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Belgrade will never give up on negotiations with Pristina, but it cannot be a prisoner, afraid, and for that reason agreeing, but getting nothing in return.
SOURCE:
TANJUG FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 2018 | 14:20
"And I can say it, both Haradinaj and those behind him, in every street, in Belgrade, Pristina, anywhere, without any fear. Because I know where I stand and behind what I stand," Vucic said in an interview with the weekly Ekspres.
The president said that his policy is a policy of life and stressed that in the negotiations with Pristina, too, "that life, our here and of Serbs in Kosovo, comes first."
Vucic thinks that the first and basic problem in the negotiations is "the fact that that we are dealing with people, with a power, for whom Kosovo's independence is a done deal."
He also said that Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj is only a spokesman, "and of Kosovo or of Albanian ideas, but above all of what America wants and wants to implement."
"Let's not forget how brave Haradinaj would genuinely be if he did not have behind him, probably the biggest 'rascal' in the world, the one who, he, and not Haradinaj and the KLA, defeated us in 1999 and who is also the author and implementer of the Kosovo independence," Vucic said.
On the other hand, as he stated, we are to a large extent also alone.
"This does not mean that we do not have friends in the world, Russia and China certainly are, but here in this field, in these negotiations, we must carry our ourselves most of it. We must stand in front of everyone else and say clearly what we want," Vucic said.
He recalled that John Kennedy said "not to be afraid to negotiate, but to be afraid of fear being the basis for negotiations", as well as Kennedy's sentence, which, Vucic believes, fits perfectly into Belgrade's basic request - "there are no negotiations when you say - what's mine is mine, and we can negotiate about what's yours."
"Well no. Both to Haradinaj and to those who stand behind his alleged courage. No, because negotiations are not negotiations if they do not end with a compromise. Everything else would be coercion, unlawful, but also without long-term binding consequences. Henry Kissinger formulated this when said that there are no negotiations in captivity. And that, when there are, the other side must be aware that consent of prisoners can be forced, that it will be forced by coercion. And such contracts are not valid anywhere in the world," the president of Serbia noted.
"And that's what I, what Serbia stands for in these negotiations. We want them, we will never give up on them, but to be captives, to be afraid and for that reason agree, to get nothing, well, that can't happen. I can say that, both to Haradinaj and those behind him, in every street, in Belgrade, Pristina, anywhere, without any fear. Because I know where I stand and behind what I stand," Vucic said.
When the interviewer said that "negotiations are lost by the one who first mention a number," and asked "whether anyone mentioned any number," Vucic replied, "no one."
"All of this has lasted too long for anyone to win or lose in such an amateur way. And it's true we're talking the whole time about value, about what is valuable to us in the whole story, and what to them, but that value, in both cases, is too big to be determined by any numbers," the president noted.
"I will not, in the end, let our value be worth anything," he stressed.
He pointed out that Kosovo is our value, something that is priceless, the place of our culture, monuments, history, but he stressed that he does not want to measure that value with lives.
"Especially not the lives of Serbs from Kosovo, but also the lives of all other citizens of Serbia," Vucic said.
He said that he cannot allow this, not only as someone who thinks that life is above all, but also as a rational man, who knows how few of us there are and "how every dream about Kosovo stops at the moment when we there are none of us."
At the conclusion that he does intend to leave a lot of monuments (tombstones) behind him, Vucic said that this was the most disgusting question.
"How many dead and famous who left behind. Sometimes it seems to me that the only measure that is acceptable here is that in graves and ossuaries. And feel like asking everyone, well do you really want that? For the few of us that there are to die? For some myth, imaginary fame, a new defeat, or for a too expensive victory after which there will be nobody anymore. And I'm afraid of that, most sincerely," the president said.
As she specified, he fears whether we will have enough strength, will, desire, and even time and chance to change that part in ourselves and start to love life and stop with the "ideology of death as the only certainty"
Life, he noted, is more certain than death.
According to him, for too long we have been turned only toward ourselves, without noticing that we are not there and that we are diminishing and disappearing.
Recalling that about 17 million babies are born annually in China, in Russia more than one million and a half, and in America almost four million, Vucic said that those are those who will tomorrow await our children, "our sixty thousand babies, born in Serbia each year, to work with them, to cooperate, or perhaps to rule them."
"Little Albanians today, with whose parents we want to find a solution, tomorrow will be big Albanians with whom our children will either cooperate or, if we are crazy enough to miss this chance, maybe even fight. And those numbers are, like all numbers, merciless. There are more and more of them and less and less of us," Vucic said.
He reminded that the size, the umber of people, determines both the size, the success of the economy, which determines the ability of defense and realization of interests.
Assessing that for serious policy-making, the numbers cannot be overlooked, Vucic noted that of all foreign languages in the US Chinese is learned the most, and asked how many Serbs are learning Chinese, Hungarian and Albanian?
"How many of us will tomorrow will be ready to understand Albanians, or will we use every misunderstanding as an opportunity for a new conflict? I think about this when I talk about the need to raise the birth rate, but also the need to find a way to cooperate with Albanians, just like when I say, I ask for the abolition of economic barriers in the Balkans and for the creation of a common market. Because of the figures. And for a clear view into the future, which, I can tell you right now, is not good for anyone in this region unless we find a way to increase both naturally and economically," said Vucic.
As he added, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia... all these are just statistical errors on the big map of the world.
"And only when we are spoken about as an area with twenty or more million people connected to a common market system, can we count on being equal partners. All of us. And if today something is our job, then it is just - thinking about the future, the preparation for the future, the search for a solution for it. And that I do not see this future without children, well sorry, I do not see it. And it is not exploitation of women, their oppression, renting wombs for money, it is just a naked fact. Yes, if we want anything, we have to be there. Or, call it my policy. A policy of life," the president said.
It, he emphasized, forces him to talk with everyone in the region, and this difficult role, to tell people in Serbia that they are disappearing, and that they have something about that.
"And it will, in the end, be left behind me. That I invested in life. Not to death," the president said.
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