5,000 in Vicenza protest Kosovo secession

Some 5,000 people, about 90 percent of them originally from Serbia but now part of the working class in the factories in and around Vicenza, marched Feb. 24 through that northern Italian town to protest the secession of Kosovo from Serbia.

The Italian state police known as the carabinieri were out in force as a riot squad to keep the demonstration away from both the center of nearby Padua and from the gates of the large U.S. military base, Camp Ederle.

In the demonstration many carried candles through the cold February drizzle and banners reading “Kosovo is Serbia,” “Stop USA terror” and “Kosovo is the Jerusalem of Serbia”—referring to the concentration of historic churches for the many of the Eastern Orthodox faith in northern Kosovo.

—Report and photos from Vicenza by Fausto Schiavetto