INTERVIEW OF
SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC TO POLITIKA
The interview was given to Politika's
Editor-in-Chief Hadzi Dragan
ANTIC on Wednesday, December 29, in the President's
Politika: Will the new millennium be better, bring greater justice?
Milosevic: It should. Facts
indicating the need for progress are many and undeniable.
Economic development in the
twentieth century has been constantly on the increase, encompassing ever more
countries. Political freedom has been greater than ever before in history.
Science has developed to such an extent that it exercises a decisive influence
on the quality and character of human life. A cure has been found for most
diseases that had plagued the mankind for centuries. The number of the
illiterate has dwindled, while that of highly educated people has soared. The
mankind has largely harnessed nature and it often seems that it is an absolute
master of nature it in some areas. People seem to be able to produce all they
need, and more. People on the whole have never lived better than they do today.
Of course, there is the
underside to all of that. The threat of war is present in all corners of the
globe. There is no sign that local wars will stop in the near future, and fear
of a global war is justifiably present in the minds of all men on the Earth.
The environment is threatened by man and is in turn a source of danger to his
life. The poor nations, the underdeveloped countries still make the majority of
the world's population, and the movement of this segment of humanity towards
the developed world, and especially towards the rich, is still slow.
Aggressiveness as a characteristic of man's personality has not given way,
despite man's achievements in the spheres of economic development, education,
science, art, politics...
I am optimistic, and not
without reason. I believe that the positive trend that has manifested itself in
the twentieth century will overcome the destructiveness, which has attained high
proportions, especially towards the end of this century. Perhaps, though,
destructiveness is no greater today than it ever was; it may be that people
have greater capability than before to see it and understand the threat coming
from it.
I am convinced, therefore,
that the new century will be better and bring greater justice, provided, of
course, that the people are capable of differentiating between right and wrong,
good and evil, that they know what to do for the former and how to fight the
latter.
Pressure and
attacks on our country that have been going on for more than a decade
culminated in the past year. What does the West want?
The West wants to conquer
the whole world. The most highly developed part of the world, which in general
calls itself the West, wants to press the whole world around it into service,
to serve its interests. The rich countries want to be richer. In order to do
this, they need other countries as a source of constant and limitless
enrichment. So far, this developed part of the world has exhibited considerable
unity. Or so it seems. However, as their need for expansion grows, so will
their envy of each other. This envy may plunge the world - both the developed
world and the underdeveloped world - into large-scale, tragic conflicts, the
outcome of which might be disastrous for the mankind.
Let us hope that the
developed part of the world will come to the realisation
of the threat coming to them from themselves in such a world. It is also to be
expected that the rest of the world, too, will find the strength to unite and
oppose the destruction looming ahead if it waits for things to sort themselves
out. In life, nothing ever sorts itself out, nothing, at least, of any
importance. Everybody should contribute to a better and more equitable world in
the coming century.
The Chinese Embassy
in
The Chinese Embassy was targeted
intentionally and in a very planned way. It was a message to
Of course, the bombing of
the Chinese Embassy, as a message, was understood by the Chinese, Yugoslavs and
all others. The message was not very complicated, or ambiguous. After all, the
West is not capable of sending to the East messages that the East would receive
as puzzles it cannot understand. It can only be the other way round.
That is why the Chinese not
only quickly understood the message, but also quickly responded to it. Not only
on the part of the government, but also on the part of the people. They
responded that they would defend their country fiercely and that they have every
intention to develop quickly and that in international matters they would
always support peace, equality between peoples, the right of every country to
manage its own life...
With such attitudes,
Our relations with
Do you see the
future of
For
In that case, it must
respect the rules of life in a joint state with another people or with another
unit of that state, in the first place, the Constitution which was adopted by
both of them. The Constitution, of course, can be changed and it is good that
it is changed. We live in dynamic times and it is only logical that the state
is managed in a dynamic way, by taking into consideration the rhythm of changes
occurring in such times.
Life together is nice and
easy for those who want to live together, and hard and ugly for those who are
forced to live together. When they are forced to live together, life not only
is not nice and easy, but it has no prospects.
At the turn of the
century in which two tragic world wars and countless small wars were waged, the
biggest military power in the world attacked us or, to be more precise, again
attacked us. How do you comment that event with respect to the future of our
country, and also the future of all of the mankind?
The aggression on the
Our country has stated its
opinion, rebelled, and it became the object of retaliation.
I want especially to point
to the great experience of
But that characteristic and
that heritage does not imply denying the right to freedom and independence.
The aggression against our
country has united us while the aggression lasted. Everyone knows that since
the beginning of the aggression the unity of our heroic people amazed the
world. At least the part of the world that has free media, where there is no
censorship and where correspondents who report the truth and journalists whose
commentaries contribute to that truth are not fired.
