By
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - In a show of support for newly installed President Vojislav Kostunica, the Clinton administration soon will reopen the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade and also hopes to re-establish diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia quickly.
The State Department also announced yesterday that James C. O'Brien, the senior U.S. official for Balkans developments, was flying to Belgrade to meet with Kostunica, a further reversal of the icy distance that marked Slobodan Milosevic’s rule.
O'Brien will bring the new government up to date on the process of lifting sanctions against Yugoslavia but also will try to ensure that the process doesn't inadvertently enable former aides of Milosevic “to loot assets or somehow misuse state assets,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
O'Brien also will visit Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, and Kosovo, whose autonomy the Clinton administration supports even after the change in government in Belgrade.
Relations with Milosevic were virtually nonexistent in the latter part of his 13-year rule. When presidential elections were held Sept. 24, no U.S. officials had remained in Yugoslavia.
At the Pentagon, spokesman Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said yesterday it might be too early to establish military-to-military ties with Serbia, but he said it's something that might be considered eventually.
On Sunday, President Clinton told Kostunica by telephone that "a lot of hard work" lies ahead in the transition to democracy, and he wants to establish "more normal" relations with Belgrade.
Moving swiftly, the U.S. Embassy would be reopened promptly, and "as far as re-establishing formal diplomatic relations, this is still being discussed with the new government," Boucher said. "We would hope to do this soon, as well."
Also, the spokesman said, the Clinton administration looked "to a rapid expansion of our assistance and other kinds of steps that we can take to help the regime consolidate itself and get on with the task of rebuilding."
Kostunica, a legal scholar, questions the independence of the U.N. war crimes
tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, which has indicted Milosevic for his actions in Kosovo, the province of Serbia that the United States and its NATO allies helped put on a path of self-rule.
The new president has made clear that he will not arrest or extradite Milosevic.
While Boucher did not demand extradition or an immediate trial, he said U.S. policy on having MIlosevic tried in The Hague has not changed.
He said the United States is working with the European Union to decide how much aid to provide the new government, while the World Bank is evaluating the country's needs.
"So that process is under way, and we do think it’s important that it continues," the U.S. spokesman said.
