Serbia Today Interview Cedomir Jovanovic

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INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK
Interview, July 28, 2009
Cedomir Jovanovic
President of Liberal-democratic Party

“Serbia needs major changes! “

By: Milen Vesovic

Who is the most responsible for the positive/negative work of the Government of Serbia?

Government is the biggest consumer of political power because citizens, who do not understand themselves anymore, can not be found even in the false hope that the ruling political party give them. For the thirteen months of its existence, the Serbian government didn’t extend from the limits that are a consequence of its composition and manner of creation. Only one major change was expected from this government – to justify a positive decision on the implementation of the SSP, and even that failed.

Inside that selfish and contrary to nature coalition, the current government doesn’t have the necessary quality to achieve the goals, that citizens generally voted for in the elections in May last year. In government, and more by inertia, the only politically active is a Democratic Party, and the others, with more or less success, bear at its margins.

It is obvious today that we were right when we said that there is no unconditional support to the Government, because on one hand, it doesn’t show readiness for dissociation from the policies that destroyed the country, and on the other hand, it doesn’t have a power for a policy that would fundamentally change the country.

Moreover, as long as welfare and paving rural roads for unfortunate people who live there, is used as a trump card in political campaigns, our society will not freely make political decisions. Our mutual obligations, the LDP and other parties that consider themselves democratic, is to change that.

Do you see in the near future solution of the problem of Kosovo?

The process of stabilization of life in Kosovo and of solving the most important problems of people who live there is not complete, nor is seriously accelerated by the declaration of independence, or by the fact that numerous awards followed . The LDP alerted on that, but that attitude, unfortunately, could not be understood at that moment. That attitude, unfortunately, could not understand in the moment- in Pristina because of the euphoria, in Belgrade because of violence and emotional abuse, and in the world because of the premature relief.

We still believe that the problems that disturb the normal life of Serb and Albanians can not be resolved without their mutual agreement for the future. The local elections will be in Kosovo in November. The LDP has invited Serbs to participate in the elections, in all places where there are conditions for that. With the new boycott, they would deny themselves a chance to affect their lives, which have been already for two decades, sacrificed.

There are some positive steps. The returns of Serbs in Kosovo police forces show that life wins, and that they can be protected only if they participate in influential institutions . It is brutal before the elections, to ask of tired people who have already suffered so much, by boycotting the elections to renounce the opportunity to win their minimum rights. With previous boycotts, and even the one from 2004, Serbs only ended up in the ghetto.

How is the relationship Serbia to Srebrenica, 14 years later and who is responsible for that?

The crime in Srebrenica is not only a terrible incident and a great shame that its organizers and perpetrators prepared for us. That crime is the worst and ugliest culmination of one policy, in which it was possible to design and implement something like that. For these reasons, I think that the issue of tragedy in Srebrenica, its causes and consequences, didn’t received the attention they deserve. When I say that, I think of the attitude towards politics that led to the genocide and towards the people in power, who are today or convicted for the most serious crimes, or are hiding from justice.

Our party and representatives have filed few declarations about Srebrenica. Those are not just political declarations; those are operational documents that should enable our educational system, media, cultural and public life to condemn this crime, and to create conditions that something similar becomes absolutely impossible in the future. Unfortunately until now, among the most of the elite, primarily political, there is not any willingness to do so.

I expect that by the beginning of September, we will succeed to provide much wider agreement, and that the Declaration of Srebrenica, especially in the context of overcoming the burden of the past and the acceleration of “Europesation” of Serbia, can get support in the General Assembly of Serbia and the public.

In your opinion, how are the relationship of Serbia with its neighbors, and where you see room for change, primarily to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro?

The fact is that our foreign policy is generally incorrect, and we have made the greatest damage in the relations between Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia. Serbia still has no full diplomatic relations with some neighbors; there are no ambassadors of Montenegro and Macedonia in Belgrade. That will probably be changed soon. In addition, the Minister of Foreign Affairs on several occasions was very careless and sometimes sloppy in behavior towards the countries of the region, which did the greatest damage to Serbia.

The values on which the wrong policy is built, must receive their alternative, and it exists in the political projects of the LDP. Our policy insists on the recognition of civil society and the modernization of the country. We see one of the most important means of modernization through an uncompromising European integration and the rapid improvement of relations with neighbors. In the region we see a lot of common challenges, and not threats, as such is our policy. The region is a chance for our economy; those are the only markets in which we export more than import.

Our past is a warning, and the common European future is an opportunity. Therefore, to the LDP priorities are: friendship, cooperation and joint projects with Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia! Our neighbors understand that, and that’s why the LDP party enjoys great trust among the parties in the region, and those that are of similar orientation as we are, but also among the other parties.

What are the action plans for the Liberal-Democratic Party in the near future?

We are not the party that believes that alone we will change Serbia. Not one single party can do that, regardless of whether they have 30 or 300 per cent.

The citizens of Serbia must be the performers of change. Yet, the citizens are lost in the labyrinths of the almighty party state. This irresponsible and inefficient political system pushed ordinary people in the party trenches. Now it keeps them vulnerable and uncertain, and fire them up one against the other. That is why the society has lost power, and citizens do not have the strength to raise their heads, and to oppose the catastrophes.

LDP wants to change that. This is the guarantee of our political future and we are in advantage in relation to the other parties. Therefore, the transformation of LDP continues, and our goal is to get to those citizens who vote for other parties, but intimately agree with the LDP. We want to escape from the corner we are pushed in, described as extremists, even though there is no party that was as fair as we were. At any moment, we have put, and we continue to put the public’s interest in the first plan. We have always tried to overcome the expressions of animosities of other parties towards the LDP, from Kostunica to Nikolic, whom we have supported in the effort to sustain the Radicals to vote for the Agreement with the EU.