Vucic: Serbs have suffered great injustice in past 30 years and more

SREMSKI KARLOVCI - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Sunday evening the Serbs had suffered great injustice in the past 30 years and more and that, besides losing territories and being expelled from their homes, they had been targeted by the most fierce propaganda according to which they were "some kind of barbarians and villains" that needed to be destroyed and defeated.

"They (the West) destroyed Yugoslavia and said 'Why would the Serbs live in a single state? We will tear them apart and immediately recognise all those who were our allies in WWII' - on the defeated, losing side that we liberated for the most part and let them be a part of the winning powers," Vucic said in Sremski Karlovci, northwestern Serbia, at a commemoration for Serbs killed and expelled by Croatian forces in the August 1995 "Operation Storm."

"Then, the Serbs were told they must agree to that, but were given assurances Kosovo would not be taken away from Serbia," Vucic said.

"Then the conflict in Krajina broke out, and pink and protected zones were set up," he said.

"When they struck a deal and made conspiracies and plans to destroy the Serb Krajina, they finished it within days. Serbia was weak, and the unjust world could not wait to finish the Krajina story. They finished that within days and no one mentioned the pink zones, the UN-protected zones again," Vucic noted.

That was never mentioned again, but they talked about how "magnificent it is to kill 2,500 people and expel 250,000," he said.

"It was hard for the Serbs to watch that, it was sickening for us to watch. And we remained silent, they made us remain silent. They were all telling us: 'Serbs, look to the future - in the future, there will be no more wars and conflicts, no one will touch your Kosovo, that is yours, there is the Badinter Commission, everything is alright, you also have Republika Srpska, everything is proceeding normally,'" Vucic added.

"Then they said: 'Serbs, you cannot really have Kosovo either, you would like to preserve your country so much, but now we will take 14 per cent of your territory away from you,'" Vucic said, noting that, afterwards, Serbia had been bombed without UN consent.

"When you killed our people, bombed our country, forced our army to retreat, then you told us: 'Just change the government in Serbia, it is a matter of democracy, Kosovo is yours,' Vucic added.

"After the Serbs believed you and your reckless, brazen lies for who knows how many times, it was not long before you said 'Montenegro cannot stay with you either,'" he added.

At the time, Montenegro was told to secede from "villains" and look to the future, and Serbia was told it should finally have its independence, he said.

"But just two years after that, they said 'No independence - we will take the 14 per cent of your territory away from you, and take away the heart and soul of your nation - Kosovo-Metohija,'" he also said.

Within a month or two, 85 of the most developed pro-Western countries recognised Kosovo as independent, he said.

"But even that was not enough - before that and after that. Look at the fates of Republika Srpska presidents - none of them were allowed to finish their mandates in peace and normally," Vucic said.

"The way they treated Radovan Karadzic... Do not make me remind you of what they were promising to Biljana Plavsic and where she has ended up and how, and of what they did to (Republika Srpska) President (Nikola) Poplasen because they no longer liked him, they did not like his rule, or of what they have now done to President (Milorad) Dodik," Vucic said.