By Ariyana Avdibegovic
SARAJEVO
Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic on Tuesday slammed Serbia's refusal to extradite alleged war criminal Vojislav Seselj to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
"I expect to see a little fairness and humanity from Belgrade," said Milanovic. Milanovic added that his government is committed to the equality of national minorities, including the Serbs.
"People should opt, they should say that the statements of that man are nothing more than evil," Milanovic said, speaking while on a visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which he visited only municipalities with a Croat majority,
Milanovic warned that the failure to extradite Seselj could gravely affect relations between Croatia and Serbia.
Seselj was temporarily released by the tribunal in the Hague in November, which had detained him for alleged war crimes. He returned to Belgrade on November 12 to receive chemotherapy treatment for colon and liver cancer.
Upon his return, Seselj addressed the public hailing the ideology of a Greater Serbia and referring to Serb general Ratko Mladic and Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, convicted war criminals, as "heroes and patriots" who fought for the freedom of Serbs.
The European Parliament in Strasbourg on Thursday passed on a resolution condemning Seselj for "warmongering, incitement to hatred and encouragement of territorial claims and attempting to derail Serbia from its European path,” the resolution stated.
The resolution included a demand to the tribunal “to re-examine the existence of requirements for Seselj's provisional release."
The resolution also called on Serbian authorities to apply the punishment for hate crimes.
Seselj announced that he would not return to the International Tribunal of his own free will. Serbian authorities would have to return him to the tribunal by force.
But authorities in Serbia have not taken steps to extradite Seselj.
"The consequences of the war are still felt. Some people are trying to take advantage of it in political and daily life. I oppose it. We waste a lot of energy trying to bring things back to normal," Milanovic complained.
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