"The West morally obliged to pay for Yugoslavia's reconstruction" 28/11/01

VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA:
Well, Ratko Mladic is among those indicted by the Hague tribunal among, I must say, many Serb military and political leaders indicted by that tribunal. That brings suspicion about the sort of justice that has been in force by the Hague tribunal, but, for us, in Yugoslavia, after the democratic changes in last October, October 2000, the Hague tribunal is something that we must be co-operating with. So we are not escaping this co-operation. We are working on the law that and hope to get the law that will enable, in legal basis, co-operation with the Hague tribunal. Speaking directly about General Mladic, to my knowledge, he is not in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

JEREMY VINE:
Because its UN's chief war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte thinks he is and thinks he is being guarded by the Army?

VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA:
No the second for sure is not true.

JEREMY VINE:
How do you know that?

VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA:
Well, to my knowledge if, being the President of Yugoslavia, I should be at least informed about the situation in the country. To my knowledge General Mladic is not in Yugoslavia. He, for sure, is not guarded by Yugoslavia Army, that is something that I can say.

JEREMY VINE:
With references to criticism of you that possibly your Government has not been keen to prosecute the killers of people whose bodies have been discovered in mass graves inside Serbia. Some people are saying that well, possibly, as a nationalist yourself, you feel that they are not war criminals, that actually they were people who went too far as nationalists and that's it?

VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA:
No, they were war crimes, but they have been committed in all the former Yugoslav republics. That means in Croatia, in Bosnia, in Herzegovina and in Yugoslavia and I must say in Kosovo by some of Albanian leaders. By some of Albanians now leading political parties in Kosovo that had taken part in these elections of 7th November. What we are in need of is that something that is contrary to selective justice. We need genuine justice. The thing in the way the Hague tribunal was working up to now there was a lot of selective justice.

JEREMY VINE:
The NATO bombing campaigning is said have cost $27 billion worth of damage. You have been promised about $1.5 billion for reconstruction. How will you get the West to make up the difference without co-operating with them on the War Crimes Tribunal?

VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA:
I think that the only address of the West is not the Hague tribunal. There are many other addresses. With most of those addresses our authorities are co-operating. They have been co-operating with NATO and the south of Serbia, both our police and the Army. That was more than successful. Our country is co-operating really in that aspect that it is maybe one of the, I would say, pillars of stability in the region.

JEREMY VINE:
Do you believe that the west has a moral obligation to make up the difference to $27 billion?

VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA:
I believe they do have that sort of obligation.

JEREMY VINE:
Tell us about the affects of the recent election in Kosovo where a pro-independence party was elected. They want to go for a referendum for independence? Do you see any future for Kosovo inside the Yugoslav republic?

VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA:
For many years to come I see that not a single frontier in the Balkans should be changed. That would actually provoke changes in many frontiers in many borders.

JEREMY VINE:
That is what they want. That is what they voted for.

VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA:
They voted for that, contrary to Resolution 1244. It is the western community and the whole world who stands by that resolution. That whole pro-independence vote was against the Resolution 1244, and weak administration in Kosovo should warn Albanian political parties and their leaders that they can't have a campaign against the will of the international community.

JEREMY VINE:
But you¿re the President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. What happens if Kosovo does go its own way. What happens if Montenegro decides to go independent and you are left with nothing to be President of?

VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA:
I¿m not thinking in terms of being the President of something. I'm thinking of terms of saving something that is not only stability in my country and sovereignty of my country but stability and peace in the Balkans. I do not care about my political career. I care about the future of my state. Some normal relations between different countries and nations in the Balkans.

JEREMY VINE:
You are a democrat and they have voted for independence?

VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA:
Who voted for independence?

JEREMY VINE:
The people of Kosovo. They voted for a pro-independence party.

VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA:
Yes, but contrary to the will of the international community.

JEREMY VINE:
You are a democrat?

VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA:
Yes. But in international community something that is democracy and something that is the will of the majority is pressed through the United Nations and the Security Council. And it's resolutions. As a democrat I'm respecting something that is the rule of law. The rule of law in the international context is actually resolutions of the security council.

JEREMY VINE:
If the will of the majority matters that much, President Kostunica, why not hand over these indicted war criminals?

VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA:
Indicted war criminals, some of them, as I said, are not in Yugoslavia. Some of them, some of them are not in Yugoslavia.

JEREMY VINE:
If you could?

VOJISLAV KOSTUNICA:
For some of them processes have been moved, not for all of them. I want a sign on the part of the international community. I want a sign on part of the Hague tribunal that they are dealing equally in similar cases. When I see that the first of the Albanian leaders is indicted before the war criminal. At this moment they are political leaders. Presidents of the parties. When I see that change. That sort of balance, something that looks like justice, then, we will think in terms of the Hague tribunal.

JEREMY VINE:
Thank you very much indeed.