http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/30/AR200707300 1559.html
Kosovo's Serbs Have Reason to Be Wary Tuesday, July 31, 2007; Page A18 John Podesta's July 23 op-ed, "Standing With Kosovo Again," was misleading and obfuscated the facts. Mr. Podesta contended that the 1999 NATO intervention in Yugoslavia had "international legitimacy," but this is far from settled fact and will be questioned for years to come by experts in international law. Tell Us E-mail the Site's Editor Submit an Op-Ed Send a Letter to the Editor E-mail the Ombudsman Ombudsman Column Newspaper Masthead Newspaper E-mail Addresses Web Site FAQ/Help Save & Share Article What's This? DiggGoogle del.icio.usYahoo! RedditFacebook His claim that "the uncertainty of Kosovo's status endangers regional stability" obfuscated the fact that the underlying implicit threat of violence comes from the Albanians in Kosovo. We have already seen a drastic example of this in the riots of March 2004, when 35 churches and monasteries were destroyed and desecrated over three days, not to mention the destruction of 400 homes and the flight of 4,000 Serbs. Mr. Podesta's claim that Kosovo's leaders have "committed their country to the highest global standards of human rights" neglected the fact that only a fraction of more than 200,000 non-Albanians have returned to their homes after fleeing the violence of their ethnic Albanian neighbors as NATO forces came into Kosovo. Serbs still do not feel safe in Kosovo, which is not surprising given that hardly any perpetrators of ethnic violence against them have been indicted and sentenced. The proof of the pudding should be in the eating. Good-faith negotiations are what Serbia has asked for all along. It is good that Mr. Podesta agrees with this. He apparently does not see the contradiction between supporting such negotiations and saying that after those negotiations the United States is "prepared to recognize an independent Kosovo." Doesn't this negate the meaning of "good-faith," let alone "negotiations"? IVAN VUJACIC Ambassador Embassy of Serbia Washington Sent using cyberus.ca WebMail - http://www.cyberus.ca/ Serbian News Network - SNN [email protected] http://www.antic.org/
