After the statement of the Minister of State Administration and Local Self-Government and SPS official Snežana Paunović "If I had been Slobodan Milosevic, I would have ethnically cleansed Kosovo in 1998," her party colleagues - the SPS vice-president - also announced. Branko Ruzic and the Minister of Internal Affairs Ivica Dacic, also The European Commission.
After part of the opposition and the non-governmental sector demanded the immediate resignation of Snežana Paunović, she issued a statement in which she stated that her statement had been made into propaganda and that she would not renounce politics Socialist Party of Serbia.
"We are a party that led Serbia in indescribably difficult historical circumstances, a party that made great sacrifices, a party whose name was most often mentioned in The Hague, a party that did not ask anyone for anything in order to remain upright and faithful to its ideas," said Paunović.
Ružić: "I am convinced that the policy of ethnic cleansing was never the policy of the SPS"
SPS Vice-President Branko Ružić told the Nova.rs portal regarding the statement of a party colleague that it is harmful to initiate new, non-existent wounds in addition to old wounds, without foundation in any part of state or party politics.
Photo: Tanjug / Miloš MilivojevićBranko Ruzic
"First of all, I think it would be correct to ask SPS President Dacic the question. My position is quite clear. I am convinced that the policy of ethnic cleansing was never the policy of the Socialist Party of Serbia, nor was a decision ever made in this regard at party bodies, either in the nineties or later," said Ružić.
Dačić: "Shame on you"
Ivica Dačić also announced himself as the Deputy Prime Minister. Dacic assessed that the attacks on Minister Snežana Paunović are "shameful and hypocritical", stressing that those who accuse her of allegedly calling for ethnic cleansing are at the same time silent about the ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija.
"Why does no one mention that there were 40 to 50 Serbs in Pristina in 1991? Where are they now? Now there are 400 of them. I was born in Prizren, where there were 10.000 Serbs in 1991, and today there are about twenty of them," Dacic asked in the statement, adding: "And now Snežana Paunović is guilty of ethnic cleansing? Shame on you. She said that everyone who does not feel Serbia, they should return to their home country, the country of Albania."
Who is Snežana Paunović, the creator of the ethnic cleansing of Kosovo
European Commission spokeswoman: "Such statements are contrary to the values of human dignity"
The spokeswoman of the European Commission, Anita Hipper, assessed that there is no place in Europe for rhetoric that justifies and advocates ethnic cleansing.
"Such statements are contrary to the values of human dignity, reconciliation, responsibility and good-neighborly relations on which the EU is based. They are also contrary to the obligations that Serbia undertook within the dialogue mediated by the EU on the normalization of relations with Kosovo," stated Hipper at the press conference.
The spokeswoman of the European Commission added that she expects "all leaders to act responsibly and refrain from any inflammatory rhetoric."
Sources: Time, Danas, N1, Nova.rs
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