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December 5, 2000 Zoran Zivkovic, the federal minister of police War - against mafia
Zoran Zivkovic, the vice president of Democratic Party, has been building his political career patiently. He became known to the public in 1996 when he was elected the mayor of Nis after the local elections in Serbia. On recent elections he was re-elected as a mayor and he became the representative in the Federal Parliament as well. Ensuing longer consultations, the Federal government was formed after which he was appointed the minister of police. FS: Since 1992. when the Serbian ministry of police took over both the building and prerogatives of the federal internal affairs ministry, that institution virtually has not existed. Will the issue of federal internal affairs ministry be solved? The Serbian ministry of police has taken over the greatest part of federal internal affairs ministry prerogatives and at the same time, it has done the same thing both on the territories of Serbia and Montenegro. The Federal ministry has been till now nothing but dead end, it means, a place with stale air where nothing important has happened for years concerning the security issue in our country. The government’s attitude and my personal one is that this ministry will exist according to legislation with some other extra authorisations, or it’d better not exist. It depends on the destiny of federal state. FS: Which are the authorities of federal internal affairs ministry in solving the problem on the south of Serbia? Formally these authorities and jurisdictions do not exist. It is the territory of Serbia and the Serbian police are in charge of all operation activities. I communicate with co-ministers Nikcevic and Prelevic on daily basis and we have good co-operation. Moreover, I have taken part in all consultations that were held last weekend concerning the police, army and other state organs.
FS: What is your estimate of the current state in the region of crisis? The situation is stable and unfavourable. On the one hand, it is stable since in the past few days no actions have been performed except that we had the incident with the tractor which accidentally ran over a land mine set by the terrorists where one child got killed, two children were badly injured and five or six of them were lightly injured. On the other hand, it is unfavourable because we cannot accept the situation where on our territory we have a paramilitary and terrorist group which is situated there against the regulations of military and technical agreement and Resolution 1244 of UN. We expect the international community which has taken the responsibility for the situation behind the administrative boarder with Kosovo to solve this problem in a peaceful way, if not, we will be forced, within the limits of military and technical agreement, to use our police forces to bring the state in this region to that level of security when it will be safe for all citizens to live there. FS: International community has taken some steps in solving this problem. Is it enough? I am glad that these measures are more concrete compared with what has happened in previous months and years, but it is still not enough to make us satisfied. Since KFOR should secure the administrative boarder from the other side, then it should secure it in the way that no one can enter the territory of security zone. FS: What do you expect concerning the status of Kosovo in accordance with the current situation? The status of Kosovo is a very complicated issue to be discussed. In any case, my political attitude as well as the attitude of Federal government is that Kosovo and Metohija are intrinsic parts of Serbia and Yugoslavia and that they should remain like that. Kosovo should be granted autonomy with all attributes of ethnic minority rights protection according to highest world and European standards. That is what we want to do. The condition for that is that there were no military, terrorist or similar activities on that territory, and that means that international community must first create that kind of atmosphere on Kosovo, since it has taken over that assignment without our consent. FS: Would the Federal government accept the independent Kosovo with some limitations? There is no chance or willingness to accept the independent Kosovo. What we do accept is the autonomy which will resemble the autonomy Kosovo used to have according to the Constitution from 1974. What’s more, that kind of autonomy would not be in Tito’s but in democratic Yugoslavia this time. FS: Have you got any results concerning the disappearance of Ivan Stambolic? The investigation is led by operatives from the Serbian police forces and as far as I know, there are no worthwhile result so far. My colleagues, co-ministers could tell you more about it.
FS: The president of Democratic party Zoran Djindjic has announced in media the “war against mafia”. What does it mean? It means the implementation of law. Both police and other state and judicial bodies will do their job according to law. It is enough to understand that the war against mafia, crime, bribery and corruption has been openly declared. FS: So far there have been many unsolved murders and other criminal offences. Are you going to work on it? Absolutely. The job of police is either to prevent or to solve this kind of cases if there are any. It must be done efficiently, and those who have not been doing it efficiently should give up their jobs to those who are capable of performing them. FS: Will the unjustifiably accused and punished people be amnestied? They will be amnestied or their cases will get a second hearing in court or in some other way the honourable solution for their position will be found. Bojan Bozic
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