Democrats: Don't put territory before life

Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac, DS, has today reacted to the announced U.S. sale of arms to the Kosovo Albanians. The Democratic Party (DS) website quoted the minister as saying that the decision, announced Thursday by U.S. President George Bush, is "absolutely unnecessary and definitely bad", adding that it came "at a very bad moment". Democrats: Don't put territory before life "Kosovo is a region in Serbia which needs to develop its economy first and foremost. There is a high degree of crime and corruption in Kosovo," Sutanovac told a military audience at the Army Technical-Testing Center in Belgrade. But he downplayed the importance of the decision by saying the weapons that the U.S. will export to the Kosovo Albanians "can in no way threaten Serbia's security" "These are not weapons of strategic importance, that can threaten the security of the region, but the message is very bad." The reason why the region should not fear for its security, Sutanovac said, is that Kosovo will not buy "warplanes or modern armaments". As for the Russian move to call a NATO-Russia Council meeting in the wake of the announcement, Sutanovac says nothing crucially important for Serbia can happen at that meeting, as well as that "Serbia would pay the price of any argument at that summit [sic]". "We must look each other in the eye and see in what way the activities that are coming out of Belgrade are helping the Serbs in Kosovo, and in what way they have the opposite effect," he said. At the moment, the "existence of a large number of citizens in Kosovo is threatened", but Serbia is not dealing with that, instead, "it deals with territory", the high DS official was quoted on the party's website. "I think this is impermissible, that we put territory before life in the 21st century," Sutanovac concluded. He also advised the Kosovo Ministry, led by rival Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), to deal with improvement of the lives of the citizens in Kosovo, "while, of course, the whole country will deal with Kosovo's status".

Democrats: Don't put territory before life

"Kosovo is a region in Serbia which needs to develop its economy first and foremost. There is a high degree of crime and corruption in Kosovo," Šutanovac told a military audience at the Army Technical-Testing Center in Belgrade.

But he downplayed the importance of the decision by saying the weapons that the U.S. will export to the Kosovo Albanians "can in no way threaten Serbia's security"

"These are not weapons of strategic importance, that can threaten the security of the region, but the message is very bad."

The reason why the region should not fear for its security, Šutanovac said, is that Kosovo will not buy "warplanes or modern armaments".

As for the Russian move to call a NATO-Russia Council meeting in the wake of the announcement, Šutanovac says nothing crucially important for Serbia can happen at that meeting, as well as that "Serbia would pay the price of any argument at that summit [sic]".

"We must look each other in the eye and see in what way the activities that are coming out of Belgrade are helping the Serbs in Kosovo, and in what way they have the opposite effect," he said.

At the moment, the "existence of a large number of citizens in Kosovo is threatened", but Serbia is not dealing with that, instead, "it deals with territory", the high DS official was quoted on the party's website.

"I think this is impermissible, that we put territory before life in the 21st century," Šutanovac concluded.

He also advised the Kosovo Ministry, led by rival Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), to deal with improvement of the lives of the citizens in Kosovo, "while, of course, the whole country will deal with Kosovo's status".