It's National Flag Day in Kosovo today. Albanian flags decorate the front of nearly every business and line the streets. Last night, the flag proposed by Rugova's government were also flying on the streets but they disappeared overnight, stolen and burned by those who oppose the unilateral decision of Rugova's government to impose the new flag without hearing from the people.
So far the day has been marked with a large demonstration of youngsters (probably in their early to late teens) chanting "UCK" at the gates of the UNHQ and the constant sound of exploding firecrackers. The demonstration was not linked to the National Flag Day celebrations but rather a demand for the release of three Albanian UCK fighters currently accused of war crimes in the Hague. I saw it estimated that there were one thousand demonstrators. A great number of the demonstrators I saw were young people who probably didn't even understand the politics of what they were demonstrating about...just bored with nothing to do. Reuters has a good photo of the crowd coming down Mother Theresa towards the Grand Hotel.
Over the weekend, a different phase of my power was out. On Friday, the bedroom phase was out. Saturday, the living room...and Sunday, the kitchen! It's getting to be dangerous to walk around the house because I have extension cords running from room to room so I can keep power to the refrigerator or washing machine :)
