February 21, 2008
Angry Serbs Assault U.S. Embassy In Belgrade
Hundreds of protesters are attacking the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia's capital. Video footage captured one protester scaling the building to rip down the American flag, and fires can be seen in and around the compound.
"As long as we live, Kosovo is Serbia," Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said at another rally in front of the former parliament building. That gathering was peaceful, and drew around 200,000 people.
At the embassy, Serbs were throwing rocks and other objects at riot police and attempting to break through the police presence to raid the building. Serbs angry over Kosovo's declaration of independence -- a decision supported by the White House and much of the EU -- chanted "Kosovo is ours! Kosovo is Serbia!" and "We'll never give up Kosovo, never!" according to various media reports. (See accounts from AP, Reuters, BBC News and the London Guardian.)
The State Department tried to downplay the situation, emphasizing that the embassy was probably closed at the time. According to CNN, U.S. officials are denying that protesters actually penetrated the building.
"It has been up and running. It's been functioning. They've been carrying out their diplomatic functions and activities," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack at the afternoon briefing. "The question is whether or not it was open to the public."
McCormack stressed that the White House is sympathetic to the concerns of Serbs, angry because they consider Kosovo part of their religious and cultural heritage. NATO forced an end to ethnic cleansing of mostly Muslim Albanians in the former Yugoslavia in the late 1990s. Since then, the mostly Albanian province of Kosovo and the mostly Orthodox Christian Serbia have existed in an uneasy peace.
Belgrade, backed by Russia and to a lesser extent China, is angrily protesting the world community's sponsorship of an independent Kosovo. While the protesters' ire seems disproportionately directed at Washington, McCormack said that Belgrade was responsible for quelling the violence.
"It is the government which has certain responsibilities vis-a-vis" stabilizing the situation," McCormack said. "If it doesn't take steps to live up to those responsibilities -- I don't know what the answer is."
According to BBC News, the Croatian Embassy has also reportedly come under attack. Along the border, Serbian reservists were clashing with NATO peacekeepers and Kosovan police. Today's outbreaks are some of the worst flare-ups in violence since the Balkan conflict of the 1990s. NATO peacekeepers and an EU mission were dispatched to Kosovo following its separation from Serbia on Sunday, but the question now is whether those forces will be enough to maintain order, particularly as states like Russia declare the separation in violation of a U.N. resolution.
For its part, the White House is trying to balance its interest in an independent Kosovo and relations with Belgrade.
"We have maintained an open diplomatic line with the Serbian government," McCormack said. "It was a considered decision by us and other states," he added. "It is now the task, I would suggest, to work together as best we can to move forward, to look for a better future for Kosovo as an independent state."
It may be tempting to see a foreshadowing of the Palestinian-Israeli effort toward a two-state solution here. In a separate briefing earlier this morning, McCormack suggested that what's good for Kosovo may not be suitable for the Palestinians.
"What we think is that at Annapolis, the parties -- the Israelis and the Palestinians -- made a commitment to a political process of trying to reach a negotiated solution to the issues that divide them by the end of this year. We think that everyone's focus... should be on trying to make that process work and helping the Palestinians and the Israelis come to a negotiated solution," he said. "We believe that is the appropriate outcome here... and that is where people's energy should be focused."
According to a BBC News Q&A, the "nightmare scenario" in the region would be a repeat of ethnic cleansing on both sides. Kosovo's Serbian minority people would be vulnerable south of the Ibar river, and the ethnic Albanian minority in Serbia plus Albanians who live in northern Kosovo close to the border would also be at risk.
Posted at 3:32 PM
Posted to:
Bush Administration, EU, Europe, Russia, U.N.
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