Zeman and Klaus: Kosovo, a terrorist state that the Czech Republic should not have recognized

Former Czech presidents Vaclav Klaus and Milos Zeman assessed that Kosovo was a terrorist state that Prague should not have recognized on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Czech Republic's NATO membership, Beta reports.

"Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci is currently facing the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague for war crimes. He's not alone. A whole series of Kosovo's top officials are accused. I've said that Kosovo is essentially a terrorist state. I didn't just support this with drastic cases like organ harvesting, even from living people," Zeman said last night on Czech public television CT.

He emphasized that he allowed for the possibility that there had been similar violence from the Serbian side but, as he pointed out, to a far lesser extent and it hadn't been systematic.

"That wasn't the government's doctrine when Kosovo was, and still is, a terrorist state. So, even though Klaus and I disagreed on many things, neither of us ever considered agreeing to appoint a Czech Ambassador to Kosovo," Zeman said.

As evidence for his claims that Kosovo was not a normal democratic regime, he cited the current behavior of the authorities in Pristina towards the Serbs in northern Kosovo.

Klaus largely agreed with him, stating that the Czech recognition of Kosovo was carried out without his knowledge, even though he was the president at the time.

"I considered it scandalous that the then Minister of Foreign Affairs (Karel) Schwarzenberg recognized Kosovo without discussion in the government and without informing the President of the Czech Republic, which was me at the time, that such a thing would happen. I was very angry with Schwarzenberg, and that should never have happened," Klaus said on the CT show where he appeared as a guest alongside Zeman.

Although both Zeman and Klaus listed the bombing of FR Yugoslavia in 1999 as one of the two biggest mistakes of Western allies in the last quarter-century, they refused to say that at that time or at any time they thought the Czech Republic should not have joined NATO.

"When our government, as the last one, approved the flight of planes, that was the first moment when I told myself that NATO had made a mistake. Although I supported joining NATO, and still do, for heaven's sake, it doesn't mean that I will see everything as a clear sky even without clouds," Zeman said.

Klaus recalled that he had been angry with Zeman's government, which had given the green light for the bombing of FR Yugoslavia.

"I was a categorical opponent of the bombing of Serbia, Kosovo, and all those areas. I was angry with Zeman's government for giving consent," Klaus said.