Embassy in strong reaction to ex-high rep claims

German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung has published a letter by the Serbian embassy in Berlin, sent in reaction to an article written by Christian Schwarz-Schilling. The former diplomat and former international high representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina recently wrote about “dangerous dreams of big empires”, once again criticizing and accusing Serbia. Embassy in strong reaction to ex-high rep claims “The text expresses wrong, malicious and on all counts one-sided positions in regard to the government of the Republic of Serbia,” the Serbian embassy stated. “In order to perhaps better understand the author’s motivation, I must add to Schwarz-Schilling’s biographical information which you published a small missing detail - Schwarz-Schilling is also a professor in the private Sarajevo school whose owner Mr. Ejup Ganic, mentioned in the article several times,” the letter, signed by Minister-Counselor at the Serbian Embassy in Germany Milan Gojkovic. The embassy pointed out that the fourth, democratically elected government in Belgrade since 2000 was "completely committed to implementation of extensive economic, social and political reforms". “The goal is to integrate our country into the EU and to overcome the difficult legacy and traumas from the past,” the letter read, and added that “this honorable agenda does not leave much time to follow the idea of 'greater Serbia' as Schwarz-Schilling claims". “On the contrary, with our principled struggle for Serbia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty and against unilateral changes of internationally recognized borders, Serbia is standing in the way of all dreams of creation of other regional ‘big empires’,” the embassy wrote. It is also said that other Schwarz-Schilling’s interpretations, such as those regarding the Srebrenica declaration which was adopted by the Serbian parliament, should also be considered unfair. “Since that (the Serbian declaration) is today the only apology of a parliament in the region, I’m strongly convinced that we need more such brave steps in the region, even though Schwarz-Schilling described them as insufficient," Gojkovic wrote. The Serbian diplomat invited the Berlin-based daily’s editors to visit Serbia "so they could get direct impressions first-hand". The tenth anniversary of the fall of Slobodan Milosevic’ regime, October 5, the letter suggested, is an excellent opportunity for such a trip. “I'll leave it to your personal assessment what the country has achieved in the meantime, which is ‘the region’s biggest problem’, as Serbia was described in the (Schwarz-Schilling’s) text," the letter signed by Gojkovic concluded.

Embassy in strong reaction to ex-high rep claims

“The text expresses wrong, malicious and on all counts one-sided positions in regard to the government of the Republic of Serbia,” the Serbian embassy stated.

“In order to perhaps better understand the author’s motivation, I must add to Schwarz-Schilling’s biographical information which you published a small missing detail - Schwarz-Schilling is also a professor in the private Sarajevo school whose owner Mr. Ejup Ganić, mentioned in the article several times,” the letter, signed by Minister-Counselor at the Serbian Embassy in Germany Milan Gojković.

The embassy pointed out that the fourth, democratically elected government in Belgrade since 2000 was "completely committed to implementation of extensive economic, social and political reforms".

“The goal is to integrate our country into the EU and to overcome the difficult legacy and traumas from the past,” the letter read, and added that “this honorable agenda does not leave much time to follow the idea of 'greater Serbia' as Schwarz-Schilling claims".

“On the contrary, with our principled struggle for Serbia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty and against unilateral changes of internationally recognized borders, Serbia is standing in the way of all dreams of creation of other regional ‘big empires’,” the embassy wrote.

It is also said that other Schwarz-Schilling’s interpretations, such as those regarding the Srebrenica declaration which was adopted by the Serbian parliament, should also be considered unfair.

“Since that (the Serbian declaration) is today the only apology of a parliament in the region, I’m strongly convinced that we need more such brave steps in the region, even though Schwarz-Schilling described them as insufficient," Gojković wrote.

The Serbian diplomat invited the Berlin-based daily’s editors to visit Serbia "so they could get direct impressions first-hand".

The tenth anniversary of the fall of Slobodan Milošević’ regime, October 5, the letter suggested, is an excellent opportunity for such a trip.

“I'll leave it to your personal assessment what the country has achieved in the meantime, which is ‘the region’s biggest problem’, as Serbia was described in the (Schwarz-Schilling’s) text," the letter signed by Gojković concluded.