WASHINGTON (AP) - A senior U.S. official warned leaders in Bosnia on Tuesday not to exploit tensions over Kosovo’s declaration of independence to press for further divisions of their country.
Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried told lawmakers on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he believes Kosovo is off to a good start since it declared independence from Serbia, but said that the newly recognized country has a long way to go and needs a lot of help before it becomes a viable state.
Fried said that the United States should not lose focus on Kosovo’s development.
«We cannot assume that Kosovo is on autopilot and simply walk away,» he said. «This is going to take high-level sustained attention through the end of this administration and into the next.
He called on Russia, which has backed Serbia in its opposition to Kosovo breaking away, to help bring stability to the region.
«We urge Russia to explicitly call for calm and responsibility in ways that will be heard unambiguously by Serbia, and by the Serbs in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina,» he said.
The United States has been warning the leaders of the Bosniak, Croat and Serb communities not to tolerate radicals who want to point to Kosovo as precedent for splitting up Bosnia.
Bosnia consists of two mini-states, one run by Bosnian Serbs, the other by Bosniaks and Croats. The Bosnian Serb parliament has condemned Kosovo’s move and said it will consider secession if more countries recognize Kosovo’s independence.
«We urge the leaders of Bosnia-Herzegovina to remember that their country’s future lies with Europe,» he said.
While repeating sharp U.S. criticism of Serbia for inciting violence over Kosovo, Fried said that the United States hopes Serbia will turn decisively toward integration with Western Europe.
The Foreign Relations Committee’s chairman, Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden, also urged that course for Serbia.
«Serbia’s government should stop using Kosovo’s independence to inflict more damage on their wounded nation,» he said. «It should start to turn the page on its failed policy of the last 15 years and pursue a future as part of Europe.
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Fried is an idiot!
Why shouldn’t Republika Srpska have independence? They have more reason to be independent than Kosovo. The USA is purposely antagonizing Serbia and Russia over the disastrous situation that the USA has created.
How can the USA push for a multi-cultural nation in Bosnia, yet sanction a single ethnic state of Kosovo? It makes no sense, other than profits for US big business and the international narcotics cartel.
The USA and EU are foolishly setting the stage for the next world war, one that will result in the world becoming a cinder.
Comment by Dushko — March 5, 2008 #