Thursday, May 19, 2005

STATE DEPARTMENT REGULAR BRIEFING BRIEFER: RICHARD BOUCHER, DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN - REMARKS ON KOSOVO

Second of all, as far as our relationship with Greece, we are partners, we are allies, we work together in many, many important areas and we look forward to having the chance to discuss those with Greek leaders tomorrow.

Q On Albania -- on Kosovo, excuse me. The Undersecretary Nicholas Burns testifying in Congress yesterday for Kosovo, stated inter alia, quote, "All the local structure must be accountable to Pristina, not to Belgrade. Belgrade-funded institutions, most notably Mitrovica, must be dismantled or integrated into Kosovo's structures," unquote.

I am wondering if that means behind the scenes yes, U.S.

policy is moving towards full indepence of Kosovo.

MR. BOUCHER: U.S. policy is exactly where Undersecretary Burns put it yesterday, and that is the way I put it, I think the day before, that there is a review this summer, and then we look forward after that to addressing the final status issues, if that turns out to be the appropriate next step.

Q One more question. Since in the case of Kosovo indepence, according to a lot of political observers, will be a wave a Albanian refugees towards western Balkans, do you have contingency plans to prevent such a development due to the point that Undersecretary Nicholas Burns stated yesterday that the 18,000 American soldiers will remain in Kosovo for unlimited period of time?

MR. BOUCHER: You're -- you're -- (laughs) -- you're way out there on that one. You're just projecting things into some future that may or may not happen. You're predicting disaster from a step that -- from the process that we're taking and predicting the outcome of the process we're taking. That's a hypothetical, and a hypothetical on a hypothetical on a worst case scenario. So I'm not going to bother with it, I'm sorry.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't get it, what Albanian refugees? Albanians leaving Kosova after it becomes independent? :/

Anonymous said...

maybe he was talking about what Server said, that Serbia will be in the EU 10 years before independent Kosovo gets there, and probably MAcedonia will get in the EU (if there isn't another war) even before Serbia. What do you think, will there be a border between Kosovo and Serbia/Macedonia like the borders between a EU country and a non EU-country? A 200EUR schengen to go to Presevo from Pristina?

Anonymous said...

Wave of refugees towards western Balkans? Does this guy own a map?

Why would people move westward towards Albania in case of Kosova's independence?

Anonymous said...

That's not the issue here. He says the U.S is moving towards full independence of Kosovo.

Anonymous said...

Heheh true true, but it does baffle a bit :)

Anonymous said...

Sure, but the words seem very clear to me.

Anonymous said...

All I read is . . . to hell withe Serbs, go Kosova here comes Europe. I can see how all the Europeans will start moving to Kosova after we become independent and prosper. Same thing will happen as in Slovenia when they became EU. But you know what, to hell with EU too, who wants to join such a lame union anyways! I say let Kosova join a union in which it really belongs, the United States of America, now hear that!