DS top official presented with Legion of Honor

BELGRADE French Ambassador Francois Xavier Deniau on Thursday presented Democratic Party (DS) high-ranking official Dragoljub Micunovic with France's highest decoration. Micunovic received a medal of the Legion of Honor in the rank of officer. DS top official presented with Legion of Honor The ceremony at the French Embassy was attended by former president of Serbia Boris Tadic and numerous other high-profile guests. “The Republic of France decorates you in acknowledgement of your life path, which paints the most dignified picture of what a free and open spirit can achieve,” Deniau said presenting the medal. The ambassador called Micunovic a “builder of democracy, a determined opposition leader and a person who symbolizes a long struggle for freedom”. Recalling Micunovic's unwavering fight for freedom of opinion and expression, which landed him in prison for 20 months and later got him expelled from Belgrade University, Deniau said that one of the DS founders had spent the 1990s tirelessly defending the democratic imperative and refusing to bow down to the manipulative government deaf to the people's call for reform. According to the ambassador, Micunovic did not relent even when, after the fall of Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, Serbia embarked on an arduous and thorny path of freedom, and continued working towards the normalization of democratic institutions in the country. Micunovic said the decoration meant a great deal to him but that his father, a World War One volunteer, deserved the recognition even more. "I am glad, on behalf of my friends and country as well, that more and more people are being recognized as fighters for democracy, for freedom, for the country's progress," he told reporters. Dragoljub Micunovic and Francois Xavier Deniau (Beta) Tanjug

DS top official presented with Legion of Honor

The ceremony at the French Embassy was attended by former president of Serbia Boris Tadić and numerous other high-profile guests.

“The Republic of France decorates you in acknowledgement of your life path, which paints the most dignified picture of what a free and open spirit can achieve,” Deniau said presenting the medal.

The ambassador called Mićunović a “builder of democracy, a determined opposition leader and a person who symbolizes a long struggle for freedom”.

Recalling Mićunović's unwavering fight for freedom of opinion and expression, which landed him in prison for 20 months and later got him expelled from Belgrade University, Deniau said that one of the DS founders had spent the 1990s tirelessly defending the democratic imperative and refusing to bow down to the manipulative government deaf to the people's call for reform.

According to the ambassador, Mićunović did not relent even when, after the fall of Slobodan Milošević in 2000, Serbia embarked on an arduous and thorny path of freedom, and continued working towards the normalization of democratic institutions in the country.

Mićunović said the decoration meant a great deal to him but that his father, a World War One volunteer, deserved the recognition even more.

"I am glad, on behalf of my friends and country as well, that more and more people are being recognized as fighters for democracy, for freedom, for the country's progress," he told reporters.