Serbian ambassador recalled from U.S. after recognition of Kosovo

February 18, 2008 After the recognition of Kosovo as an independent state by the U.S. government, the Serbian ambassador to the U.S. was recalled today as a protest to this decision. Serbia says it will do the same to all countries that treat Serbia's breakaway as a state, prime minister Vojislav Kostunica says. "We ordered the urgent withdrawal of our ambassador to Washington, and his return to Belgrade, that is the government's first urgent measure."

Serbia's province of Kosovo declared independence last Sunday. The province has been under administration of the United Nations for almost nine years. "We all know that this unilateral, illegal, violent and immoral proclamation of a false state on the territory of Serbia was possible only under the auspices of brutal force, of the U.S. and NATO," Kostunica says, "The proof is the attempt to avoid the United Nations, and the disunity among European Union member states in spite of unbearable pressure by the U.S. The main goal of Serbia's state policy is the return of Kosovo to Serbia."

In Kosovo a minority of approximately 120,000 Serbs live with a majority of about two million Albanians.