STATEMENT CONDEMNING THE LEADERSHIP OF THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF SERBIA

Ivica Dacic, the president of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), is set to become the biggest traitor in Serbia's history. Yesterday, with the support of the party leadership, he began talks to form a coalition government with Boris Tadic's Democratic Party (DS), which will ratify the Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the European Union.

Last month Belgian Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht set off a storm of controversy in Belgrade when he told the Serbian media, "My understanding is that we've only signed the agreement with Serbia itself, without Kosovo."

Serbia's Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic (a member of the DS) said that De Gucht’s remark was made with domestic political purposes in mind. He said, "Certain countries that vehemently opposed the signing of the SAA were split, and their governments now have their own internal political problems. I would regard this statement in the only possible manner, as internal political problems."

Unfortunately, it was Jeremic's remark that was made with domestic political concerns in mind. The DS and the parties gathered around it have constantly repeated the lie that Serbia can ratify the SAA and still keep Kosovo, when it is obvious that it can't.

De Gucht was telling the truth. Article 135 of the SAA clearly says, "The Agreement shall not apply in Kosovo". The SAA is Serbia's first step on the road to EU membership. What kind of Serbia is going to join the EU if the process laid-out in the SAA is taken to its ultimate conclusion? What kind of borders could EU-member Serbia possibly have when Kosovo is excluded from the EU ascension process at the outset? Obviously, a Serbia in the EU is a Serbia without Kosovo.

The only way that Serbia can keep Kosovo is to annul the SAA. If the Serbian parliament ratifies the SAA there will be a tidal wave of international recognition for Kosovo's independence. Ratifying the SAA will send a signal to the rest of the world that Serbia is willing to give-up Kosovo for the EU. The United States is putting immense pressure on countries around the world to recognize Kosovo's independence. Why would any foreign government take the trouble to resist that pressure when the Serbian Government is sending signals that it will horse-trade on Kosovo? Foreigners certainly aren't going to be better Serbs than the Serbian Government!

The fate of Serbia is in the hands of the SPS. If Serbia embarks on the EU ascension process without Kosovo it will never get it back. Serbia will have endured 78 days of NATO bombing and over a decade of KLA terrorism for nothing. The civilians and soldiers who lost their lives in the NATO aggression will have died in vain. The Kosovo-Serbs who resisted Albanian terrorism and stayed in their homes will have sacrificed for a lost cause. The decision is up to the SPS.

The SPS had the option to form a coalition with the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) and the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) which would have stopped the SAA dead in its tracks, but talks were broken-off and the SPS main board voted 245 to 11 yesterday to form a government with the DS that would ratify the SAA.

The SPS leadership has perpetrated a vicious crime against Serbia. The SPS leadership abused the legacy of Slobodan Milosevic to deceive their voters. The party kicked-off their campaign with a video of President Milosevic's last speech before the October 5th coup. In that speech Milosevic warned Serbian voters that "the president of the Democratic Party (DS) collaborated with the military alliance that attacked our country. He could not even hide his collaboration. In fact, our entire public knows that he appealed to NATO to bomb Serbia for as many weeks as necessary to break its resistance."

Nobody who voted for the SPS dreamed that they would form a coalition with the DS. On the 7th of May (4 days before the election) Ivica Dacic told the Vecernje Novosti newspaper that a coalition with the DS was in the realm of "scicence fiction". He said, "It would be impossible for us to form a government with the DS". He said the SPS was against the SAA and that "we were against even initialing it."

The people who voted for the SPS are honest hard-working patriots. They were deceived. The SPS tricked their voters into electing them; the SPS is supporting the SAA and working to form a government with the DS in spite of what they said in their election campaign. The SPS leaders are the biggest traitors in Serbia; they are worse than Zoran Djindjic ever was. At least it was never a mystery with Djindjic. Everybody knew who he was, who was behind him, and what he stood for. If Ivica Dacic follows through and forms a coalition with the DS he'll be a bigger whore than Carla del Ponte and Natasa Kandic put together.

The SPS is not the party of Slobodan Milosevic anymore. The leadership of the SPS could never have perpetrated such a horrific fraud against the Serbian people if President Milosevic were still alive. Ivica Dacic must be eternally grateful to the Hague Tribunal for killing him.

The SPS's use of President Milosevic's speech in their election campaign is a barbaric attack on his legacy. President Milosevic heroically led Serbia through 78 days of NATO aggression and obtained ironclad international guarantees for her territorial integrity, and now the SPS leadership is working to throw that all away. President Milosevic had more courage and integrity in his little finger than the entire main board of the SPS has put together. The SPS has no right to abuse President Milosevic's legacy. President Milosevic was a hero and the leaders of the SPS are nothing but a treacherous pack of traitors, whores, and Quislings.

Slobodan Milosevic Freedom Center
June 23, 2008

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