INTERNATIONAL MEDIATION; MILOSEVIC INTERVIEWED BY FRENCH TV: NOT SERBIA'S STRATEGY TO EXPORT WAR
France-2 TV, Paris 1900 gmt 11 Mar 93

Text of recorded interview with Serbian President Milosevic by Jacques Merlino

Before participating in the dinner at the Foreign Ministry [this evening] in the company of the two UN mediators, and perhaps, as I was telling you, of Francois Mitterrand, the Serbian President granted an exclusive interview to Jacques Merlino for France-2. As you will hear, the Serbian Number One does not close all the doors completely:

[Milosevic] External pressure just spoils the atmosphere for a solution, because the solution to the crisis is not support for just one side, the solution is to help all three sides to find a joint solution.

[Merlino] Mr President, you are in a city where not very long ago, on the walls of Paris, there were posters showing you next to a dictator, next to Hitler. How do you react to this kind of poster?

[Milosevic] In this city there have been so many good things throughout history that I cannot assess this city on the basis of these nasty little things which may appear here.

[Merlino] As a man how do you react when you see the pictures of people suffering in Sarajevo?

[Milosevic] If I had seen, as any other citizen has, what is conveyed by the media I would very likely be in favour of intervention against the Serbs, but unfortunately your media very often broadcast lies. I would like to tell the French people that it is not true, it is not fair, it is not accurate, and that very likely the protagonists of such a policy will be the object of scorn on the part of their descendants when the truth becomes known to the public.

[Merlino] A last question: Mr President, is it true that the military strategy of Serbia would be to export the war in the event of Western military intervention?

[Milosevic] From all that we have seen, from all that has happened, one can conclude by looking at the facts that from the beginning Serbia has always been the champion of a peaceful solution in Bosnia-Hercegovina and many times has entered into a unilateral cease-fire, and the side which would really like to bring about foreign military intervention is the side of Mr Izetbegovic, the Muslims. The Muslims have now launched a big offensive in eastern Bosnia in order to prevent the Geneva conference.

Copyright 1993 The British Broadcasting Corporation  
BBC Summary of World Broadcasts

SECTION: Part 2 Eastern Europe; C.1 SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT;; EE/1636/C1; 

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