March 2, 2007
Department of State

Assistant Secretary Fried speaks with RTS

On Friday, March 2, Daniel Fried, Assistant Secretary of State of European and Eurasian Affairs, gave an interview to Radio Television Serbia (RTS). Below is a transcript from that interview.

RTS: Mr. Assistant Secretary, first of all thank you for being with us today. I know that you’re traveling to Belgrade over the weekend, you’ll be there Monday, but let’s start with something happening today.

The negotiations between delegations of Belgrade and Pristina ended today in Vienna. None of the proposals of the Serbian delegation were accepted by Marti Ahtisaari or Kosovar Albanians, and basically nothing really changed in Ahtisaari's blueprint. What was the actual purpose of the negotiations in the first place?

Assistant Secretary Fried: Ahtisaari wants to take in comments from Serbia and from the Serbs and from the Kosovar Albanians to his draft plan. This isn’t the final set of discussions. There will be another one on March 10. My understanding is, in fact, that there were some Serbian suggestions that were taken but not the biggest ones.

Look, this is a very difficult process. This is very painful. Ahtisaari’s plan is designed to protect the Serbian historical legacy and the living Serbian community in Kosovo now and in the future. This is a good goal. Serbia needs to understand that whatever happens in Kosovo, whatever happens, the international community believes that Serbia’s presence in Kosovo and the presence of Serbs in Kosovo needs to be respected.

RTS: I read President Ahtisaari’s plan with all 11 annexes very carefully, all 63 or 64 pages. Ahtisaari’s plan stipulates many mechanisms for protection of minorities, but there are no specific mechanisms for sustainable return of more than 200,000 internally displaced people. Most of them are Serbs.

Does this mean that the international community supports the current situation in terms of ethnic minorities which is, frankly said, the consequence of ethnic cleansing that took place after NATO entered in Kosovo in June ’99?

Assistant Secretary Fried: I would not like to go back and debate everything that happened because the ethnic cleansing, as you know, did not begin with NATO. Need I continue? We know what the history is and you do, too, and your listeners do. But to answer your question, I would like to see more Serbs coming back to Kosovo and I would like the Serbs that are there now to remain there, but I would like all of them, and the United States would like all of them to feel secure and to feel that they have a future.

I don’t believe in nationalism of any kind. I don’t believe in Serbian nationalism, Croatian nationalism, or Albanian nationalism. It all brings the same thing, which is nothing good. And we certainly support returnees.

I’m not negotiating this; President Ahtisaari is. But the United States certainly supports the return of people who have left and we would like to see this happen.

RTS: But what are they offering to them? Even if they go back to Kosovo, they don’t have secured jobs, the security situation for minorities is still not good. What can they expect in case that they decide to return?

Assistant Secretary Fried: The security situation needs to be improved. KFOR is going to remain in Kosovo for some time to come, regardless of status. The international community will remain present in Kosovo and in a strong position, regardless of status. It’s important to get the Kosovo economy moving. It doesn’t do anybody any good to return to poverty, to return to an insecure situation.

The challenge now is for all Kosovar – Albanians, Serbs, Turks, Bosniaks, Cigani, everyone, Roma – everyone who is a Kosovar needs to make that place a better functioning place.

It’s been a long time since 1999, and let’s face it. Whatever good the UN administration has done, it has not done – and the UN would admit it – has not done enough to bring prosperity back to Kosovo. So Kosovars need to build a prosperous Kosovo.

RTS: It’s not a secret that there is still no agreement between Moscow and Washington regarding the final status of Kosovo. If Russia maintains its position that as a member of the Security Council it wouldn’t accept the solution that is not acceptable to Belgrade, what will be Washington’s Plan B? Are you going to the Security Council with a draft resolution anyway? Or you will try to find some common ground?

Assistant Secretary Fried: I’m not going to discuss what might be the diplomatic tactics. I will say this. We have worked in the Contact Group with our Russian colleagues very closely. They have supported the Ahtisaari mission. They have been critical, of course, of some elements of the road ahead and they’ve had some things to say about this, but the Russians have behaved and spoken very carefully, and we continue to want to try to work with Russia in the weeks and months ahead.

RTS: I know that in your view, and you’ve stated it a few times, making Kosovo an independent state would not set the precedent for the future. However, don’t you fear that you would be opening Pandora’s box, especially because – if I might repeat again - Russia said very clearly that the case of Kosovo will be used as an example in the future?

