Djilas Says Vucic’s Policy on Kosovo Is Wrong

Dragan Djilas (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

Freedom and Justice Party president Dragan Djilas said on July 29 that the Serbian Progressive Party's and Aleksandar Vucic's policy on Kosovo and Metohija was wrong and that Kosovo was now farther away from Serbia than 11 years ago.

"Everything we do is always viewed through results. And the results of that policy is that Kosovo today is farther from Serbia than it was 11 years ago," Djilas told BETA. According to him, the most egregious consequence of the Progressive party and Vucic's policy is that the Serbs in Kosovo are "unsafe at every turn."

He stressed that Serbs today were not just unsafe in southern Kosovo, but in northern Kosovo as well where they constituted the absolute majority. Asked by BETA whether the Serbian state could keep the Serb people in Kosovo and Metohija safe, Djilas said Serbia was on the wrong side today just like in 1990, and that there was not much to be done to protect the Serb people in Kosovo without Western allies.

Asked for his view of a solution to the current crisis in northern Kosovo, Djilas said "a big mistake" was made with late last year's decision for Serbs to leave all Kosovo institutions. He stressed that he and his party would never recognize Kosovo as independent and that they stood for reconciliation between the Serb and Albanian peoples and cooperation in all areas.