US SAYS KOSOVO NO PRECEDENT FOR NAGORNO-KARABAKH

Reuters
March 5 2008
UK

WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) – The United States expressed
concern on Wednesday about a shootout that killed up to 16 people
in Nagorno-Karabakh, and said Kosovo’s recent breakaway from Serbia
could not be a precedent for the disputed Caucasus mountain enclave.

Earlier, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said Kosovo’s newly declared
independence had emboldened Armenian separatists in the mountainous
enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan accused each
other of stoking the violence there this week.

"We’re concerned by the outbreak of fighting. We want to see that
incident not be repeated," State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.

"Kosovo is not a precedent and should not be seen as a precedent for
any other place out there in the world. It certainly isn’t a precedent
for Nagorno-Karabakh," he said.

Nagorno-Karabakh was seized by pro-Armenian forces from Azerbaijan in a
war in the 1990s in which an estimated 35,000 people died. A ceasefire
was agreed in 1994 but the search for a lasting peace has stalled.

Azerbaijan and Armenia gave differing accounts of the death toll from
Tuesday’s clash.

Muslim Azerbaijan said 12 Armenian fighters and four Azeri soldiers
were killed. Christian Armenia said eight Azeri soldiers died and
two Armenian soldiers were injured.

Casey said Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia on Feb. 17
with strong support from the United States, was a unique situation
because it had been managed by a United Nations resolution that
anticipated a decision on its final status.

A U.S. official telephoned Armenia’s foreign minister to ask that
the violence in Nagorno-Karabakh not be repeated and is on his way to
Armenia in a previously arranged trip to discuss a political standoff
after Armenia’s recent election, Casey said.

The U.S. official, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matt Bryza, has
already stopped in Baku and discussed the Nagorno-Karabakh situation
with officials there, Casey said.

"There is absolutely no military solution to this issue. It’s one
that has to be dealt with through a diplomatic process," Casey said.

Bryza is U.S. co-chair of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe’s Minsk Group, which oversees negotiations
on Nagorno-Karabakh.