U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Wednesday said she hopes Serbia will accept a resolution of Kosovo's status and move forward to fuller integration with Europe. Kosovo, a Serbian province administered by the United Nations since 1999, is expected to declare independence within days.
美国国务卿赖斯星期三表示，她希望塞尔维亚接受有关科索沃地位的解决方案，与欧洲进行更加全面的整合。科索沃是塞尔维亚的一个省份，自从1999年以来受联合国的管辖。科索沃预计在几天内宣告独立。
The United States is widely expected to join European Union allies in recognizing Kosovo's independence once it is officially declared. And Rice is counseling Serbia, which has adamantly opposed the loss of the majority ethnic-Albanian region, to accept the reality of the situation and move on.
人们广泛预计，一旦科索沃正式宣告独立，美国将加入其欧洲盟国的行列，承认科索沃的独立。赖斯正在劝说塞尔维亚接受这个事实，把这件事抛在脑后。塞尔维亚坚决反对失去这个阿尔巴尼亚族占多数的地区。
Appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday, in a session nominally devoted to the U.S. foreign affairs budget, Rice said fuller integration with Europe lies ahead for Serbia once the Kosovo issue is settled, a process she acknowledged will not be easy for Belgrade:
星期三，美国参议院外交委员会开会讨论美国的外交事务预算时，赖斯向这个委员会表示，一旦科索沃问题尘埃落定，塞尔维亚将与欧洲实现更加全面的一体化。她承认这个过程对贝尔格莱德来说不会轻松。
"I do know that this is going to be an extraordinarily difficult period of time for the Serbian people. And what the United States will be doing is offering a hand of friendship, saying that the status of Kosovo, and its resolution, will allow Serbia to look forward and to move on then with what it needs to do," she said.
赖斯说：“我很清楚，对塞尔维亚人民来说，这将是一个极为艰难的时期。美国要做的是伸出友情之手说，科索沃的地位以及有关科索沃的解决方案将允许塞尔维亚向前看，向前迈进，做它需要做的事。”
The Bush administration has endorsed the plan of U.N. envoy Martti Ahtisaari, a former President of Finland, for supervised independence for Kosovo, and there is bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress for that policy.
布什政府赞成担任联合国特使的前芬兰总统阿赫蒂萨里提出的方案，监督科索沃的独立。这个政策得到美国国会两党的一致支持。
However at Wednesday's hearing, Republican Senator George Voinovich of Ohio told Rice he is concerned that an independent Kosovo may lack the infrastructure for viable independence. "I'm very, very worried, Madam Secretary, about what is going to happen there, because I'm getting mixed signals. I think probably they're going to declare their independence. The European Union is going to go along with it. But I'm just really fearful that the infrastructure that was set out in the plan that was negotiated may not be there to get the job done. And if that goes in the wrong direction, I think as you know it is going to cause real problem in our goal of bringing that part of the world into Europe," he said.
可是，在星期三的听证会上，来自俄亥俄州的共和党参议员乔治.沃伊诺维奇对赖斯说，他担心科索沃可能缺乏实现独立的基本条件。他说：“国务卿女士，我对那里的局势非常非常担心，因为我所得到的情况忧喜参半。我认为，科索沃可能会宣布独立，欧盟也会支持，可是我很担心谈判计划中提出的基本条件可能还不存在。一旦出了问题，我想你也知道，我们试图把科索沃融入欧洲的目标就难以实现。”
Rice told Voinovich the Bush administration had held two top-level meetings on Kosovo in as many days, and has had intensive talks with European allies on making a transition to supervised independence as smooth as possible.
赖斯对沃伊诺维奇说，布什政府为科索沃问题举行了两次高级会谈，会谈持续了很多天，也和欧洲盟国展开深入会谈，讨论如何尽可能地让科索沃向监督下的独立平稳过渡。
She said the E.U. is sending a police and justice mission there to back up NATO troops providing security, and that protecting the rights and religious shrines of Kosovo's Serb minority is a high priority for all those concerned.
赖斯说，欧盟即将向科索沃派遣一个警察和司法代表团，帮助北约部队维持安全，保护科索沃塞族人的权益以及他们的宗教圣地是所有有关各方的首要任务。
Rice also told Voinovich she had personally intervened with NATO to offer Serbia membership in the alliance's Partnership for Peace even though key Bosnian-Serb war crimes figures from the Balkans conflict remain at large.
赖斯还对沃伊诺维奇说，虽然巴尔干冲突中的主要战争罪犯仍然在逃，可是在她亲自干预下，北约还是愿意接受塞尔维亚成为和平夥伴关系成员。 |