Rice blames Serbian government for riots

Condoleezza Rice says the government in Belgrade is to blame for the ransacking of the U.S. embassy on Thursday. The U.S. secretary of state in the Bush administration told journalists yesterday that the Serbian government did not manage to protect the embassies of the United States and other countries targeted by the protesters. Rice blames Serbian government for riots A group of several thousand youths broke from the main demonstration of 250,000 in Belgrade, and attacked the embassy, setting it one fire. One person, identified as a Serb refugee from Kosovo, was found dead at the premises. The embassy's non-essential staff has been ordered to leave Serbia. Belgrade withdrew its ambassador from Washington on Monday, when the United States recognized the Kosovo Albanians' unilateral declaration of independence, something Serbia rejects as a violation of international law and its sovereign borders. "We hold the Serbian government responsible. We have made this very clear," Rice said, and continued, "we don't expect this to happen again". "They were under obligation to protect the diplomatic missions," Rice said, and added that the Serbian police was "either not adequately present or did not react". The U.S. secretary of state then went on to send a message to the Serbs to "accept that Kosovo is no longer theirs, and that the Balkans needs to leave behind centuries of laments and sentimentality". "We believe that the Kosovo decision will really, finally, help the Balkans leave its horrible history behind," Rice said. "After all, we are talking about something from 1389! It's time to move on," she said, in reference to the year crucial in Serbia's history, when its medieval empire started succumbing to the Ottoman Turk invasion with the Battle of Kosovo, to be renewed as a state only in the 19th century. Condoleezza Rice (FoNet, archive)

Rice blames Serbian government for riots

A group of several thousand youths broke from the main demonstration of 250,000 in Belgrade, and attacked the embassy, setting it one fire. One person, identified as a Serb refugee from Kosovo, was found dead at the premises.

The embassy's non-essential staff has been ordered to leave Serbia. Belgrade withdrew its ambassador from Washington on Monday, when the United States recognized the Kosovo Albanians' unilateral declaration of independence, something Serbia rejects as a violation of international law and its sovereign borders.

"We hold the Serbian government responsible. We have made this very clear," Rice said, and continued, "we don't expect this to happen again".

"They were under obligation to protect the diplomatic missions," Rice said, and added that the Serbian police was "either not adequately present or did not react".

The U.S. secretary of state then went on to send a message to the Serbs to "accept that Kosovo is no longer theirs, and that the Balkans needs to leave behind centuries of laments and sentimentality".

"We believe that the Kosovo decision will really, finally, help the Balkans leave its horrible history behind," Rice said.

"After all, we are talking about something from 1389! It's time to move on," she said, in reference to the year crucial in Serbia's history, when its medieval empire started succumbing to the Ottoman Turk invasion with the Battle of Kosovo, to be renewed as a state only in the 19th century.