Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced that he is extending a hand to "those who threaten violence" and appealed to his supporters to respond with patience to the protesters in Serbia, BTA reports.
„Thank you for not hating and when you see those who hate us, we should not respond to them with hatred and violence. I am the president of Serbia and to those who threaten violence and extend a hand to them, we will return peace, stability and order to Serbia," Vucic said last night, quoted by Serbian media.
For more than four months, mass protests have been taking place in Serbia, organized mainly by students, over the tragedy in Novi Sad, where 16 people died after the canopy of the recently renovated railway station collapsed. Protesters accuse the government and President Aleksandar Vucic of corruption and nepotism because of the incident.
The Serbian head of state participated last night in a commemorative event for the victims of the NATO bombing 26 years ago, which was held at the “Pol. Milenko Pavlović“ airport in Batajnica, near Belgrade.
“They killed our children, we will not forget it and we must not forget it, but as our patriarch (Porfirije) said, we must forgive, but we must never forget“, Aleksandar Vučić also said.
The memorial event was also attended by the President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik, who called the protests in Serbia “aimless”, the national Serbian television RTS reported.
“Today it is important for Serbia to come back to itself, to gather strength and become strong again, to stop taking away its power with merciless gatherings that have no purpose”, Dodik said.
“President Aleksandar Vučić is the only one who can restore power and restore order in Serbia. After the bombings, the country was lost. Those who are stopping Serbia today are wrong. Tons of depleted uranium were dropped (during the bombing) and we are still recovering from that," Dodik added last night from the podium at the commemorative event in Batajnica.
The Alliance's air strikes against the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia began on March 24, 1999, were stopped on June 11 of the same year, and ended the year-long conflict in Kosovo between the regime of Serbian nationalist Slobodan Milosevic and Kosovo Albanian fighters seeking independence.
According to estimates from various sources, 26 years ago, about 2,500 civilians and about 1,000 soldiers and police officers were killed as a result of NATO strikes in the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Serbian media reported.
During the 1998-1999 war In the then Serbian province of Kosovo, over 10,000 civilians were killed, including over 8,000 Albanians. The crimes committed by Serbian forces were confirmed by the verdicts of the International Tribunal in The Hague, commented the regional station of Radio Free Europe.