US-Serbia rift deepens

2008-02-22 09:22

Washington - The United States on Thursday issued a stern complaint to Belgrade after protesters torched its embassy there, in a sign of a deepening rift in US-Serbian relations since Washington recognised Kosovo's independence.

The third highest US diplomat, Nicholas Burns, called Serbia's Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic to formally protest the storming of the embassy in Belgrade on Thursday, State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said.

"The message was very clear: that the situation was intolerable; they needed to act immediately to provide the adequate security forces so that our embassy compound and our personnel were not under attack," McCormack told reporters of the US protest.

Burns "made very clear to the foreign minister that we would hold the Serbian government personally responsible for the safety and the well-being of our embassy employees", McCormack said.

The protest came after several hundred Serbians opposed to Kosovo's independence broke into and set alight the United States embassy in Belgrade.

The embassy was unstaffed at the time of the attack, but an unidentified person died in the incident. McCormack said all US staff were safe.

Burns told the Serbian officials Serbian security for the embassy "was completely inadequate to the task and that we expected them to act immediately, and that we would not expect a repeat of this situation in the future", McCormack said.

Disturbing reports

"We received assurances from Prime Minister Kostunica that there would not be a repeat of this episode and we will hold him to that," he said.

McCormack voiced concern about reports that Serbian government officials had helped stir the attack.

"We have seen a lot of disturbing reports about statements by Serbian government officials, even including a minister, about incitement to violence. This has to cease."

The US Ambassador to the United Nations Zalmay Khalilzad said he was "outraged" by the incident, saying he would seek condemnation by the UN Security Council.

"The embassy is sovereign US territory. The government of Serbia has a responsibility under international law to protect diplomatic facilities, particularly embassies."

The incident demonstrated the depth to which US and Serbian relations have fallen since the breakaway province Kosovo declared independence from Belgrade on Monday and quickly garnered recognition from the United States and major European governments.

Serbia and its ally Russia have vehemently opposed Kosovo's independence since the 1998-99 war between Kosovo Albanians and Serbian troops drew Nato's intervention, beginning the lengthy effort by Albanian Kosovans to break away.

'Serbia will never recognise Kosovo...'

Last week US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a last-ditch effort to salvage ties with Serbia, offering economic and other aid during the "extraordinarily difficult period" that she said would follow Kosovo's independence declaration.

"We want a Serbia that is looking to its future and that future is in Europe," Rice said.

She said the United States would offer "a hand of friendship, saying that the status of Kosovo and its resolution will allow Serbia to look forward, and to move on then with what it needs to do".

But her offer appears to have had little impact.

On Monday Kostunica announced he was recalling Serbia's ambassador to the United States.

And on Thursday President Boris Tadic remained defiant over Kosovo's secession - though he also kept lines open for ties with Europe.

"Serbia will never recognise Kosovo, it wants to preserve its territorial integrity," Tadic said on a one-day visit to Romania.

"But neither will it renounce its future membership of the European Union."

- AFP