[Het Parool, The Netherlands]
Novosti, Russia
Clueless
Americans
Responsible
for Their
Own Burned
Embassy!
"With the U.S. Embassy
ablaze, it was somewhat ridiculous to hear U.S. Deputy Secretary of State
Nicholas Burns' appeal to the Serbs to respect international law. What is he
talking about? He and his colleagues violated it themselves last Monday by
recognizing Kosovo's independence!"
By Dmitry Gornostayev,
Novosti's New York Bureau Chief
Translated By Igor Medvedev
February 22, 2008
Russia
- Novosti - Original Article (Russian)
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| America's Belgrade Embassy set alight last week: Was this merely just desserts? ...
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When the burning of the American
Embassy in Belgrade appeared on television WATCH 
along with
armored personnel carriers (filled with Serb policemen bereft of any desire to
disperse fellow Serbs with Molotov cocktails), I thought to myself: How long
will it be until the Americans remember international law and the Vienna
Conventions? [which safeguard the immunity of
diplomats and embassies] … They remembered very quickly.
It was somewhat
ridiculous to hear U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Nicholas Burns' appeal to the
Serbs to respect international law. What is he talking about? He and his
colleagues violated it themselves last Monday by recognizing Kosovo's
independence!
It's strange to hear words of
indignation when the situation has developed exactly as he and his colleagues
wanted it to. So Kosovo is a unique case, you say? Well isn’t the burning of
the Embassy a unique response to Kosovo's independence? There's no need to draw
any parallels or worry oneself … surely this exception won't occur in
other parts of the world - other embassies won't be burned. As you say, this
case is truly unique ...
Let's look at this again.
Having taken part in the annexation of part of a sovereign state, the United
States is indignant that someone wanted to seize or even burn down part of its
sovereign territory - namely the Embassy. So the U.S. State Department has
appealed to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic immunity. But what about the
U.N. Charter, which guarantees territorial integrity of sovereign states?
Indeed, in recognizing the independence of Kosovo, Washington has openly
violated the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia. So why is it
angry at a Serbian student who did a similar thing to the U.S. Embassy? Every
action has an equal and opposite reaction.
For Americans yesterday, it
was certainly unpleasant and humiliating to watch the Stars and Stripes ablaze
on TV, and Serbs raising a red, blue and white tricolor instead. But few
Americans have seen Orthodox churches ablaze, cupolas with crosses detonated
and Orthodox clergymen exposed to derision in Kosovo. CNN rarely reminds its viewers
of Albanian atrocities.
It was interesting to observe
how the events of yesterday changed the definition of what occurred in
Belgrade. At first there was a "thousands-strong crowd" that somehow
devolved into a "handful" of nationalists, although it was the same
crowd. Oh, the Americans hate to admit they were wrong - after all, who does?
But few have committed so many anti-democratic and inherently illegal actions
in world policy as they have. In the United States, those guilty of such
actions would face life imprisonment if not lethal injection, electrocution or
the gas chamber (how can democracy be preached by a country where 35 states
practice such sophisticated methods of capital punishment?) Everything in fact
began in this same Serbia with the bombing of Belgrade in 1999
. Iraq came later.
If reduced to the terms of
criminal law, these global actions at least qualify as robbery and murder.
According to the laws of Arkansas and Texas - the home states of the past two
U.S. Presidents - the crimes of launching illegal wars in Yugoslavia and Iraq
would be punishable by the death penalty. But at the homes of these U.S.
presidents no one behaves that way - they are decent gentlemen: they play the
saxophone, ride bicycles, keep mistresses under the desk and at the very worst, they drop their bagels and ice cream on the couch. All with perfect decency. But once they go outside, you had
better get out of the way.
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The former Yugoslavia: Still a gaping wound in the heart of Western Civilization ...
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Part of the political lexicon
of the last two presidents before launching a war is the phrase: "The
United States is called on to guarantee ...," and depending on the
situation, they would continue with phrases like "freedom for the people
of Kosovo," "peace and prosperity," or "democracy
throughout the world." Neither of them, however, has ever specified who
imbued the United States with such a mission and where such rights were derived
from.
But these are details that
ordinary Americans never consider until a loved one dies bravely on the
battlefield. In Kosovo, as long as Americans aren't dying like they are in Iraq
they have no reason to question who it is that calls on America to help the Kosovars, and whether it is correct to do so.
Was it the Kosovars who called? What if the Basques, Catalans or
Corsicans appealed to the U.S.? Quebec is unfairly treated by Canada, and by
the way, it's a lot closer. Don’t Turkey's Kurds want help winning their freedom?
Ah yes, they are in Turkey, separatism is a dirty word there
. …
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
Of course, American diplomat
Burns, after receiving the dispatch from Belgrade, appealed to the Serbian
authorities, but there was little they could do. As they were
unable to protect the country that Serbs had entrusted them with, so too were
they unable to defend the territorial integrity of the U.S. Embassy. In
other words, they failed in all respects.
But the blame for the unrest
in Belgrade doesn’t rest with the Serbian government. Having failed to preserve
its territory, it has lost all legitimacy. In such a situation, to disperse its
perturbed citizenry was truly a disgrace - but they had to for fear of being
brought to The Hague [site of the International Court].
This doesn't bode well for
Serbian President Boris Tadic, who had set his sights
on the E.U., or for Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, a graduate of Cambridge and Harvard. They are no
longer capable of assuming responsibility.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
Responsibility for the
pilloried Stars and Stripes rests with American diplomats and officials -
Burns, Condoleezza Rice, Richard Holbrooke, Zalmay Khalilzad, George W. Bush,
Bill Clinton, and Madeleine Albright - all of those who have created this
"unique case," and have never understood how unique it actually is.
CLICK
HERE FOR RUSSIAN VERSION
[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US February 28, 1:56am]
