Vuk Draskovic On Western Emphasis On Collective Guilt

Drašković calls for historical research
Vuk Drašković (FoNet)
Serbia should ask the international community for an expert analysis of historical responsibility in Kosovo. This is what Serbian Foreign Affairs Minister Vuk Drašković told daily Večernje Novosti. He said that Serbia should call for an investigation into who is responsible for the situation in Kosovo historically, starting from the beginning of Serbian-Albanian relations in the region. He said that Serbia would come out the victor in such an investigation. “The questions of responsibility and of collective guilt, which has not existed since the clan system of communities, are two separate things. What Ahtisaari said in Priština has made it necessary for Serbia to ask the UN Secretary General, Contact Group and international community to call for an investigation of the heritage of Kosovo, and with that, the responsibility of the inheritance, and the responsibility of all, from the beginning, without skipping over history and not having history proclaimed as only the period that Slobodan Milošević was in power.” Drašković said. Drašković said that while there is no doubt that Serbia is to blame, to some extent, he said thatit has already been punished through bombing and international sanctions. He said that the Serbian Kosovo status negotiation team did not discuss Kosovo Coordination Centre President Sanda Rašković-Ivić’s proposal to call for Ahtisaari to be excluded from the further process of Kosovo status discussions. Asked whether he thinks that it is possible for the international community to use this theory of blame and responsibility in order to justify an imposed solution of Kosovo independence, Drašković said that he is afraid that this is possible. According to him, the Foreign Affairs Ministry is working on a diplomatic offensive every day in response to Ahtisaari’s comments, but that these facts, proposals and suggestions are not being released to the Serbian public.
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Wednesday, 30 August 2006