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AP Interview: 'I'm no Milosevic,' Serbian far-right leader says. DUSAN STOJANOVICAssociated Press Writer Released : Tuesday, May 06, 2008 12:41 PM BELGRADE, Serbia-BELGRADE, Serbia (AP), Tomislav Nikolic doesn't like to be compared to Slobodan Milosevic. For one thing, he would have never succumbed to western pressure during the wars in the Balkans. "Milosevic was a communist, then a socialist, but he was never a nationalist," Nikolic, the leader of Serbia's far-right Radicals, said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press. Two years after Milosevic, accused of fomenting a bloody breakup of former Yugoslavia, died in prison while on trial for genocide, Nikolic's ultranationalists, who ruled with the former strongman in the late 1990s, may return to power in elections Sunday. "I was very critical of Milosevic. He had stopped short all Serbian actions, which benefited our enemies," Nikolic said, referring to the ethnic wars in Slovenia, Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. "I would have done many things differently. I would have gone all the way," Nikolic said. While Milosevic was criticized in the West for his Balkan war campaigns, and pressured by the West to sign peace deals, nationalists at home took the opposite tack, denouncing him for what they said were stop-and-go wartime tactics that led to the loss of the Serb-populated territories in former Yugoslavia. "Milosevic handed Kosovo to the United Nations, but he knew that that was a road to Kosovo's independence," Nikolic said. "I criticized Milosevic while he was alive, but when he was handed to the (U.N.) tribunal in 2001, I stopped." After a relentless NATO air war campaign, Milosevic ended his crackdown against Kosovo Albanian separatists in 1999 by signing a peace deal that handed the cherished Serbian territory to the U.N. administration. Nikolic also said that he would never hand over the most-wanted Bosnian Serb war crimes fugitives, former political leader Radovan Karadzic and Gen. Ratko Mladic, to the U.N. war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia. He said he does not believe the two men are hiding in Serbia. "I would never deliver them" even if they were, Nikolic said. "I will not lie and say I'm searching for them. I will say I'm not looking for them." The two Bosnian Serbs were political and military leaders during Bosnia's 1992-95 war and are sought on genocide charges. They remain at large despite international pressure for their arrest. The outcome of the parliamentary vote this weekend will determine whether Serbia moves toward the European Union and the U.S., or seeks closer ties with Russia. Pre-election polls suggest the Radicals have a slight lead over the pro-Western opposition, a coalition called "For a European Serbia" led by President Boris Tadic. Outrage over Western support for the independence of Kosovo, the region considered by Serbs to be their historic heartland, is driving many of the 6.7 million voters into the arms of Nikolic's Radicals. About three dozen countries, including 18 of the European Union's 27 states, have recognized a February declaration of independence by Kosovo's majority ethnic Albanians. Russia has supported Serbia's continued claim on the territory. Nikolic said that if his ultranationalists come to power, he would turn Serbia away from its proclaimed goal of joining the European Union and lead it toward Russia. "The stand of the Radicals is that the European Union countries which recognized Kosovo's statehood are not our friends," Nikolic said, adding that he had always been "a Euro-skeptic." "Today, Russia is a desired and a precious partner of Serbia," he said. "If Russia one day decides to form a union to counter the European Union influence, I will propose that Serbia join that union." Nikolic said the Radicals would probably have to form an alliance with outgoing Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica's Popular Coalition because no party is expected to gain an outright majority in the upcoming vote. "There are only two postelection scenarios, our coalition with Kostunica, or another election," Nikolic said. __._,_.___