But at issue is not the
unity of our people in difficulties, hardships during the war. At issue is a
united, proud and enthusiastic resistance to the aggressor who prepared to be
the occupier. That resistance was unique, magnificent and for them unexpected.
The feeling of invincibility, superiority, stubbornness, goodness - all that
created a special kind of resistance, that was admired in countries where there
is freedom of the media, and in countries ruled by censorship and autocracy was
concealed from the public.
Just as in those countries
was concealed everything else about
Lessons have been drawn
from the aggression against
Ethnic Albanian
separatists and their NATO sponsors wish to snatch away Kosovo-Metohija. What will happen to Kosovo-Metohija?
Ethnic Albanian separatism
in Kosovo-Metohija has been powerless to attain its
goals even by involving the most powerful ally on the planet in the form of
NATO and its war machine. The guarantees of our sovereignty and territorial
integrity are not the product of anybody's subjective good will, but terms on
which the war was stopped. These guarantees that we accepted are to us final
and unalterable. To us, all decisions that run counter to these guarantees as
set down in the Ahtisaari-Chernomyrdin Plan and the
UN Security Council Resolution 1244 are illegal, null and void. The presence of
security forces under UN auspices is temporary. We must bear it and exercise
great patience.
Nobody can take Kosovo away
from us.
When all is said
and done, we shall remember the year 1999 as a war year. Criminals attacked us,
devastating and killing. Will they answer for this and shall anybody indemnify
us for the huge damage.
The question of their
accountability is not a matter for posterity alone, this question is already
being asked throughout the world, although for the most part it is still in the
realm of moral condemnation. Doubtless, however, everybody expects that they
will answer for it. We expect it, because we were subjected to tremendous
devastation, we had huge casualties, all people in
Many others in the world,
too, hope that the criminals will answer for their crimes - many in the world
public, whole countries, the majority of the people, all normal people. But,
accountability is feared by those at whose door it should be laid. These are
not the times of Attila the Hun, so that slaughter of nations and crimes
against people should be committed with impunity, except possibly individually.
In the mid-1900's, fascism
answered before the mankind. I believe that this neo-fascist beast will not
escape the judgment of its age, of humanity in its time, not at some future
date.
As for war reparations,
they go with accountability. Unless the so-called international community can
find those responsible for the crime committed against our country, then let it
take upon itself the responsibility for the crime and indemnification for that
part of the damage that can be indemnified with money.
The decision to launch the
process of swift, intensive reconstruction of all material goods destroyed in
the air strikes was not motivated by a hope that we should be relying on war
reparations. The decision was based on the conviction that we could rely on our
own forces and that we should do our utmost to restore as quickly as possible
the devastated facilities of vital interest for the life of the country. Of
course, in this reconstruction we have the support of some countries, some
foreign companies, many individuals all over the world. But the crucial
financial source for the reconstruction so far has been our country itself.
Quite apart from
the unpleasantness that it brought to us all, last year brought some pleasant
things in your private life. Your grandson Marko was born on the Serb New
Year's Day. How much has this happy occasion in your family changed your life?
The birth of our grandson
Marko on January 14 of this year has made this difficult year better than it
would have been without this happy event in our family. Of course, little Marko
has changed our lives. Until a child is born to your child, you never know how
much that tiny new being will mean in your life.
Our little grandson is
beautiful, lovable and looks very, very much like our children Marija and Marko when they were his age. When we compare
his pictures with those of our daughter and son at the age of one, we hardly
see a difference. Perhaps only that little Marko is a bit chubbier. He is
growing up surrounded by love from the families of his mother and father and I
hope that this will help in the formation of his character.
When one takes a
look at what has been happening to us, not only this past year, but the last
few years, one might wonder how we can still be standing. Constant sanctions,
various restrictions, from sports cooperation to cooperation in research and
culture, bans on traffic, on oil... to the actual physical destruction of our
industry and infrastructure, have still not destroyed us. We live modestly,
with self-denial, but it would seem that, despite strenuous efforts, the countries
in our neighborhood, especially the former socialist countries, although
without sanctions and with all their transition, have not yet caught up with
us. Do you believe that, economically, even without the World Bank and the
much-vaunted IMF (International Monetary Fund) we can prosper?
Certainly. Next year, our
priority targets, apart from the country's reconstruction, will concern
development, greater agricultural and industrial production, higher wages,
higher living standards and employment. The reconstruction of the country is
going ahead swiftly and successfully. There is every reason for the process of
attaining the development targets to be swift and successful, too.
But I do not see why we
should be without the support you mention. If the International Monetary Fund
and the World Bank are truly international and truly global, then they must
work in the interests of all countries and all nations. Selective support to
only some countries and only some nations strips them of the quality of being international
institutions. In that case, the support of such institutions will be denied to
many countries that are not on the list of favorites of the financial lobby
that abuses the names of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for
the attainment of its extremely partial interests.
