"Serbia fulfilled Hague obligations, can't be punished"

"Serbia fulfilled Hague obligations, can't be punished"

According to him, the trial of Vojislav Seselj is ending before the tribunal "as it began - with precedents."

Ljajic added that Seselj, who was granted temporary release on medical grounds in November 2014, "was literally kicked out" of the Hague Tribunal detention.

"The decision that Seselj doesn't have to attend the reading of the verdict on March 31 is nothing new as far as the tribunal is concerned. The Hague Tribunal is trying to solve this problem of its own making in any way, just so it no longer has to deal with it. Seselj was literally kicked out of jail," says Ljajic.

He added that the Serbian government "never said it would not extradite Seselj."

"This problem did not originate in Serbia because the government was not cooperating with the court, instead it arose from their own mistakes, but they certainly will not say it publicly. No one can be punishing Serbia, because we fulfilled all our obligations, and we even said in a confidential brief what this was about. Of course, the Hague, having no other way out, made such a decision," said Ljajic.

He added the government "has done everything to be fair and responsible."

"We acted this way from beginning to end," said Ljajic.

As for reactions to the tribunal's decision coming from Croatia, he said he would be able to understand if they came "from Germany or Sweden - but not from the Croatia."

"It sounds strange because in that country (Croatia) signs written in Cyrillic are smashed, and if they have some accusations they should contact the tribunal. The statement of (Croatian Deputy PM Bozo) Petrov that Serbia was required to provide guarantees that Seselj would return to the Hague shows he is not well informed. Nobody asked for guarantees. I expect Croatia to now condition Serbia's path towards the European Union," he said.

Ljajic also noted that the Hague Tribunal would finish its work in 2017, adding that Serbia fulfilled its obligations once it extradited the last accused person.

He also stated that "without trials for war crimes committed by the KLA there can be no reconciliation in the region."

"We'll see if it the special court has really been formed to conduct trials the way it should, or if it's just an excuse to be doing something and accomplishing nothing," Ljajic concluded.