner reading "Never in NATO" along one of the bridges across the Sava river in the Serbian capital. "NATO is evil," declared Stojanka Bodo, a nationalist supporter attending the Belgrade protest. "NATO wants us to become their marionettes and to listen to everything they say."

"They kill and cripple people, they spread death," Bodo said.