Serbian cabinet minister’s ethnic cleansing statement draws fierce reactions

Paunovic, a long-time Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) official, said last week that she would have ethnically cleansed Kosovo in 1998 if she had been in Slobodan Milosevic’s place. Paunovic, a Serb native of Kosovo, told the pro-regime Kurir TV that she would not have done to the Albanians “what they are doing today to ethnically cleanse Kosovo but in a way that anyone who did not feel a citizen of FR Yugoslavia (comprising Serbia and Montenegro at the time) they would leave and go to their native country … and those who chose terrorist acts would be eliminated in the way that we customarily deal with terrorists tody, let alone then”.

Paunovic said in a written statement that she refuses to abandon her party’s policies and strategies chosen in circumstances of armed rebellion nor on her right to speak about mistakes or analyze what could have been done differently.

Kosovo’s Labor Minister Andin Hoti said in a Facebook post that Milosevic was Paunovic’s ideological father who ended up before an international tribunal “while Serbia left Kosovo with its tail between its legs”. “Anyone who calls for ethnic cleansing today is not just a threat to Kosovo but is proof that Serbia has not yet been freed from Milosevic's genocidal ideology and from the criminal politics that brought wars, massacres and historical shame,” he said.

The opposition Movement of Free Citizens (PSG) said that anyone justifying expulsions based on nationality can’t be in the Serbian government. The statement warned that the statement is especially dangerous because it comes from a minister whose job should include guaranteeing equality for all before state institutions. “The ministers’ statement also raises the question of criminal accountability under the law which bans inciting national, racial and religious hatred,” it added.

Paunovic’s party chief, Internal Affairs Minister Ivica Dacic said the attacks on her are shameful and hypocritical. He said the people attacking her for allegedly calling for ethnic cleansing are the same people who have been keeping quiet about the ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Kosovo, a written statement said.

European Commission spokeswoman Anitta Hipper said there is no place in Europe for statements that justify and advocate ethnic cleansing. She said Paunovic’s statement runs counter to Serbia’s obligations under the EU-led dialogue to normalize Belgrade-Pristina relations.