Washington, NU Online
All but a few essential diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade are leaving Serbia as the United States piles up complaints about the Serbs’ failure to protect U.S. and other Western embassies from nationalist mobs.
The State Department ordered the diplomats’ evacuation on Friday, a day after mobs attacked the embassy to protest the Western embrace of Kosovo, a Serb province, as an independent state. Diplomats’ families also were told to leave, and the State Department warned Americans to consider strongly the risks of traveling to Serbia or remaining there.<>
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined the chorus of U.S. criticism on Friday.
“They had an obligation to protect diplomatic missions, and from what we can tell the police presence was either inadequate or unresponsive,” Rice told reporters.
“We’ve made very clear to the Serb government that we don’t expect that to happen again.”
The top U.S. diplomat said it is time for Serbs to accept that Kosovo is no longer theirs. Rice suggested that it also was time to drop centuries of grievance and sentimentality in the Balkans.
“We believe that the resolution of Kosovo’s status will really, finally, let the Balkans begin to put its terrible history behind it,” Rice said. “I mean, after all, we’re talking about something from 1389 — 1389! It’s time to move forward.”
Kosovo was the site of an epic battle between Christian Serbs and Muslim Turks in 1389. It is considered hallowed ground by Serbs, and the birthplace of their identity.
The province, with a population now that is more than 90 percent ethnic Albanian Muslims, declared independence over the weekend, and the United States was among the first to recognize the declaration’s validity.
U.S. officials said Americans and their employees were in danger when a mob protesting the Kosovo loss overran part of the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade. A State Department official said 14 embassy employees were at the embassy site, and all are safe.
The charred body of one person found in the compound is believed to be that of a protester, spokesman Sean McCormack said.
U.S. Ambassador to Serbia Cameron Munter requested the departure of lower-level diplomats and families, and the embassy remained closed to outsiders Friday.
“We are not sufficiently confident that they are safe here,” Munter said in an interview in Belgrade.
The move came as U.S. diplomats across the Balkans went on alert, girding for more possible anti-American violence. (dar)
All but a few essential diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade are leaving Serbia as the United States piles up complaints about the Serbs’ failure to protect U.S. and other Western embassies from nationalist mobs.
The State Department ordered the diplomats’ evacuation on Friday, a day after mobs attacked the embassy to protest the Western embrace of Kosovo, a Serb province, as an independent state. Diplomats’ families also were told to leave, and the State Department warned Americans to consider strongly the risks of traveling to Serbia or remaining there.<>
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined the chorus of U.S. criticism on Friday.
“They had an obligation to protect diplomatic missions, and from what we can tell the police presence was either inadequate or unresponsive,” Rice told reporters.
“We’ve made very clear to the Serb government that we don’t expect that to happen again.”
The top U.S. diplomat said it is time for Serbs to accept that Kosovo is no longer theirs. Rice suggested that it also was time to drop centuries of grievance and sentimentality in the Balkans.
“We believe that the resolution of Kosovo’s status will really, finally, let the Balkans begin to put its terrible history behind it,” Rice said. “I mean, after all, we’re talking about something from 1389 — 1389! It’s time to move forward.”
Kosovo was the site of an epic battle between Christian Serbs and Muslim Turks in 1389. It is considered hallowed ground by Serbs, and the birthplace of their identity.
The province, with a population now that is more than 90 percent ethnic Albanian Muslims, declared independence over the weekend, and the United States was among the first to recognize the declaration’s validity.
U.S. officials said Americans and their employees were in danger when a mob protesting the Kosovo loss overran part of the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade. A State Department official said 14 embassy employees were at the embassy site, and all are safe.
The charred body of one person found in the compound is believed to be that of a protester, spokesman Sean McCormack said.
U.S. Ambassador to Serbia Cameron Munter requested the departure of lower-level diplomats and families, and the embassy remained closed to outsiders Friday.
“We are not sufficiently confident that they are safe here,” Munter said in an interview in Belgrade.
The move came as U.S. diplomats across the Balkans went on alert, girding for more possible anti-American violence. (dar)
