Serbs cautioned by US against any partition attempt in Kosovo

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
The Bush administration notified Serbia on Thursday it was "absolutely opposed" to any attempt to partition Kosovo so that the Serbian minority could have its own homeland. "We will not support any form of partition," Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said at a news conference. And, he said, "the great majority of countries would not stand for that." Kosovo, which has declared independence with strong US support and over the anger of Belgrade, has a majority ethnic Albanian population. Many Serbs view Kosovo as the cradle of their culture and Orthodox Christian faith. There are some 100,000 Serbs living in Kosovo, most of them in the north, with several enclaves in southeastern Kosovo. They have ignored Kosovo's declaration and threatened to set up their own institutions.