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James

 Rep: 664 

Re: Russia threatens to use force over Kosovo

James wrote:

UNITED NATIONS -- The international split over Kosovo grew more ominous Friday as Russia raised the spectre of using force to back its Serb ally's bid to retain the territory.

Russia's envoy to NATO warned both the Western military alliance, which has a 16,000-strong peacekeeping force in Kosovo, and the European Union against formally backing the ethnic-Albanian leadership's declaration of independence from Serbia.

"If the European Union works out a common position, or if NATO breaches its mandate in Kosovo, these organizations will be in conflict with the United Nations," said Dmitry Rogozin, alluding to Russia's position that a UN Security Council resolution on Kosovo does not authorize a unilateral move to independence.

"We too would then have to proceed from the view that in order to be respected, we must use brute force -- in other words armed force."

Mr. Rogozin spoke a day after a mob in the Serbian capital of Belgrade ransacked and torched the U.S. embassy during a 250,000-strong rally protesting the independence move and Washington's recognition of the breakaway state.

The EU has not collectively ruled on Kosovo's proclamation, but has pledged to deploy a 2,000-strong administrative-support mission to take over from the UN, which has run the territory since NATO's 1999 bombing campaign forced the Serb army to withdraw.

Russian Foreign Ministry Mikhail Kamynin said the United States and "other forces that supported Kosovo's proclamation should have been aware of the consequences of such a step."

While no one expects Russia would pit its forces against NATO's in the region, experts say such talk could encourage other violence on the ground.

"Bellicose language from the Russians is not helpful," said retired U.S. major gen. William Nash, who served as UN regional administrator in northern Kosovo in 2000.

"One fear is that acts of provocation can lead to retaliation that in turn escalates the whole circumstance."

Up to 10,000 of the two million ethnic-Albanians in Kosovo died when Serb forces under then-Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic swept through the province almost a decade ago. Since NATO tipped the balance of power to the ethnic Albanians, it's Kosovo's minority Serbs who've faced pressure to leave. Mr. Nash said that missing today is a "compensation package for both Serbia, as an entity that has lost a portion of its country, and the Serb citizens in Kosovo."

In Washington, the State Department demanded Moscow repudiate Mr. Rogozin's words, characterizing what he said as "cynical and ahistorical."

"We strongly advise Russia to be more responsible in its public comments toward Kosovo," said Nicholas Burns, the third-ranking State Department official.

"Russia is isolated this week . . . very few countries are supporting its position."

In fact, the world is almost evenly split over the issue, with countries' positions appearing to reflect their internal concerns.

Against a backdrop of sensitivity over Quebec, Canada is among more than 25 countries that have not said one way or the other whether they support Kosovo's move. Argentina, which seeks to end British rule in the Falklands, and Cyprus and Spain, which are faced with their own separatist movements, are among almost 20 countries that have ruled against recognition. They say the unilateral declaration sets a bad precedent.

Major emerging powers such as India and South Africa are among almost 10 countries that have expressed concern over Kosovo's move.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica Friday called Thursday's violence a "great misfortune" that was "directly damaging to our fight to preserve (the) state."

But the Serb government also pressed ahead with a bid to reclaim control over at least northern Kosovo, which borders Serbia, and is where Serbs form a regional majority.

The government announced Friday, for example, that Serb judges and other judicial employees would abandon UN-run Kosovo institutions and return to Serb ones in the north -- an apparent effort to create parallel Serb institutions in the breakaway state.

At border crossings Friday, Kosovar police and NATO troops from France kept students from Serbia from entering Kosovo, saying they were "not citizens" and that they would be banned "pending further orders."

Inside Kosovo, members of the Serb minority have shown their anger by destroying UN and NATO property, detonating small bombs and taunting NATO and UN officials.

Russia said NATO needs to remember it is supposed to be neutral in the standoff.

The EU told Serbia it must protect the embassies in Belgrade.

The Canadian embassy in Belgrade was open Friday after being hit by stones amid Thursday's riot.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said the building, which is not far from the U.S. embassy, had not been a direct target of the violence.

Family of U.S. diplomats in Belgrade, meanwhile, prepared to leave the country until the security situation improves.

The United States also closed its diplomatic mission Friday in Banja Luka, an ethnic-Serb stronghold in Serbia's neighbour Bosnia, after Serb protesters, attempting to attack it the day before, clashed with police.

Kosovo's independence proclamation has raised concerns over the future of Bosnia which, since the 1992-95 civil war, has been split between the Muslim-Croat Federation and Republika Srpska, an ethnic-Serb region. The parliament in the Serb area this week claimed the right to also secede and join the Republic of Serbia.

Britain, France, Germany and Turkey joined the United States in quickly recognizing Kosovo's independence, declared last Sunday. The Belgrade embassies of all those countries were also targeted in Thursday's riots. The charred remains of a body, believed to be that of a protester, were found inside the U.S. embassy.