Paris, 20/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - “Let the European Union help us capture General Ratko Mladic”, wanted for years for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY): this was the call launched on 20 June by the Serbian foreign minister Vuk Draskovic, at the plenary session of the Assembly of the Western European Union (WEU), meeting in Paris until 21 June. In a straight talking speech much appreciated by the Assembly, Mr Draskovic also spoke at length on the on-going negotiations to determine the final status of Kosovo, giving assurances that Serbia was ready to grant the province full autonomy on condition that the rights of the Serbian minority and the borders of Serbia were respected.
A few weeks ago, the European Union suspended negotiations on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) with Serbia, because of Belgrade's failure to cooperate with ICTY. This was an error, according to Mr Draskovic. “If I were the European Commission, I would consider the future of a country and its eight million citizens more important than one man on the run,” he told the Assembly. “Where is Mladic hiding? I don't know. However, the pro-Milosevic forces in Serbia are particularly happy to support Mladic” thereby strangling any European perspective for Serbia, he said. He said that his government was doing all in its power to arrest Mladic, while conceding that within Serbian security forces hunting for the general there still remained supporters of the former regime who were helping him. Hence his message to the EU: “We are asking European intelligence services to help us” capture him.
Speaking about current negotiations on the final status of Kosovo, Mr Draskovic was equally clear. The independence of Kosovo would be “a violation of history and (international) law” which Serbia “will not accept”, he told the Assembly. He also warned the international community: the independence of Kosovo would be seen by Serbs, in Serbia and elsewhere, as a “national humiliation” and could lead to a return to power in Belgrade of “retrograde forces” which see the European Union, the UN and NATO “as enemies”. According to Mr Draskovic, not only is the independence of Kosovo not an economically viable solution for the province, it would also cause those Serbs still living there to flee. That is why Belgrade is ready to grant the province full autonomy. For this, “we ask only two things: international guarantees on the rights of the Serbs of Kosovo, and respect for Serbia's internationally recognised borders”.