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| U.S.: Belgrade sends mixed signals |
| 7 September 2007 | 09:57 -> 13:14
| Source:
AFP, BIRN |
WASHINGTON, BRUSSELS --
Washington has voiced concern about contradictory signals from Serbia about the use of force to prevent Kosovo's independence.
The U.S. State Department said it would ask Belgrade to clarify its stance after State Secretary Dušan Proroković (DSS) warned in an interview Tuesday that Belgrade will be ready to deploy Serbian troops if Kosovo's ethnic Albanian government declared independence.
Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić (DS), in an interview published Wednesday in the Financial Times, struck a more moderate tone, saying Serbia would not threaten military action in response to any independence move by Kosovo.
State Department spokesman Tom Casey said, "We have two contradictory statements out there by two officials from the government," and added threats of military force were "unhelpful."
"It would be unhelpful and certainly a step backward for this region, for Serbia as well as for Kosovars if there were any renewed violence in Kosovo or associated with it," he said.
"And to the extent that we are engaged in ongoing diplomatic discussions, it is certainly inappropriate and unhelpful for anyone to be making threats."
Casey said Washington believed the foreign minister's comments represented Serbia's position, rather than the more strident words from Proroković. But he said Washington would ask Serbia to confirm the country's diplomatic stance.
"We believe, based on everything else that we've previously heard, that the foreign minister's position is the one that represents the views of his government.“
"But given that these are inflammatory remarks and they are unfortunate, it certainly is appropriate for us to go to the Serbian government and ask them for clarification just to verify the foreign minister's views are, in fact, the ones that are represented."
Casey added that he would "put more stock" in the foreign minister's comments than those of Proroković, "who is not engaged in formal diplomatic discussions."
EU tells Serbia to "mind its language"
The European Union has warned Serbia that the language used by Belgrade is not helping the process of determining Kosovo’s status.
Cristina Gallach, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, said Thursday that recent statements did not respect the agreement reached by representatives of Serbia and the Kosovo Albanians to refrain from using “inflammatory vocabulary”, BIRN reported.
“They have promised, and they have violated the agreement less than a week after”, said Gallach.
Gallach’s remarks followed an interview, published in Wednesday’s International Herald Tribune, in which Dusan Proroković, Serbia’s state secretary for Kosovo, warned that Serbia was "ready to use force to prevent Western countries from recognizing Kosovo as an independent state."
Proroković, who is a member of Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica’s Democratic Party of Serbia, made his remarks just a few day days after delegations from Priština and Belgrade pledged they would not use language that might undermine the process of resolving Kosovo’s status.
The pledge had come at a meeting with the international Troika of mediators in Vienna on 30 August, soon after the start of a planned 120 days of negotiations to determine Kosovo’s status.
Solana, who is High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, met Thursday the EU representative on the Troika, German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger, who raised the issue of the statements coming from Belgrade.
Gallach confirmed that Solana intends to discuss the matter with Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica, who is scheduled to visit Brussels next week.
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