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Denver consul explains conflict, says 'there's no excuse'

Henry Schultz

Published February 22, 2008 at 12:30 a.m.
Updated February 22, 2008 at 9:11 a.m.

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The raw emotions on display Thursday in Belgrade go back centuries.

The honorary Serbian consul in Denver, Steve Katich, doesn't condone the riot and subsequent attack on the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade. But he understands why it occurred.

"There's no excuse for what happened," Katich said. But he said the anger that drove rioters is deep-seated and not likely to abate soon.

Kosovo is not merely a province, Katich said. It is ground hallowed by Serbian bloodshed in a great battle in 1389 against an army sent by the Ottoman sultan. "Kosovo is to Serbia what Jerusalem is to Israel," Katich said.

While the Kosovo declaration was expected, Katich said, it is still unwelcome among the Serbs, and culminates what he characterized as a string of diplomatic errors. All of the parties in the situation "who could do something wrong, did do something wrong," Katich said.

"A negotiated settlement is always preferable to an imposed one," Katich said.

"The ethnic Albanians in Kosovo got everything they wanted and the Serbs did not."

Comments

  • February 22, 2008

    1:23 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Blu writes:

    If it is so important to them, then why didn’t they settle the land with their own people? I’ve read that it’s somewhere around 95% Albanian.