A senior U.S. diplomat says the United States wants the international community to act quickly to help the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo achieve independence. Nicholas Burns, the U.S. State Department's third-highest-ranking official, told a U.S. House of Representatives committee today that Washington believes that supervised independence for Kosovo is now the only way forward.
Burns, who holds the position of undersecretary of state, said failure to approve an independence proposal for Kosovo would "strengthen the hand of extremists and lead directly to new conflicts."
He said the predominantly Muslim population of the UN-administered Serbian province "will never accept continued rule by Serbia."
Burns defended a proposal by UN special envoy Martti Ahtissari for the independence of Kosovo, subject to a period of international supervision. The former Finnish president presented his proposals to the UN Security Council two weeks ago.
In other news, an investigation has concluded that Romanian police officers were responsible for two deaths of ethnic Albanian protesters on February 10 in Kosovo's capital, Pristina.
The victims were demonstrating against a UN plan on the future of the disputed province.
Romanians serving with the UN police force left Kosovo last month despite a UN investigation into their role in the riot in which the two protesters were killed.
Copyright (c) 2006. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org
Comment and add to the story without registration, but keep the comments meaningful please. Links are not accepted.
Comments
#1 Burns said that failure to
Burns said that failure to approve an independence proposal for Kosovo would "strengthen the hand of extremists and lead directly to new conflicts." !!!!
What is that mean?Is it a new strategy to solving a crises?Is it a signal to others who want to make their points to threat with violence?Does independence have to be a award to extremist for dozens destroyed serbian churches (older than USA), hundreds of thousands dislodged nonalbanians, thousands of killed and missimg as well???
At least, we can see on Iraqis example a capabillity of US administration to recognize a reallity.We can see how US help Iraqi people.