This is becoming quite
clear not only to financial experts and educated politicians, but to the wide
public as well. We have all seen recently how ignominiously, humiliatingly
ended the session of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle, where
hundreds, thousands of people both from the United States and from all over the
world protested against the abuse of this international organization by the
United States and its attempt to impose its interests totally, brazenly and
quite brutally on all, even on its European partners - the most highly
industrialized western European states. The degradation of global institutions
such as the UN, the IMF, the World Bank... or of regional ones, such as the
OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) by making them serve
Washington's purpose does not have only negative consequences. It also creates
a need for all free countries of the modern world to face up to the threat of
hegemony more quickly and efficiently.
But, let us go back to the
end of your question, which concerns our foreign economic and financial
cooperation. We have no intention of isolating ourselves. That is what our
enemies are trying to do to us. That is why they are keeping the sanctions in place.
We, on the contrary, are linking up and cooperating with many countries of the
free world - the whole planet. And the fact that the IMF and the World Bank do
not finance us on NATO's dictates has not stopped our credit arrangements with
friendly nations being greater at this time than the combined credit
arrangements of all our neighbors, although they have the support, albeit
verbal, of the IMF and the European Union and the World Bank and America.
You are the head of
the state, but you are also the leader of the strongest political party. A
congress of the Socialist Party of Serbia is due to be held very soon. What do
you expect from it?
We expect that the
Socialist Party of Serbia will pursue its patriotic policy as it has since its
formation in 1990. We have been defending our country and people for ten years.
Some have understood that the country was under attack only when the bombs
started falling. And if we hadn't defended the country, before that, all those
ten years, we wouldn't have defended it when the bombs started falling.
By acting in the hardest
years in the century for the Serbian people and for the citizens of Serbia, SPS
attempted to find the right answer for the time we live in. Citizens believed
in that answer for a whole decade by voting at all elections held so far for
SPS. That is an important support to our belief that we have found the correct
answer for the hard, tumultuous, unfortunate times. It is possible that the
answer was not always the best one, that it could have been better. It is
important, however, that we had the best intentions, that we made a lot of
efforts and that we are ready to face the facts and create our policy
accordingly.
Moreover, SPS will try to
help strengthen the leftist block that is growing in our country and getting a
new face. The fact that there are other and different leftist parties is only
logical.
After all the left was
always a diverse front that encompassed very different visions of the left, and
progressive.
At the same time, since our
country is exposed to huge pressures from abroad that culminated last spring in
the military aggression on Yugoslavia, I do not think it is time for party
fervor, and especially it is not the time for inter-party conflicts. I think
this is the time for all parties for which the homeland has the highest value,
for whom love for the homeland is the strongest feeling, for whom everything
they do in political life is guided by patriotism, to find points in common in
the efforts to ease the difficult times for their people, to fight together for
happier days for all, the entire country.
That is why I am confident
that SPS will build at the congress and after it the spirit of a patriotic
front, of true solidarity and cooperation with all who wish well to their country
- peace, economic prosperity, modern cultural development, cooperation on an
equal footing with all countries in the world.
Does the
unification of Russia and Belarus mark the beginning of the renewal and of
stronger ties between countries of the Soviet Union and is it at the same time
an indication of larger integration processes between Russia, China, India and
the creation of a counter-balance to America?
The unification of Russia
and Belarus is an indicator of a possible process of rapprochement and
connections between Euro-Asian peoples and states that could represent, if
closer and quicker connections are established, the beginning of the
establishment of a world balance that was completely abolished in the early
90s. The dissolution of the Warsaw pact and the Union of East European
countries not only abolished balance in the world, but left a complete freedom
of action to the surviving block, in the first place the NATO military
alliance, to redraw the borders of countries, manage states, provoke wars,
impose sanctions, punish the disobedient, reward the obedient and submissive,
and in general to organize the world to their liking.
That is why all serious,
and especially large-scale connections, any where in the world, are a change
towards the establishment of balance which has been lacking for an entire
decade and a chance for the protection of the mankind from hegemony and
violence that accompanies it.
Our Assembly
(Parliament) has some time ago approved a project for our country to join the
Union of Russia and Belarus. Now that the Union has been formalized, is there a
chance of our status in the Union being formalized too?
We stand by that decision
and we hope that we shall in the foreseeable future, not some distant future,
join the Union. I hope that this will be in the best interest of our country,
as well as in the interest of the concept of linkage of Slavic and other
nations which aspire to the common the goal of living in peace and developing
in freedom.
Great countries,
such as China, Russia, India, the Arab world, South America and Africa, no
doubt support our just struggle for independence and territorial integrity. The
public opinion in Europe, too, increasingly realizes how much Yugoslavia was
first demonized in the media and then brutally attacked by NATO states. What is
your view of relations with Europe, and what of relations with the other
countries?
