KOSOVSKA MITROVICA, Kosovo — The United States and the European Union’s largest countries recognized the independence of Kosovo on Monday, a major boost for the fledgling state, which still faces intense opposition from Russia, Serbia and even some Western European countries over its proclaimed status.
President Bush, traveling in Africa, hailed the new state’s “special friendship” with the United States, promising to set up a U.S. embassy there and inviting Kosovo to establish a diplomatic mission in Washington.
“On behalf of the American people, I hereby recognize Kosovo as an independent and sovereign state,” Bush said in a letter to President Fatmir Sejdiu. “I congratulate you and Kosovo’s citizens for having taken this important step in your democratic and national development.”
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who first announced the U.S. decision, tried to placate the Serbs and by extension their closest allies, the Russians.
“We invite Serbia’s leaders to work together with the United States and our partners to accomplish shared goals,” she said in a statement.
In a widely expected move, Kosovo’s independence from Serbia was declared Sunday by its parliament, which is dominated by ethnic Albanians. The decision has divided the European Union, which is supposed to supervise independence and replace a U.N. mission that has acted as the province’s overseer since Serbian forces withdrew from Kosovo in 1999.
What will happen next is unclear. Russia and Serbia have called on the United Nations to overturn the independence declaration, and Russia appears likely to try to block any attempt to turn the U.N. mission in Kosovo over to the EU.
American and some EU diplomats say they believe U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon can order the transition without going to the Security Council, where Russia holds veto power. But a period of intense diplomatic wrangling is likely.
Thousands of Serbs marched Monday in Kosovska Mitrovica, chanting, “This is Serbia!” Much of northwestern Kosovo, beginning at the Ibar River, which divides Mitrovica, is almost entirely Serb.
“Serbia regards this as theft,” Serbia’s deputy minister for Kosovo, Vuko Antonijevic, said in an interview at the rally. “Serbia will try to keep Kosovo within our borders, and we will use all political and diplomatic means to achieve that.”
In a worrying sign for the new Kosovo government, and the future EU mission, Serb policemen have begun to leave the multiethnic Kosovo police force created by the United Nations and are pledging loyalty instead to authorities in Belgrade, the Serbian capital, local officials said.
