Kouchner and Holbrooke insult Kosachov over Kosovo
French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner and former US Balkans envoy Richard Holbrooke showed extreme lack of diplomatic tact in ther behavior towards the head of the Russian Duma’s Foreign Affairs committee Konstantin Kosachov when he was getting ready to answer a question on Kosovo at a Brussels conference.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Monday, March 17, 2008
Kouchner, Holbrooke and Kosachov were participating at a press conference following a debate at the three-day "Brussels forum".
Answering the question on whether the Kosovo case was a precedent, Holbrooke took the word first and said there was "no precedent".
"Russia has to adopt an identical position to the one which have the US and the EU - that Kosovo is a unique case ... there is no precedent", Holbrooke said.
Kouchner took the microphone next and said that "Holbrooke was absolutely right".
"We did not have a choice ... when two communties cannot speak to each other, but they only speak through arms, there is no choice but to separate them", Kouchner said.
Upon Kosachov's turn to respond, Kouchner hugged Holbrooke and showed him the way down from the conference podium, to the general surprise of the Russian deputee, the organizers and the press.
As Kosachov waited to answer, Kouchner and Holbrooke spoke loudly for about a minute in front of his podium and then walked out of the room, stopping just to take a coffee on a table next to the door.
Kosachov, who quietly watched as Kouchner and Holbooke were leaving, said: "I just
want to tell to Kouchner and Holbrooke before they definitely leave the room that they are completely wrong on Kosovo".
Kouchner then turned around, sneaking through the door, and screamed laughingly: "History will judge!".
Kouchner headed the UN mission in Kosovo at the time of the ethnic cleansing campaign which left 200,000 Serbs fleeing the province in 1999.
Holbrooke was instrumental in setting the scene for the 1999 bombings, after coordinating actions with then KLA leader and now Prime minister of Kosovo Hashim Thaqi in the summer of 1998.
