Date: Tue, 2 Feb 1999 11:45:44 +0100
YUGOSLAVIA-KOSOVO
Yugoslav official says Hague prosecutor "welcome to investigate" Kosovo >killing
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>Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Vuk Draskovic has said that war crimes =
>tribunal Prosecutor Louise Arbour is more than welcome to investigate =
>"the legal actions of our antiterrorist forces in our legal sovereign =
>state".
Draskovic was replying to questions about the killing of over 40 ethnic Albanians which took place in the Kosovo village of Racak on
15th January. The following are excerpts from an interview with Draskovic by Ana Romero entitled "Serbia is the victim of the Greater Albania's Nazism", from the Spanish newspaper `El Mundo' web site on 31st January:
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>Belgrade: ... [Reporter] All the nationalities you've just mentioned [the Spanish, Germans, French, British and US] are more determined than ever to intervene in Kosovo after the massacre in Racak on 15th January.
Do you believe the Serbian government when it says the 45 [ethnic] =
>Albanians found in the mass grave died in combat?
>[Vuk Draskovic] (long silence) I've spoken to a policeman I know very well and who took part in the action at Racak. He is a true Christian. He swore to me on his three children's lives that our =
>antiterrorist forces suffered a terrible attack by the terrorists =
>(Serbian way of describing the Kosovo Liberation Army, or UCK). He told me our forces were tactically superior, but found themselves surrounded [as published]. The terrorists were in positions round the houses of =
>Racak and the fighting was fierce. The action ended at dusk and they =
>made the unbelievable mistake of leaving the scene instead of waiting =
>for [William] Walker (head of the OSCE verification mission in Kosovo)
=
>and his people. I have no reason to doubt the word of a sincere man,
but I would like to wait for the results of the official investigation.
>[Q] According to the refugees from Racak I've spoken to,=20
>the people who were found dead had had their hands tied beforehand. =
>Apparently, the Serbian police asked them to walk from the villages
into =
>the mountains. Why didn't Serbia allow Louise Arbour (the judge from
the Hague tribunal) in?
>[A] I tell you that I have to wait for the results of the investigation being carried out by Yugoslav and Finnish forensic =
>experts. If our antiterrorist forces committed excesses, they will be =
>judged by our courts, in accordance with our constitution. Mrs Arbour
is more than welcome to investigate the legal actions of our antiterrorist forces in our legal sovereign state. But she should remember that the =
>biggest crime against international law is terrorism. If we handed over our antiterrorist forces to the Hague tribunal, we would be recognizing the terrorists as a legal army. I'm sick of all this moral hypocrisy!
>Would our American friends be prepared to judge their pilots, soldiers and officers, who have openly admitted killing Iraqi civilians?
>For Draskovic - and Serb are all agreed on this - Kosovo is "our Jerusalem, our Toledo", and no-one and nothing would make them hand it over to the [ethnic] Albanians. I pointed out to him that, even though Serbia has piled all its police and army into Kosovo, the clashes continue.
>[Q] The solution must be to negotiate.
>[A] Would the Americans be prepared to negotiate if the Cubans wanted an independent state in Florida? We will not allow a greater Albania, an independent Kosovo or Kosovo as a third republic [of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, formed by Serbia and Montenegro].
We are prepared to give Kosovo the greatest degree of autonomy possible within the federation. That means maximum rights for all citizens and for all national communities...
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>Source: `El Mundo' web site, Madrid, in Spanish 31 Jan 99
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>BBC Mon EU1 EuroPol dm/sbhw
