国际英语新闻：Serbian parliament speaker calls for peace, solidarity on Kosovo

BELGRADE - Serbian Parliament Speaker Oliver Dulic Sunday called on Serbian citizens to preserve peace and not to react to provocations, the official Tanjug news agency reported.
I appeal to everyone in Serbia to preserve civil order and not to provoke, with their reactions, any problem that the citizens might have in Kosovo and Metohija," Dulic addressed the public.

The Speaker also appealed to all politicians and institutions to show solidarity and reason, without complexing the situation in Serbia in any way.

"I trust that we will, in these difficult times, demonstrate harmony and solidarity and that we will help those who need help the most, and they are our people in Kosovo and Metohija and all the citizens who recognize Serbia as their state," he said.

Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci declared the independence of Kosovo at an extraordinary session of the Kosovo parliament around 3:00 pm local time (1400 GMT) on Sunday. Serbian leadership annulled Kosovo's independence declaration shortly afterwards.

Kosovo was a southern autonomous province within Serbia before the breakup of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Among its 2-million population, over 90 percent are ethnic Albanians and about 7 percent are Serbs.

The independence-seeking province has been run by the UN mission since NATO drove the Serbian troops out of it in 1999.