http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2008&mm=10&dd=07&nav_id=54034Koštunica:
Serbia still too weak for EU
7 October 2008 | 10:36 | Source: Beta
NOVI SAD -- Serbia needs to beef up before it joins the EU, and not delude
itself by thinking that this will begin the moment it becomes a member, says
Vojislav Koštunica.
“You first have to have your own strengths when you enter the EU, while at the
same time, you have to know who you are and what it is that you’re entering,”
the former prime minister told Vojvodina TV.
According to him, European integration will undoubtedly be affected by the
Kosovo question and Serbia’s stance on Kosovo independence.
“We’ve stood our ground, we haven’t gone to war, we haven’t brought the misery
of sanctions on to Serbia, and we’ve kept recognition of Kosovo recognition
down to a small number of countries, and through a certain legal procedure,
we're fighting for Kosovo to remain part of Serbia,” said the Democratic Party
of Serbia (DSS) leader.
He stated that those most guilty for the small number of citizens that had
returned to Kosovo were the international military and civil forces in the
province since 1999.
“The responsibility lies with all of them, given the endless funds pumped into
Kosovo and its failed economy. The greatest responsibility lies on those who
have failed to guarantee the safety of the Serbs, and who have failed to enable
the majority of those who left Kosovo to return,” said Koštunica.
The DSS leader said that all unsolved crimes in Kosovo, as well as the attempts
at ethnic cleansing on March 17, 2004, were the responsibility of the
international community.
“The whole business about Kosovo has nothing to do with the Kosovo Albanians
and their interests, but above all the interests of the U.S. to rectify the
mistake they made after World War II, which was to be militarily present in
South-East Europe and in the Balkans,“ he surmised.
According to Koštunica, the U.S. wanted to ensure its presence through a
“quasi-state“, whose population and institutions, they had assessed, would look
on their presence, through NATO, kindly overall.
Boba Borojevic
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