Russia Warns It Will Use Force To Back Serbia
The international split over Kosovo grew more ominous yesterday as Russia raised the spectre of using force to back Serbia’s bid to retain the territory.
Russia’s envoy to NATO warned the Western military alliance, which has a 16,000-strong peacekeeping force in Kosovo, and the European Union against formally backing Pristina’s declaration of independence.
“If the European Union works out a common position, or if NATO breaches its mandate in Kosovo, these organizations will be in conflict with the United Nations,” said Dmitry Rogozin. Russia believes the UN Security Council resolution on Kosovo does not authorize a unilateral move to independence.
“We, too, would then have to proceed from the view that in order to be respected, we must use brute force, in other words armed force.”
He spoke a day after a mob in the Serbian capital Belgrade torched the U.S. embassy. They were among 250,000 people attending a rally protesting Pristina’s unilateral declaration of independence move and Washington’s recognition of the breakaway state.
