PRESS CONFERENCE BY PARLIAMENTARIAN OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PARLIAMENTARIAN OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

The Vice-President of the parliament of the Yugoslav Republic of Serbia and leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement political party, Vojislav Mihajlovic, briefed correspondents today at Headquarters on the situation in Serbia, particularly in Kosovo and Metohija.

He called his visit "an attempt to try to rectify the distorted picture of Serbia". Mr. Mihajlovic said that the Serbian Renewal Movement was the biggest democratic opposition party in the Republic of Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), and was committed to full cooperation with the international community.

To address the current crisis in Kosovo, he said a state platform should be established and presented to the negotiating team attempting to resolve the situation. The platform should include the granting of full autonomy to Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia, including a high degree of local self-rule in municipalities and towns. It should also provide for an autonomous legislature and a government proportionate to the number of votes received in local and federal elections.

In addition, bicameral local and provincial assemblies should be established in Kosovo and Metohija, he said. One house would have representatives elected by a majority vote, while the other would include an equal number of representatives of all peoples living in the province, including Albanians, Serbs, Muslims and Turks. All decisions directly pertaining to national, religious, cultural and language rights should be reached by consensus in the house of the people.

In the light of the State and legislative legitimacy of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Serbian negotiating team must be composed of representatives from both the Republic of Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, he said. Foreign mediators should be included in negotiations, and outside observers, diplomatic, humanitarian and media representatives should gain unconditionally acceptance from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Serbia.

The platform should call upon the Contact Group for the former Yugoslavia (France, Germany, Italy, Russian Federation, United Kingdom, United States, and the European Union (EU)) to strongly condemn terrorism. The Contact Group should also condemn all political demands for an independent Kosovo, along with demands for the establishment of Kosovo as a third federal unit of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The borders of Serbia were unchangeable. As such, the Contact Group and the European Union should strongly and decisively condemn the establishment of a "greater Albania" in the Balkans as a flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter.

He said the platform would also call for the lifting of all international, economic and political sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Moreover, negotiators on behalf of the Albanian population in Kosovo should be exposed to adequate international sanctions if they failed to accept democratic negotiations. Albanian negotiators should decisively condemn terrorism and all demands for changing State borders in the Balkans. In that way, the dangerous crisis in Kosovo and Metohija would be resolved swiftly and in accordance with international law.

While there was a place for all peoples in Kosovo and Metohija, he said there was no room for terrorists or guerillas. Nor was there a place for forces seeking to change the borders in the Balkans in order to promote "an ethnically clean Kosovo today, and an ethnically clean greater Albania tomorrow" based on the destruction of Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro. More than one third of Serbia's inhabitants were not Serbs. Indeed, Serbia was a "Balkan America", and if George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were alive, they would be on the side of the Serbs.

At the press conference, sponsored by the Mission of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Mr. Mihajlovic was joined by two other members of Parliament, Alexander Chotric, and Gvozden Rosic, who was also Vice-President of the Serbian Renewal Movement.

A correspondent said that the scant attendance at the briefing might indicate the need for reform of Yugoslav policies. They were policies of deception and meaningless words that filled some 400 treaties. The reputation of their country was "shot" and their policies were regarded as "mad". "People throw your press releases away because it's the same old stuff", she said. She then asked what would be different between the envisaged autonomous province of Kosova and its status prior to the conflict.

Mr. Rosic, Vice-President of the Renewal Movement, said that although constitutional amendments and changes had gone into effect by the end of the 1980s, the Albanian population had been guided primarily by Albanian politicians. So, although the Serbian constitution had granted them the largest possible measure of autonomy, they had refused to take part in the political life of Serbian Yugoslavia. The Renewal Movement insisted that Serbia issue a strictly defined platform, stating the view that there was room for all citizens in Serbia, Mr. Rosic continued. In addition, the Renewal Movement, from the outset, had accepted foreign mediation and favoured international assistance in the interest of successful negotiations.

Did Serbia have any chance of preserving its ethnic diversity in the light of the evolution of "ethnically pure" Balkan States, and given the fact that Albanians comprised some 90 per cent of Kosovo's population, another correspondent asked. Mr. Mihajlovic said that Serbia would have to maintain its multi-ethnicity because one third of its overall population was comprised

Mihajlovic Press Conference - 3 - 8 July 1998

of other ethnic origins. It was very doubtful that Albanians comprised some 90 per cent of the population of Kosova and Metohija. According to the last available census data from 1971, Albanians accounted for less than 15 per cent of the population of Serbia.

Another correspondent said she wished to disassociate herself from the comments prior to the opening question, which were out of line. She asked what prompted his delegation to come to the United Nations and she sought more information regarding the scope of their trip.

Mr. Mihajlovic said he hoped to rectify the distorted picture of Serbia through various conferences and interviews. Although still unconfirmed, he hoped to meet with United States Congressmen. No meetings with United Nations officials were planned.

Asked if the situation in Kosovo threatened international peace, Mr. Mihajlovic said he did not think it posed such a threat. Serbia should be allowed to defend itself from terrorism, just as all other countries were allowed to do.

Another correspondent, also disassociating himself from the earlier comments, asked whether Serbia's response to terrorism was an over-reaction, and if so, whether the Serbian political leadership had learned nothing from the experience of the break-up of Yugoslavia.

Mr. Rosic said that recent history provided certain unfortunate lessons. Concerning the situation in Kosovo, it was not appropriate to speak of sporadic incidents when what was happening was a synchronized military terrorist activity involving a large number of people in possession of large quantities of weapons that had not originated in the territory of Yugoslavia. The quantities of weapons involved presented a very irregular situation on the border between Serbia and Albania.

Another correspondent asked what would be a satisfactory ratio of non- Serbs in Kosovo, since the number of Albanians and non-Serbs in Kosovo had already been reduced, owing in part to the ethnic cleansing of tens of thousands of them by the military.

Mr. Mihajlovic said he did not agree with the claim that the military had "cleansed" a percentage of Albanians. If that kind of language was going to be used, then it was fair to say that many Serbs had also been killed there. There were many Albanians in Kosovo. As citizens of Serbia, they were entitled to the same rights and obligations.

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