Belgrade, Dec. 21 2009, (Source: Beta, Serbia Today) - Interior Minister Ivica Dačić told press last week that Serbia is doing all in its power to arrest the remaining fugitives from the Hague Tribunal, according to Beta news agency.
"Serbia wants to close the issue of cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, but when that will happen is a very relative category in police and security issues and we believe those issues should not be connected, because Serbia's readiness and activity are important, in the sense that it is doing all in its power," Dačić told reporters in Parliament.
The Minister underscored that the visit of Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen to Belgrade was a turning point in political relations. "Several big steps forward have been taken, but in the coming days Serbia will hold very careful consultations with European partners regarding its further steps," Dačić said.
He added that those further steps depended on the readiness of EU member states to respond positively to Serbia's request to apply for EU membership, so as to prevent the move from "turning into the opposite, should the potentially overlong silence of the administration raise the question of whether such moves are justified.”
We really don’t know what the phrase “so as to prevent….” means. Dacic was probably speaking in “diplomatic terms” which don’t translate literally into English. One could guess he was suggesting a connection between EU’s manifestation of a willingness to admit Serbia into membership and Serbia’s willingness to take further steps in punishing war criminals. One would think that bringing war criminals to justice is a moral issue and the legal obligation of the Justice Department of the Serbian Government in the society that present itself as open and democratic, and not a bargaining chip in the political negotiations.
No comments:
Post a Comment