Milosevic Says Yugoslav Election Tainted with Fear
ROME (Reuters) - The Yugoslav elections which
ousted Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites) from
power last October were tainted with fear and
external pressure, the former president was quoted on
Saturday as saying.
``Three things were at play in the recent elections:
pressure, fear and corruption,'' La Stampa newspaper
quoted Milosevic as saying in an interview.
He said public opinion in Yugoslavia had been swayed by economic and
military pressure from abroad.
``(There was) economic pressure in that we had been under sanctions for a
decade and the message was that they would only be lifted if the government
changed,'' he was quoted as saying.
``We were bombed every day for three months and the threats got worse
before the election. It seemed that if there was no change of government, the
bombing would start again.''
Milosevic, who was thrown from power in a popular uprising on October 5,
said he did not blame the Yugoslav people for his loss and said he doubted
the election result reflected their political desire.
`In the last months fear conditioned public opinion...Fear became a political
force to make things go the way of those who spread it,'' he said, accusing
western Europe of wanting to take economic and political control of its
eastern neighbors.
``Western countries, or rather their governments, supported me for as long as
it was in their interest to have stability in the Balkans. When they thought it
would be interesting to have instability, I lost their support,'' he was quoted as
saying.
Milosevic also criticized former Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic's
decision to surrender to the U.N. war crimes court in The Hague (news -
web sites) and said she had turned from being a fierce nationalist to being a
U.S. collaborator.
The Hague tribunal also wants to try Milosevic as soon as possible for
alleged war crimes by his forces during the Kosovo conflict in 1999 but the
former president heaped scorn on the court, likening it to World War Two
concentration camps.
``The court exists first and foremost to try Serbs. It is the same intimidation
tactic the Nazis used first against the Jews and then the Slavs,'' he said, calling
it an ``immoral and illegal institution.'' |
