Dacic: Manipulation Being Prepared in the Council of Europe

The acting Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, Ivica Dacic, points out that manipulation is being prepared concerning the voting for Kosovo's admission into the Council of Europe, as some countries are not ready to vote despite the positive report by Dora Bakoyannis.

Dacic mentioned on TV Prva that they have now devised a requirement for Pristina to be admitted to the Council of Europe: it must do something for the Community of Serb Municipalities. "And what have they decided? They must send a draft statute to the Constitutional Court. What does it mean to send? What will the Constitutional Court reply? And they will enter the Council of Europe. Who are they kidding?" asked Dacic.

He highlighted that if one looks at their actions, including the recent arrest at the Brnjak crossing of Srecko Sofronijevic, a Serb from Zvecan who was wounded by members of the Kosovo Special Police on October 13, 2021, it is evident that they have lied about everything they promised. "Now the question of their credibility arises, but also what remains for us to do. We will fight," stated the head of Serbian diplomacy.

Dacic also says that votes regarding Kosovo cannot pass in the UN because, he recalls, fewer countries have recognized its independence, and among them, some do not vote for Kosovo. "If it were up to Kosovo, I could tell you exactly how the voting would go: 84 UN member countries recognize Kosovo, 109 do not recognize it, and among those 84 is Hungary which no longer votes for Kosovo. There's no chance that it would pass through the UN," he emphasized.

Taking Srebrenica Out of the Context of the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina is a Misuse

Taking an event like Srebrenica out of the context of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina is a misuse, emphasized today the acting Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, Ivica Dacic.

This, he underlined, is opening Pandora's box for various resolutions and different types of condemnations.

Dacic stated that it is cynical for Germans and Turks to propose a resolution on genocide. "If you look at what is happening in Africa, the current situation in Namibia and Germany's relationship, which killed 20,000 people at the beginning of the 20th century in that country. They returned 1,000 skulls to Africans. The Netherlands has admitted to committing crimes while they managed colonies, not to mention the Belgians who had a zoo of Africans. And if you add the Turkish genocide against our people and the Armenians," he pointed out.

He said that extracting an event like Srebrenica from the context of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina is a misuse of the topic. "How can there be genocide in the territory of one municipality?" asked Dacic.

He stated that the resolution on genocide probably sends a message to Muslims that they are being cared for, so they do not bring up the situation in Gaza, and on the other hand, there will certainly be misuse by the Muslim factor, to try to achieve some unity over it.

"When you mention Kosovo, they say do not return to the past, but they now go back to 1995. The President of Rwanda, who proposed the resolution, said that the last genocide in modern times was in Rwanda, and that was in 1994," Dacic pointed out.

He said that the resolution aims to put additional pressure on Serbia, but also to dispute the existence of the Republic of Srpska.

"Although Serbia is not mentioned, we cannot sit idly by, because if this topic is discussed, someone must stand behind it, and that is the state and the people. You can't say some commander is responsible. This isn't America where some lieutenant was held accountable for crimes in Vietnam. There is a possibility of seeking war damages," he indicated.

Dacic says Serbia will fight, but there is little chance of preventing the resolution from being passed.

"We need to show that this is the politicization of a topic, that it violates the basic principles of the UN Charter, but also the constitutional structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina. All resolutions so far have been made by consensus, all were made with the aim of reconciliation, and here it leads to further divergence and marks one nation as the only culprit for what happened in the territory of the SFRY and to mark Serbs alone next to the Hutus as genocidal," he said.

As he states, we can now expect that there will be more resolutions of this type.

"Germany was condemned for the Holocaust, but genocide was not attached to them, not only for what they did to us but also to other peoples. If Turkey wants to talk about genocide that way, it's not a problem, we can talk about what they did to the Armenians, then Cele Kula. In Jasenovac, even though they say it's only 150,000, now Croatia is a co-sponsor of that resolution on Srebrenica. Then there will be Gaza, African countries. A significant number of countries here understand that it is counterproductive. We believe that it should be postponed," Dacic said.

Reminding that he and Aleksandar Vucic were in opposition when Kosovo declared independence, Dacic says that foreign policy was conducted in a way that was more a personal act of Boris Tadic or Vuk Jeremic, and that nothing was properly considered, as is the case with the lawsuit sent to The Hague.

"After that, we have the transfer of dialogue to Brussels. Jeremic has now sent messages that he would like to help in this regard, why not, I think that's fine. We had two resolutions for the UN and while Jeremic was going to New York, Tadic agreed with Catherine Ashton to transfer the dialogue to Brussels," he said.

He points out that in the Declaration on Srebrenica adopted in 2010 in the Serbian Assembly, it was deliberately not presented as genocide and it was said then that it was an agreement with Turkey and Bosnia and Herzegovina and that they agreed that this ends the story.

"How is foreign policy wrong now when everything was supposed to be concluded with that. Many of them (opposition in Serbia) are happy that this topic exists, and some would be happier if it is adopted than Annalena Baerbock, whose grandfather was a high-ranking official in the Nazi party. Is there anyone who wasn't, 10,000 to 15,000 Germans were condemned for what they did in the world and all this is clear to me, but do not now propose a resolution against the people you killed in World War I and World War II. We will fight to the end, I don't know if we will win, maybe our generations won't, but someone will definitely win," Dacic concluded.

Iran's Attack on Israel Just Another Destabilizing Factor

Regarding last night's attack by Iran on Israel, he said that it is just another destabilizing factor, reminding that the strained relations between Iran and Israel have been ongoing for years and decades, and that it perfectly fits into the already disturbed balance of power in the Middle East and the world.

"We can look at what happened last night in isolation, but we cannot fail to say that a few days ago Israel attacked Iran by targeting a consulate in Syria. This is a response to what was done," he explained.

Dacic said that further escalation must be stopped, and he assessed that it is difficult to expect that any resolution will be adopted at the Security Council meeting.

Serbia's position, he said, is to advocate for peaceful coexistence, which means advocating for the resolution of problems by peaceful means and protecting national and state interests.