First of all, we are not
outside Europe. Yugoslavia is a European country. The question to be asked is
how our relations will develop with the countries of the European Union or the
countries that took part in the aggression on Yugoslavia or the neighboring
countries, and so on. Answers differ very much. Except in one thing. We wish to
cooperate with the whole world and by the same token with the countries on the
continent that we live in. We are understandably especially interested in
cooperating with the countries on the continent.
However, that cooperation
must be that of equal partners. It must be the type of cooperation that can
benefit the development of our country, and cooperation in which we can help
the development of others, of all. In all times, and especially in these times,
everybody depends on others, all communication is valuable, everybody can
contribute to their own and to general good, even at the same time.
Our cooperation with the
neighbors shall be successful and mutual to the extent to which they are open
to and ready for such cooperation. The same or similar holds true for the
countries of eastern Europe. These countries can learn a lot from Yugoslav
experience, especially from what happened to us last spring. We have learned
some very, very valuable lessons from their experience and our conviction that
we must resist hegemony is in part derived from these lessons.
As for the countries that
took part in the aggression on Yugoslavia, we shall maintain cooperation with
them as states, their institutions and organizations to the extent to which we
can perceive their good will to help alleviate the consequences of the harm
they have done us.
The West must find the
courage and moral strength to face up to the guilt for the crimes committed by
its aggression against Yugoslavia. Otherwise it shall lose all self-respect.
The longer it waits, the greater the shame will be. And some Willy Brandt will
have to turn up eventually and tell the truth.
It is often said
that the media contributed to a great extent to creating a bad picture about
our country. Can you make a comparison between the foreign and domestic media?
In Yugoslavia, in the first
place in Serbia, there is an absolute freedom of all news organizations. The
largest number of news organizations are in private hands. In our country there
is no state control of the media. A large number of television and radio
stations as well as papers are, however, under the financial and political
control of some Western governments or their institutions calling themselves
non-governmental organizations and whose task is to incite the destabilization
of Yugoslavia, discredit all efforts of the Yugoslav authorities to rebuild and
develop the country, give rise to distrust in the public, doubts and
intolerance towards everything done by the legally-elected authorities, to show
in the ugliest light the representatives of the authorities and their families,
to dismiss everything progressive and humane that has been achieved in our
country, to call into question the meaning of freedom, independence and
patriotism, to present our people as inferior, stupid, backward and conservative
as opposed to "worldly" peoples who are reasonable, educated,
intelligent, progressive and so on.
Such a "freedom"
of the media, of course, is more than freedom. The Law on Information, passed
by the Serbian Assembly two years ago, and which was literally copied from the
laws on information in some Western countries, has introduced some, very mild,
forms of protection of the truth, dignity of the country and its citizens, the
right of individuals not to be humiliated, or to be protected from slander, intrigue
and so on. The law was received with great dissatisfaction by a part of the
opposition, which, just as a part of the media, is under foreign control. Their
mentors from abroad immediately supported their dissatisfaction whereas in
their countries they do not consult anyone when it comes to crafting their own
laws; however they consider themselves competent to interfere in the laws of
other countries. At the same time, in their countries, they are very strict in
applying radical, stricter, laws not only in the field of information but also
others and have no intention of discussing those laws with the governments and
televisions of other countries.
Our institutions and
individuals have tried to obey that law but lately its implementation has been
very weak and we are again close to the state of media irresponsibility in
which we were during the last ten years.
As for the media abroad,
the situation in most countries, and especially in developed Western countries
is completely different. There all news organizations, state and private are
under tight state control. Everything that the authorities consider contrary to
the interests of the policy they pursue cannot appear in the media, or appears
with the risk of bearing responsibility for transgressing the will of the
authorities - the consequences are financial, political, moral, physical...
In Western democracies all
the media are dependent on their owner - state, company or individual. But, in
the end, the decisive role and responsibility in the media is played by the
state. That is logical as the media in our time have a very important role in
the conflict of interests, concepts, in the creation of a vision of global and
regional development, in deciding about the fate both of a community and its parts,
about the way in which every individual lives.
What do you wish
the citizens of Yugoslavia in the year 2000?
I wish peace to our
country. That is develops freely, quickly, as a modern, successful society.
I wish
Yugoslav citizens, and
especially the citizens of
The new century will be
better than this one only if mankind is able to triumph over violence, in the
first place war, but also all other forms of violence including violence in the
family - between genders and generations.
If in the 21st century
peace, goodwill, solidarity, and equality between nations triumph, the mankind
will be able to say that the victims who fell for centuries for those ideals
have not died in vain. And also, that huge efforts for those values made by
noble and courageous people throughout history were not meaningless and without
results.
I believe that our people
in the next century will live in peace and prosperity that it deserves. That is
why I wish all of us unity so that happier days arrive.
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