Draskovic: Efforts should have been made to avoid the bombing, innocent people suffered

Every NATO missile was filled with the "stubborn" policy of Slobodan Milosevic, without which the bombing would not have occurred, but in 1999 innocent people suffered under the false pretext of fighting against Milosevic, said politician and writer Vuk Draskovic on the 25th anniversary of the NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

"Every NATO missile had Milosevic's filling. Filling of a backward, stubborn, insane policy. If it weren't for that policy, there would have been no bombing," Draskovic told Kosovo Online.

Draskovic entered the government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia at the beginning of 1999 as Deputy Prime Minister in an attempt to prevent the bombing, but ultimately failed and was dismissed after only a few months.

During that period, he says, he was extensively preparing a draft with the European Union envoy Wolfgang Petritsch, which involved two parallel legal systems in Kosovo.

"The Albanians would receive more than autonomy but less than independence, but there had to be two parallel systems so that in all disputes involving both Serbs and Albanians, whether they are criminal or civil cases, the final decision cannot be made by the Supreme Court of Kosovo, but must be made by the Supreme Court of Serbia. We had agreed and initialled everything. But it was all rejected," Draskovic said.

As he says, during that period while he was in the government, he did not represent the president of the country, nor his party, nor the government, but - the people.

"I simply defended that unfortunate, innocent people who suffered, under the false pretext of fighting against Milosevic. Milosevic was not in that train in Grdelica, he was not in Pancevo in those gas pipes, he did not reside in the General Staff that they destroyed," Draskovic emphasized.

This, he says, is unforgivable because they treated Serbia as if a bear took a stone to kill a fly on a man's forehead.

"That's how they destroyed and shelled Serbia, under the pretext that the agreement was not accepted - which is true, and that there was unprecedented terror against the Albanians, which is also true. But, of course, much more effort should have been made just to avoid the bombs and the bombing," Draskovic said.