Asked to comment on Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor's visit to Pristina on Wednesday, Serbian President Boris Tadic said on Friday the partnership between Croats and Albanians must not be built to the detriment of others, in this case the Serb people, and that Kosor was stirring up old hostilities so that Croatia could benefit financially.
Speaking to Tanjug news agency, Tadic said that glorifying war criminals - an allusion to Kosor's recent greeting to Croatian generals at the Hague tribunal - and visiting Kosovo could not contribute to the improvement of Serbia-Croatia relations, describing such behaviour as "non-European."
"If you're a democrat, you cannot greet people accused of crimes against humanity," Tadic said, adding that as president, he would never allow himself to greet people accused or convicted by the Hague tribunal, as those convicted by the UN court had done a lot against civilisation.
Tadic said he was disappointed by the European Union's failure to react to such behaviour by a representative of the Croatian government, adding that he said so in his talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel earlier this week, to whom he also conveyed his dissatisfaction with the fact that 10 months had passed and no commission had been formed to investigate trafficking in human organs of Serbs kidnapped in Kosovo, to which the highest Kosovo officials were being linked.
Tadic said that unlike some other governments in the region, Serbia had been pushing for debalkanising the Balkans and acknowledging the interests of all peoples through a peace-loving and good-neighbourly policy.
"We wish all nations well, I'm stressing this again, to the Albanian people also, because Serbia made mistakes towards the Albanian people in the past, just as Albanian institutions in Kosovo made mistakes towards the Serbs," he was quoted as saying.
German media reported today that, after Merkel told Belgrade that abolishing parallel Serbian institutions in northern Kosovo was a requirement for giving Serbia EU membership candidate status, Tadic said this was unacceptable and that Serbia had rejected the request.
Citing parts of a statement in which Tadic responded to Merkel's demands yesterday, Fokus magazine said Serbia refused to withdraw its institutions and that Tadic said Serbia would never abandon its people in Kosovo.
Radio Deutsche Welle said Serbia turned down the demand despite the fact that this could affect its European integration.
According to N-TV, Tadic said the demand to abolish institutions in northern Kosovo was unacceptable, although such a position could hamper Serbia's EU membership chances.
