President of the Serbian Liberal Democratic Party Cedomir Jovanovic is currently one of the bravest people in that country. He is almost the only one to say the real truth about Serbia’s past and its responsibility in past wars. Back during his student days he already opposed the country’s political regime because of which he had been arrested and beaten by the police several times. 

At parliamentary elections this January a coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party which he led won

5.3 percent of votes or 15 parliamentary seats, which is considered great success for the party. We spoke with the president of the Liberal Democratic Party about current problems in the Serbian politics.

JAVNO: Will Kosovo’s independence influence Bosnia-Herzegovina, that is, could Republika Srpska split from BH?

JOVANOVIC: There are no parallels between determining the final status of Kosovo and the toppling of the agreed status of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Those who talked about it in BH are not prepared to insist on the realisation of their views and I primarily see this as nationalist rhetoric that some politicians in Bosnia need to preserve their political positions. The essence of Bosnia’s problem is completely different from the problem of Kosovo, so solutions must be different. Bosnia is about to sign the Stabilisation and Association Agreement and its European future must not be brought into question by repeating those events that dragged Bosnia into the war at the start of the 1990s and I think everybody understands that and will not allow that.

JAVNO: After Kosovo becomes independent, could the next threat in this region become the development of Albanian nationalism?

JOVANOVIC: When we speak about nationalism then every kind of nationalism is a problem for the region. Nationalism occurs because of the lack of democratic potentials and democracy in the region of the former Yugoslavia and southeast Europe, which is why we must be careful and must foster democracy. I think that the determining of the final status of Kosovo and the defining of Kosovo’s independence will represent a defeat of nationalist ideas because it is clear that Serbia is paying for its roaming and political extremism with losing Kosovo. This is the example all others will understandand will not make the mistakes of the Serbian elite at the end of the 20^th century.

JAVNO: What is your prognosis for the further development of events in Kosovo and Serbia and the entire region after the province gets its independence? Can radicals rejoice the loss of Kosovo, as this could bring them points?

JOVANOVIC: The radicals will not be stronger after Kosovo’s independence. The opposite will happen. This will be the overture to their fall because finally those important issues relating to the citizens of Serbia will finally come to the foreground. Everything was allowed in the name of Kosovo that was just a scene for collapsed politics, which is why the priorities of the society that are recognisable in the origin of every citizen in Serbia were on the margins. Whether it be business, education, the health system, security, all those crucial issues were marginalised to the state could, protecting Kosovo, hide its incompetence to solve them.

JAVNO: Ahtisaari’s plan speaks of a decentralisation that gives Kosovo Serbs privileges, which are:

dual citizenship and a connection with Belgrade. Can a “Republika Srpska” in Kosovo and Metohija be created?

JOVANOVIC: It is clear that the issue here is decentralisation, not the creation of an entity and I am certain that Serbs will not be a problem for the future Kosovo. I believe in the possibility of a partnership between Serbia and Kosovo, Belgrade and Pristina.

JAVNO: Regarding the formation of the new government, your attitude is “either Djelic for prime minister or new elections”. Will you succeed to put up Djelic as premier since the deadline for the formation of the new government is in a month and political analysts believe that in new elections the Liberal Democratic Party would not pass the threshold?

JOVANOVIC: Those are the same analysts who described the outcome of the past elections in the same way. The only party that has made progress since the end of the elections is the Liberal Democratic Party and our position is much more certain and has more perspective than other parties in politics. The January elections were not held so that Serbia could get a reform coalition. They were only a method to stabilise the conservative Serbia symbolised by Vojislav Kostunica. This is why Serbia will not be premier because this Serbia has the necessary support to continue existing within deformed institutions, but we expect true elections in 2008 and are preparing for them. Sine everything we talked about in the past several years has become clear in the meantime, so it will be clear in the time to come what we meant when we said that Serbia truly depended on us.

JAVNO: European Commission’s commissioner for expansion, Oli Rehn said that Serbia could expect the status of candidate for membership in the European Union by 2008. Is it realistic to expect this because the new government is still being formed and negotiations on the Stabilisation and Accession Agreement have not continued. Will this mean that the EU will make a concession to Serbia without Ratko Mladic in The Hague?

JOVANOVIC: Serbia has only political obstacles on the path to European integration. All other issues have been solved in prior phases and the arrest of Mladic would immediately unblock the process of European integration, leading Serbia to positions spoken of by Oli Rehn when he said that we would have candidate status by 2008 that is necessary for EU membership. All administrative procedures are either completed or in their final stages and there are no obstacles other than political will, which is the most serious and is the most difficult to change.

JAVNO: Several days ago it was disclosed that the international war crimes had ruled that Serbia is not guilty of war crimes without insight into crucial documents. Will this ruling affect the status of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and is this fair to Bosnian Serbs?

JOVANOVIC: We cannot completely be at peace until we face our historical heritage. Serbia is the only country in history that has been placed on the accused bench for genocide and is the only country that was convicted of violating the convention on genocide on those counts that relate to Serbia’s lack of willingness to sanction genocide perpetrators and to prevent genocide. This actually speaks of the power of this policy that brought Serbia to the accused bench for crimes Serbia committed in Bosnia and Croatia. Any change to the Dayton Agreement must be agreed on previously. It is my opinion that the agreement had played its part, but can only be changed in agreement with all peoples in Bosnia. I, thus, oppose the idea of cancelling Republika Srpska’s status. I do not see what could be gained from that, apart from returning to November 1995. Bosnia should continue on its European path as soon as possible because only the signed Stabilisation and Accession Agreement provides new guarantees and only it can transform this country and society in which it will not matter who is a Serb, Croat or Bosniak and it will mean much more what someone knows and who can work.

JAVNO: Is Slobodan Milosevic to blame for Srebrenica?

JPOVANOVIC: Of course Milosevic is to blame for Srebrenica.

JAVNO: Do you think Kostunica knew that an assassination was being planned against Premier Zoran Djindjic?

JOVANOVIC: Vojislav Kostunica’s closest associates were arrested in an operation after the murder of the prime minister because they had direct contact with the assassinators. Vojislav Kostunica politically inspired the assassination because he created a political situation in Serbia in which Premier Djindjic’s killers thought that his murder would solve all their problems, that is, that the state will not be able to transform further. Zoran Djindjic was killed in an action “Stop to The Hague” and was being deposed by a mafia of special units with the same political demands that Vojislav Kostunica had previously tried to realise by political means through a partnership and alliance with radicals and socialists. For me he is the most responsible for March 12, the day of Premier Djindjic’s assassination. With his refusal to appear at the Special Court in the week in which the French premier testified for 17 hours and in the month in which the Scotland Yard had searched the British prime minister’s offices for the second time, Kostunica compromised himself most directly and described himself in a clearer way that I could.

JAVNO: Why did Serbia wait four years to instigate proceedings for the armed rebellion of the Red Berets?

JOVANOVIC: It did not wait four years. My opinion is that the proceedings could have been started in 2001, but we did not have the power to do so. We played Russian roulette the whole time and we ignored the monster who was behind our backs the entire time, convinced that we would get to the finish line before it gets to us. March 12 was the most tragic confirmation of the policy we insist on today. First we have to resolve the Serbia of the past to build a Serbia of the future. We cannot define our vision and start realising it by forgetting all that terrible that makes Serbia.