I Would Sign the Hague Document

Milosevic has, as a skilled compiler, taken over the "Memorandum" of the Serbian Academy of Arts and Science, which, in effect, represents the Serbian rejection of the Yugoslav concept...

I can not agree with you that he is a skilled compiler. He is a compiler, but a very incompetent one. He tends to later accept the ideas he was opposed to in the beginning. He is one of those people who tighten their grip when it is least desirable, and only loosen up when it is too late. He is a doctor who prescribes medicine when it has expired and when it becomes deadly... You are here talking about the use of the ideas of your own party...

It does not in any way differ from last year's SPO programme. A maze of possible solutions to the Yugoslav and the Serbian problem was offered there.

When these ideas were first announced, the official Serbian rule did not even let the Serbian people know about them. We were pictured as lunatics, the supporters of war, chaos and the downfall of Yugoslavia... All our ideas were later accepted, but only when it was too late and even then inadequately.

You can not call the present political rule successful, since only two years ago Slovenia and Croatia were advocating asymmetric federation, which is much more than is presently being offered in the Hague and which the official Serbia is so insolently rejecting, while stubbornly insisting on its own proposal, on its own ultimatum. At the time this proposal was put forward, Tudjman was not yet in power and had it been accepted he would never have been elected the president of Croatia. The rationale of Milosevic's politics is thus represented by his persistent refusal and the delayed subservient acceptance of the worse option...

The initiative of Izetbegovic and Gligorov offered much more than the Hague document, but it was still rejected. Let us remember that on the eve of the proclamation of the Slovene independence the federal Army was asked to stay and guard the borders for another three years. This was refused. Your views on the Hague...

The Hague is a slap in the face to the Serbian official politics, but also a punishment of the Serbian people... What options are now open to Serbia with regards to the Hague document?

I personally think there is no choice. The disastrous politics of the Serbian leadership has brought us into the situation where we have to accept the Hague agreement, because any delay can only work against us.

It is true that the document is unjust and that the Serbian National Corps would be divided into several small states, and that Serbia was presented with an ultimatum. Still, our concern here is to opt for the lesser evil (the national preservation, divided or not, as opposed to the repeat of the Thessaloniki front). Let us not forget that even in 1914 we refused to accept an ultimatum, which is pretty much the way we are now - without a single friend in the world, completely alone. I personally believe that Serbia can not enter a war against the rest of the world.

Not only that it can not do so, it doesn't even want to do so. The mass desertion of the Serbian reservists is a case in point here. The present official Serbian politics is backed by about 5% of Serbian extremists and 10% of the ones outside Serbia. I am in contact with many Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia. Most of them differ in opinion from Karadzic (the President of the Serbian Democratic Party), Babic (the President of SAO Kninska krajina) or Hadzic (the President of SAO Slavonija, Baranja and Western Srem). So you will accept the Hague document out of necessity? President MIlosevic said in the Hague that Serbia has no territorial aspirations concerning Croatia and that it only wants firm guarantees concerning the status of Serbs in Croatia. If Europe is giving such guarantees, what seems to be the problem?

Unlike Mr. Milosevic, I do have territorial aspirations, although I recognize they are impossible to achieve for the time being. The Serbian leaders and their media are emphatically stating that we will not let Luxembourg and the Netherlands shape our destiny. I have a different logic. I think that they do have the right to give us lessons in civilized living, tolerance, democracy and everything else we are clumsy at. Is there any possibility that the divided states to find ways of getting closer and finding a suitable form of coexistence, as Lord Carrington has suggested?

It has to be said that Bosnia is already sovereign. It only needs an army. Macedonia is sovereign too. I think that all of us are making a mistake: we are insisting too much on the title and form, instead of compiling a list of all the common grounds: defence, diplomacy, culture. There is hope only if we can arrange these issues...

We are so intermingled and forced into coexistence that the people themselves would be willing and able to reach an agreement, even without the interference of feeble-minded politicians. What about the present?

I am convinced that most of the Serbs are at this time opposed to the official Serbian politics, and I imagine that the situation is pretty much the same in Croatia concerning Mr. Tudjman. The Hague agreement, however, is rumoured to be supporting 14 autonomous regions on the Yugoslav territory....

This is all explained in the programme of our party, although it went unnoticed. I am afraid that it is too late now. Only a year ago, or five months ago, that was realistic and Europe would have accepted it.