BBC News
September 7, 2001
WIFE HAILS MILOSEVIC THE 'FREEDOM FIGHTER'
Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic will be recognised as a
freedom fighter and a man of justice, according to his wife Mira
Markovic. In an exclusive interview with the BBC's Hardtalk programme -
the first British television interview since her husband's arrest for
alleged war crimes - she says that Western powers were responsible for
the bloodshed in the Balkans.
Mr Milosevic is facing a series of charges at the war crimes tribunal in
The Hague - charges that arise from the Kosovo conflict in 1999.
Mrs Markovic tells Hardtalk's Tim Sebastian: "The bloodshed in the
Balkans was the result of the policy directed from outside Yugoslavia,
with the intent to destroy Yugoslavia, to obliterate it. Yugoslavia
ceased to exist. It disappeared in a bloodbath.
"Our responsibility for that bloodshed is minor. The responsibility
should be borne by those outside of Yugoslavia who financed this
bloodshed."
'Not ashamed'
Speaking of her husband's arrest, Mrs Markovic says: "He was arrested in
a very devious way. He was blackmailed. He was told that either everyone
would be killed or he was to go to jail. Clearly, he decided he would
rather be arrested than to sacrifice anyone's life."
And she says the name Milosevic is synonymous with freedom fighting.
"He is now, and in the coming years he will become even more, a synonym
for freedom fighter, a synonym of a man that stood up against violence,
a global violence that left such painful, bloody scars in the region we
live in," she says.
"As far as he is concerned, he fought for freedom, for independence."
Mrs Markovic says she is not ashamed of her nation's past.
She blames the West for the mass graves and says most of them date from
previous Balkan wars.
"I don't feel any shame. On the contrary, I'm proud of my people and I
am sure that throughout its history it pursued - as far as wars are
concerned - a defence policy.
"If there is something that I'm ashamed of, then it's 28 June when the
Serbian people shut their eyes. The fact that their representative for
many years, the president of Serbia, was abducted and taken to The Hague
by night."
She denies her husband has considered suicide and speaks of him as an
inspiration to "many poor, small and humiliated nations throughout the
world".
"He will be the symbol of the struggle against humiliation, injustice,
violence and hatred among all people," she says.
And she adds that her husband will eventually be recognised as "a man of
justice", saying: "In our lifetime, you will see that I was right, that
all those supporting Milosevic are right, all those that realise that he
is the embodiment of the struggle for truth, justice and freedom for
all."
The full Hardtalk interview with Mrs Markovic can be seen as part of a
Balkans week special on BBC News 24 at 2230 on Monday 10 September and
will also be available at BBC News Online.
Serbian News Network - SNN
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.antic.org/
