Fire in Belgrade

When, in October of 2005, President Tadic of Serbia stopped by the offices of the Sun, he sat in front of the portrait of Lucy Dawidowicz that hangs in the editorial room and, in respect of the way Serbs feel about Kosovo, referred to it as "our Jerusalem." That struck us as a bit exaggerated, but neither do we have any illusions about the pain the Serbs are going through in the wake of Kosovo's declaration of independence. None of it justifies the spectacle in Belgrade yesterday, where the American embassy was sacked and burned. It's going to be illuminating to see how blame for the burning of the American embassy in Belgrade gets divvied out in the current political campaign.

There will be a temptation, particularly on the anti-Bush left, to blame America for bringing the riots in Belgrade upon itself; shouldn't Secretary Rice have known that the recognition would set off the events that led to the burning our embassy? Etc., etc. But the real, the only culprit in yesterday's lawlessness was the Serb premier, Vojislav Kostunica, which is full of ironies. He would never had acceded to the presidency, whence he moved to the prime minister's office, were it not for the steadfast support of the free nations against which he now rails as he whips his countrymen into a tantrum.

Over the weekend, Mr. Kostunica called the birth of Kosovo "an act of unprecedented lawlessness" that came as "a result of destructive, cruel and immoral policy of force implemented by the U.S." He went on, "America forced Europe to follow it in unprecedented violence demonstrated against Serbia. Europe has bent its head today and that is why it will be responsible for far-reaching consequences that this violence will have on the European and world order." His rant has the same rhythm of the dictator whom Mr. Kostunica replaced in Slobodan Milosevic, except that back then, Mr. Kostunica led a coalition supported diplomatically and financially by America, Europe and a network of non-governmental organizations.

While Mr. Kostunica was always a nationalist, he prevented Milosevic from stealing the election in 2000 because of a coalition of Serb neighbors, students, and laborers known as Otpor. Credit for the regime change in Belgrade from 2000 belongs to the patriots who mounted the velvet revolution there. But America underwrote their training at the American embassy in Budapest. There had been a hope, at least in some quarters, that some kind of improvements could be made in Kosovo that would lead to an accomodation. But at no point did Mr. Kostunica offer the Kosovo Albanians a way to share power, enjoy a kind of federal home rule, or any other gesture to make amends for the crimes of 1998 999.

Mr. Tadic had talked of that when he visited us, but it didn't happen. As the former envoy to the Bosnian Federation, Daniel Serwer, characterized it to us yesterday, Serbia's policy has been: "The land is ours, we don't care what happens to the people." So the independence that many saw as inevitable for Kosovo has arrived and can be put down under the heading, "war has consequences." The burning of our embassy in Belgrade is a reminder that whoever accedes in Washington 11 months from now is going to face a
world where all sorts are going to try to test the new administration, and some of it will erupt when attention is riveted elsewhere.