"Haradinaj is your test," Serbian FM tells Europe

"Haradinaj is your test," Serbian FM tells Europe

The international community continues to apply double standards in the treatment of victims from Kosovo and Metohija, he said.

"If political decisions are to be more important than whether someone is a war criminal or not, the question is whether punishing war crimes is the goal for which Europe stands, or whether this applies only to Serbs," said the minister, who, Tanjug said, started the tour of the memorial room "symbolically, at 12:44 hours."

According to him, Serbia has never contested the need for all those who committed war crimes, regardless of their nationality, to be held accountable - "but only Serbs are being declared responsible."

"The crimes against Serbs have effectively been excused. The fact that there have been no Albanians convicted by the Hague Tribunal and that witnesses against Albanian terrorists have been killed, that various countries do not respect (Serbian) arrest warrants, says that there are still double standards, and that the right of someone to kill Serbs is being legalized," said Dacic.

Asked whether any Serbian state official "concealed the evidence against Haradinaj," Dacic said he had "no such information" but that if these claims were to be confirmed, "this would be the most grave crime toward the Serb victims."

Speaking about Kosovo's intention to again apply for admission to UNESCO, Dacic said that Serbia has ahead of it broad activities at the international level in order to affect the way UNESCO members will vote on this issue.

"The voting in UNESCO is such that abstentions are not taken into account. I don't now how the United States will behave this time, but previously there was great pressure by Western countries on those states that have not recognized Kosovo to abstain from voting. We managed to persuade Japan, Korea, Colombia, who have recognized Kosovo, to abstain - but we can't persuade Macedonia and Montenegro, and that gets to me," Dacic said, revisiting a topic he has recently spoken about on several occasions.

The memorial room that Dacic toured today displays the photographs of 2,500 Serbs, Gorani, Roma and ethnic Albanians who have been kidnapped and murdered in Kosovo and Metohija since 1998.