(6 Jan 2008)
++NIGHT SHOTS++
1. Various of Kosovo Serbs walking and singing, holding branches
++DAWN SHOTS++
2. Mid of man cutting a branch from a tree
3. Various of tree being cut
4. Various of boys singing songs
5. SOUNDBITE: (Serbian) Vox pop, Marko Antic, Kosovo Serb:
"We will defend Kosovo by all means. I will not leave Kosovo although lots of people will do. I will remain here."
6. Wide of man carrying branch down snowy hill
7. SOUNDBITE: (Serbian) Vox pop, Dusan Stojanovic, Kosovo Serb:
"No matter what happens, we will stay here. I will defend by place, my home. I hope that this is not our last Christmas here."
8. Men holding tree branches, walking along road, car driving by
++DAY SHOTS++
9. Tilt down from building with Serbian flag in front of it to stand with branches, cars driving by with branches in the back
10. Man picking up branch
11. Mid of branches and bags of leaves
12. People buying branches
13. Pan from NATO soldiers, one taking photo, to car driving down road with braches in trunk, AUDIO: Car horn
14. Car driving down street, Serbia flag outside window, tree in trunk
15. Close up of girl holding a branch, AUDIO: Choir music
16. People buying branches from stand, AUDIO: Choir music
STORYLINE:
Kosovo Serbs on Sunday started preparing for Christian festival of Christmas, singing songs and gathering branches for a traditional ceremony.
Christmas falls on January 7 for Orthodox Christians in Russia, Serbia, the Holy Land, Egypt and other Eastern Orthodox churches.
In the northern part of troubled Mitrovica, a town divided by a bridge with Serbs living in the north and Kosovo Albanians in the southern part of town, dozens of local Kosovo Serbs woke up early on Sunday morning to collect branches in nearby forests.
The tree branches of trees will be burned later in the evening as remembrance of the birth of Jesus. The burning of the branches also symbolises a way of keeping Jesus warm.
Singing pro Serbian songs about Kosovo, some of those who got up early to pick the Christmas branches hoped this wouldn't be their last Christmas in the province.
"No matter what happens, we will stay here. I will defend by place, my home. I hope that this is not our last Christmas here," said Dusan Stojanovic.
"We will defend Kosovo by all means. I will not leave Kosovo although lots of people will do. I will remain here," said another Kosovo Serb, Marko Antic.
An estimated 10,000 people died during the Kosovo war, when Serbia's troops launched an onslaught on separatist Albanians, and close to 1 (m) million others were driven into neighbouring Macedonia and Albania. Most came back when the war ended.
Kosovo has been under U.N. and NATO administration ever since. But it remains formally part of Serbia, and its ethnic Albanian leaders have pledged to declare independence early in 2008.
Their insistence on statehood has set up a showdown between the U.S. and key European powers, which support independence, and Russia, a staunch ally of Serbia which says secession is illegal and would set a dangerous global precedent.
NATO's Kosovo force, known as KFOR, recently boosted patrols and deployed extra troops, mostly Germans and Americans, in the province's tense north, where most of the Serbs live. Serbs vow to reject any declaration of independence and say they'll do whatever it takes to stay linked to the rest of Serbia.
Many are as distrustful of NATO as they are of the Albanians, blaming the alliance for failing to protect them during anti-Serb rioting in March 2004 that left 11 dead and scores of Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries burned.

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