YUGOSLAVIA: BELGRADE: SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC INTERVIEW скачать в хорошем качестве

YUGOSLAVIA: BELGRADE: SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC INTERVIEW

(22 Apr 1999) English/Nat Yugoslavia's President Slobodan Milosevic is being held directly responsible by NATO member states for the wave of human suffering which has denuded Kosovo of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians and displaced the majority of those who have remained. This is the first time during the Kosovo conflict the Serbian strongman has been interviewed at such length. His public statements during the NATO bombing campaign have been few. This interview was conducted in Belgrade,Yugoslavia, on April 19. The interviewer is an American academic - Ron Hatchett, from the Centre for International Studies at Houston's University of Saint Thomas. Hatchett arranged the trip to interview the Yugoslav leader with the help of US -Serbian organisations. In the interview Milosevic gives his reaction to NATO's prolonged bombing campaign and talks about the allegations that Yugoslav forces and Serbian police are "ethnically cleansing" Kosovo. He says ethnic Albanians are not being forcibly expelled and that the refugee crisis is a direct result of NATO's bombing. There were no refugees, he alleges, until the allied air campaign began on March 24th. Milosevic also discusses the fate of the U-S POWs, saying that they are in good health and that the Geneva Convention will be respected. Looking back at the Rambouillet Talks, whose failure prompted a renewed and intensified Serb onslaught in Kosovo and NATO air strikes in its wake, Milosevic was dismissive. There were no negotiations, he says. He says the ethnic Albanian and Serb delegations never held talks and that his emissaries only met Americans. SOUNDBITE: (English) "There were no negotiations at all and your audience has to know that. In all those 3 longs weeks, two in Rambouillet and one in Paris, there were not one single meeting between the delegations to talk to each other. Albanians and Serbs and others in state delegation couldn't exchange one single word. Practically what was tried to be imposed in Rambouillet was not autonomy at all. That was independence. And I really don't believe, if you show it to any honest American, that there is one honest American who will tell you that if they were in the place of our delegation, they would sign it. We are talking on autonomy, on equality, on equal approach to interest of all national communities, not on independence of Albanian separation movement, which had by that so-called agreement practically the right to organise a new state within Serbia. SUPER CAPTION: Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic SOUNDBITE: (English) "Oh no, I was not a politician. Professionally I was in the industry for a long time and then I was a banker. And I was a banker for eight years, I was president of the largest Yugoslav bank. At that time we were dealing with lots of American banks and I had a lot of friends in the U-S." SUPER CAPTION: Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic SOUNDBITE: (English) SUPER CAPTION:Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic SOUNDBITE: (English) "Well I believe when aggression stops, when bombing stops, then it will be very easy to continue the political process. But taking into account experience from Rambouillet and Paris, it is so clear that negotiations have to be direct between who will live in Kosovo, between representatives of national communities who live in Kosovo, not between government of Yugoslavia, government of Serbia and let's say representatives of international community." SUPER CAPTION:Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic SOUNDBITE: (English) SOUNDBITE: (English) Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...