Starovic: There is no question of crime in Racak, Pristina wants to shift the focus from its obligations

The Defense Ministry State Secretary Nemanja Starovic said for RTS that there was no question that it was about liquidated civilians, as evidenced by the paraffin gloves that were used, regarding the statement of the Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti that the prosecutor's office in Pristina issued a warrant for the arrest of 18 Serbs who are allegedly responsible for the events in Racak in 1999.

Starovic stated in the morning program of RTS TV channel that by mentioning Racak, Pristina wanted to shift the focus from its obligations. One of the most important, he says, is the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities formation.

"I think it is another move in the context of what we witness in the middle of January every year, which is the heating up of the narrative about the alleged massacre in the village of Racak. I think our public is already well enough acquainted with all the facts. It is also known abroad that it was about a professionally conducted anti-terrorist action by Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs members. The findings of the pathologists, both ours and all the pathological teams, clearly speak of that," Starovic points out.

Starovic adds that there were no crimes against civilians in Racak but that there were people who carried weapons in their hands.

"There is no question that it is about liquidated civilians, the paraffin gloves that were used testify to that. So, it is about people who carried weapons in their hands. There is no question of any executions, the autopsy reports speak clearly of it," Starovic stated.

Starovic recalled the testimony of the Finnish pathologist Helena Ranta, who described in her memoirs the pressures she was under while writing the report on Racak.

"We even have the testimony presented in the memoirs by Mrs. Helena Ranta, the head of the Finnish forensic team, about the kind of pressure, even aggressive pressure she was under, by Mr. William Walker, to go to a press conference with a vague enough report that could serve as the basis for a horrible media campaign that was launched about the alleged liquidation, massacre of civilians in the village of Racak, all in order to justify the NATO alliance aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia," Starovic said.

Starovic adds that we have witnessed the strengthening of stereotypes over the years that Serbs are allegedly to blame for everything bad that happened in the 1990s.

"What we have been witnessing for years, and now for the last few days, is the heating up of those narratives on the one hand in the Western media to retrospectively justify the crime of aggression that was carried out against our country. And when we talk about Pristina and some other places in the region, the purpose of that heating up, of that campaign that we are witnessing is to somehow additionally strengthen those stereotypes, those black legends that were built in the nineties about some sort of universal and presumed guilt of Serbs for all the bad things that were done during the nineties, and in order to justify an absolutely unacceptable anti-civilizational attitude towards members of the Serbian community in the territory of Kosovo today," Starovic said.