"No room for gloating over Hague verdict"

Serbian President Boris Tadic has commented on the recent verdict passed by the Hague Tribunal against former Croatian generals. Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac were found guilty of committing war crimes against Croatia's ethnic Serb population in 1995. "No room for gloating over Hague verdict" Tadic told Belgrade-based daily Blic on Friday that "there is no room for anyone's gloating," adding that "any form of revanchism which could jeopardize the security of Serbs in Croatia is inadmissible." "I sincerely hope that this will not happen," Tadic stated. Tadic said that facing one's own past, regardless how difficult or shocking it may be, must be "a moment when we all begin identifying our anguishes with those of other people." According to Tadic, "all of us together need to secure a future for our children, in which the repeating of our tragic history will be absolutely impossible." "We have to fight for peace. Facing the past is a painful inevitability for all the former Yugoslav peoples, as well as the newly created countries. Court procedures are also inevitable, which impose adequate punishments to the perpetrators of severe crimes," Tadic stressed. "Serbia accepted this principle a long time ago," he said. "Serbia extradited 44 persons to the Hague, and it is extensively searching for the remaining two indictees, Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic. The very moment we locate and arrest them, they will be extradited to the Hague. There is no dilemma on that issue in Serbia's policy," Tadic underscored. Tadic assessed that Serbia's cooperation with the Hague throughout the years has been neither simple nor harmless, adding that there was resistance from various sides. As a society, Serbia slowly but surely went through its own catharsis, he said. "We accepted that the truth is the only cure for everything that happened, and that punishing the perpetrators is the minimum we owe to the victims and their families, but to our shared future as well. When I say perpetrators, I mean every one of them, regardless of whether they are Serbs, Croatia, Albanians, Bosniaks, or any other nationality," Tadic concluded.

"No room for gloating over Hague verdict"

Tadić told Belgrade-based daily Blic on Friday that "there is no room for anyone's gloating," adding that "any form of revanchism which could jeopardize the security of Serbs in Croatia is inadmissible."

"I sincerely hope that this will not happen," Tadić stated.

Tadić said that facing one's own past, regardless how difficult or shocking it may be, must be "a moment when we all begin identifying our anguishes with those of other people."

According to Tadić, "all of us together need to secure a future for our children, in which the repeating of our tragic history will be absolutely impossible."

"We have to fight for peace. Facing the past is a painful inevitability for all the former Yugoslav peoples, as well as the newly created countries. Court procedures are also inevitable, which impose adequate punishments to the perpetrators of severe crimes," Tadić stressed.

"Serbia accepted this principle a long time ago," he said.

"Serbia extradited 44 persons to the Hague, and it is extensively searching for the remaining two indictees, Ratko Mladić and Goran Hadžić. The very moment we locate and arrest them, they will be extradited to the Hague. There is no dilemma on that issue in Serbia's policy," Tadić underscored.

Tadić assessed that Serbia's cooperation with the Hague throughout the years has been neither simple nor harmless, adding that there was resistance from various sides.

As a society, Serbia slowly but surely went through its own catharsis, he said.

"We accepted that the truth is the only cure for everything that happened, and that punishing the perpetrators is the minimum we owe to the victims and their families, but to our shared future as well. When I say perpetrators, I mean every one of them, regardless of whether they are Serbs, Croatia, Albanians, Bosniaks, or any other nationality," Tadić concluded.