Assistant Secretary Fried: Russia has made it clear that it is concerned that others might attempt to use Kosovo as a precedent. But Russia has also made it clear that they will themselves behave and act in a very responsible manner.

Look, precedent is a bad thing. Whatever happens to Kosovo I think it is precedent for nothing. Speaking personally, I felt that the breakup of Yugoslavia produced great evil and great damage. There is no way to role that back, though. Kosovo’s status is the last unresolved issue, and I hope it’s resolved in a peaceful way and I hope it’s resolved soon. But whatever that resolution, Serbia needs to be confident that it has a future in Europe. This is important.

Serbia in its history has drawn close to Europe, and it has at times been part of Europe and part of the European system. Serbia needs to be part of that system again. Serbs deserve this and that’s a good future for Serbia.

RTS: Speaking about Serbia, you will visit Belgrade Monday; you will meet with President Tadić, Prime Minister Kostunica, and Foreign Minister Draskovic. On Monday, you will also give a lecture in Belgrade about the future partnership between United States and Serbia. Your lecture comes at the time when Serbian public seems to believe that the United States have understanding for or even fear of Albanian discontent, while Serbian claims that the international law is being broken in terms of future independence of Kosovo are being easily disregarded. Will you try while you’re in Belgrade to dissuade the Serbs? And will you do that?

Assistant Secretary Fried: I’m looking forward to my trip to Belgrade. I lived there for three years. I have very fond memories of the city and the time I spent there [inaudible]. Any of the places in Belgrade where I used to spend time with my family.

I want to show Serbs and I want to speak to Serbs about a future of friendship with the United States and a future in a Europe whole, free and at peace. This is a Europe which has come into being in the last 15 years, and it’s a Europe that Serbia deserves to be part of and should be part of and I hope will be part of, so that will be what I will talk about.

I could easily spend hours debating Kosovo, the history, 1999, the details. But there’s a larger message which is there’s a future for Serbia in Europe. There’s a future for the Serbian people doing something other than suffering because of the breakup of Yugoslavia, and that’s a future that Serbs have every right to grasp and receive and live with.

RTS: Then I must ask you the question that any ordinary Serb would probably ask you. You’re talking about a partnership. In Serbs’ view, in their eyes, we have the situation in which big brother, meaning the United States, and the smaller brother, Serbia, have relations, but in some way the small brother always has to listen to the big brother, and now small brother fears that big brother wants to take 15 percent of the smaller brothers’ territory. This is the question that Serbs would definitely ask you, because they fear that the United States are behind the idea of independence of Kosovo and taking away 15 percent of the territory of sovereign Serbia.

Assistant Secretary Fried: Well, I find it tragic that Yugoslavia fell apart, but it didn’t just fall apart; it was murdered, and you know what happened. That was a tragedy. But if we can’t have the best outcomes, we can have the best possible outcomes.

You asked about whether the United States listens to Serbia. I will tell you one recent story of how the United States listened very carefully to Serbia. We were debating whether we should support an invitation to Serbia to join NATO’s Partnership for Peace. Serious Serbs – President Tadić, Foreign Minister Draskovic, made a very strong case of why this is good for Serbia, why this is good for Europe. They made powerful, rational arguments. We listened, and we decided to support an invitation to Serbia. That invitation was extended last year. So we do respond to strong arguments like this when they’re made by people who are serious about Serbia’s future in Europe. So we do listen, we will listen in the future.

RTS: But how you will explain to Serbs the fact that the Contact Group stated very clearly that there won’t be a partition of Kosovo, but on the other hand there is a strong possibility that there would be a partition of Serbia?

Assistant Secretary Fried: We never supported the partition of Kosovo. Whatever the problems of the breakup of Yugoslavia, the internal borders of the 1974 constitution have been respected.

I’m not going to say that this is an easy process or even the best process. There was a time when the United States supported the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia but Yugoslavia was not murdered from without; it was killed from within. That process which started without the United States and without Europe was a process inside Yugoslavia, had a consequence. I wish it didn’t, but it did.

Now the question for Serbia is what kind of a future will Serbia have? Is it going to have a future of isolation or self-isolation? Or will it have a future in Europe? That’s the future which I would like to discuss with my Serbian friends next week.

RTS: Mr. Assistant Secretary, thank you very much for this interview and I wish you a pleasant stay in Belgrade.

Assistant Secretary Fried: It will be pleasant and it will be worth having these discussions, even if they’re tough.

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