Serbian Radicals file lawsuit against former minister over Kosovo report

Text of report by Serbian independent news agency FoNet

Belgrade, 21 April: The Serbian Radical Party (SRS) has said that it filed a lawsuit against former FRY [Federal Republic of Yugoslavia] Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic [member of Brussels-based International Commission on the Balkans] over undermining the country's territorial integrity.

"While he was discharging his duties as Serbia-Montenegro foreign minister, Goran Svilanovic requested that the so-called West should free Serbia of Kosovo and that Kosovo should gain independence. We are not interested in what Svilanovic says as a private citizen or as an MP, he is entitled to have opinions. However, as a minister he has no right to have personal opinions, because he must advocate the official positions of the government and the state," SRS deputy chairman Tomislav Nikolic told a news conference.

He called on the prosecutor to "do his job", and say whether there are elements of criminal intention in Svilanovic's case. Nikolic recalled that he had also charged [London-based EFT Company directors] Vuk Hamovic and Vojin Dimitrijevic over machinations regarding electricity. [Finance Minister] Mladjan Dinkic was also charged with financial machinations, while [Serbia-Montenegro] Defence Minister Prvoslav Davinic and Chief of General Staff Dragan Paskas were charged with allowing journalists to enter the "Karas" military building.

"I am warning the gentlemen in the prosecution that the charges must not end up in drawers, because the authorities will change and someone will come who will not open the drawers," Nikolic noted.