Rep. calls U.S. Embassy rioters’ behavior ‘Nazi-like’

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher had some sharp words for rioters who attacked the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade last week.

“The people who burned the American Embassy are the same thugs who slaughtered thousands of innocent women and children, and burned hundreds of Catholic churches and mosques in the last decade,” he stated in a news release. “It was the Nazi-like behavior of these same people against the innocent people of the former Yugoslavia that outraged the world and fortified the demand for independence of the Kosovars and other people of the former Yugoslavia.”

Rohrabacher could not point to any specific evidence that those protesting Kosovo’s secession from Serbia were war criminals, though he declined to back down from the tone of his censure in a follow-up interview.

“It’s conceivable that some of them are younger and didn’t participate in the killings 10 years ago, but it’s highly likely that it’s the same clique of people [protesting],” he said. “It’s hard for one to imagine that this isn’t that same group that is engaged in this activity.”

Kosovo was recognized internationally as a province of Serbia until it declared its independence last week. While lacking official United Nations membership, several countries have recognized its independence.

— Chris Caesar