What Vučić wants

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić on Monday published an op/ed in the Belgrade daily Blic on “Why we need an internal dialogue on Kosovo.” While there have been both skeptical and welcoming reactions to this overture, I think the President’s views on merit reading by all those who seek peace in the Balkans. Blic has given me permission to publish the full text in English. I am grateful to SAIS graduate Marko Grujicic for the translation: 

Why I asked the Serbs and other citizens of Serbia to talk about Kosovo and Metohija? Why do I consider this dialogue decisive for the future of our country and the people? Why open this topic at all if we all learned to be silent and against everything, as any solution would assume that every politician who dares to search for it would pay the price. On the other hand, all others would pretend to be those who know about Kosovo much more than they really do, that they had much better solutions but nobody asked for their opinion.

Therefore it is important, now more than ever, to look into the mirror and to boldly and clearly see all the scars, wounds and shortcomings on our own face. At the same time, we have to try to cure what is possible while not giving up in desperation, due to the problem which we have been grappling with.

It is time that, as a nation, we stop burying our heads in the sand like ostriches and to try to be realistic; not to allow ourselves to lose or give to someone what we have, but also not to wait for what we have long lost to arrive in our hands. When Shimon Peres, the man I had the privilege talking with several times, was once asked why he insisted so much on negotiations with the Palestinians, he said: “Because it will open the seaports of peace throughout the Mediterranean. It is the duty of a leader to pursue the kind of freedom that gives peace and to endure such freedom constantly, even when faced with hostility, suspicion and disappointment. Just imagine what could happen if it does not work.” Even today, when I need to answer about the need for the dialogue with Pristina and the internal, Serbian dialogue, on Kosovo, the end of this quote contains the essence of the whole story – “Just imagine what could happen.” If suddenly everyone remains silent; if we stop talking. After many years dealing with politics in this region, I know this answer very well. Since 1878, since the creation of the so-called Prizren league we, the Serbs, did not want to be responsible enough to understand the strength and aspirations of the Albanians. On the other hand, it is a great mistake of the Albanians, for which I am grateful, that they lack the understanding of Serbian state and national interests and underestimate them; even worse, an attempt to sweep them under the rug because someone thinks this is possible with the support of the great powers.

It is time for us, as a nation, to stop burying our head in the sand as an ostrich and to be realistic

Serbia is not to be underestimated, despite the fact that the Albanians in the implementation of their national ideas have the significant support from most Western countries. Today’s Serbia is not as infectious as it was, Serbia is not as weak as it was in 1999, 2004 and 2008, but Serbia is not, nor should it be, conceited and arrogant as, not rarely, it used to be.

Silence means we no longer care about the answers to anything. Silence means we have nothing to ask for; that we have ceased to hope; that we are ready for the last option, for the conflict – both our inner one but also with everyone around us.

Silence is the quality of those who think only they are right. Those who do not want to listen to anyone else. Those who are convinced that they are the smartest, have nothing more to learn, are superior to all the others, and that they have nothing more to talk about with anyone else. This is the modus operandi of tyrannies – always ready to spill someone else’s blood. At the culmination, silence is the end. After the silence no one speaks and the only sound is a long, uneven scream. I cannot see myself in this business of silence nor in such a numb Serbia. If that happens, not only will my policy be a failure, but also my whole life and the lives of all of us. That is something I will never agree on, no matter who thinks I am too vociferous, I ask too many questions, I talk more than I should. Just imagine what could be, if it is different? If I were one of those silent who bring people into conflict and war, just to teach them the geography of their own country? Or if I were one of those who would, in response to tapping on the shoulder and candies given by some of the Western embassies, agree to deliver all Serbian hearths, thus becoming, as they say, a great reformer.

Therefore, the solution does not lie on the one hand in our myths and conflicts, nor on the other hand in denial and giving up on all our national and state interests. The cynicism of Ambrose Bierce’s statement, that war is a way for people to learn geography, is the basic feature of all aspirations for those who opposes conversation and dialogue. Likewise those who would give up on everything, they do not know where Kosovo is, they have not been there, they will never go there, let alone to live. They do not make distinctions between Partesh from Pasjan, Srbica from Shtërpcë, Peja from the stove (Pec), but they would gladly send everyone else to Kosovo, just to teach them the bloody geography of their own country or to renounce something they do not even know what it is. On the other hand, opponents of the dialogue with Pristina on Kosovo are those to whom every loss is a victory, and who rejoice in another’s misfortune as their success because they do not know about any other kind of success. Their reason for this type of inaction, which is a kind of historical crime given the weight of the question that looks for an answer, lies in the hopes that someone will ultimately “give Kosovo” to somebody, and to their joy for such act will bear the consequences. From the standpoint of a daily politics, I may be able to understand this, however, from the historical point of view there is neither justification nor understanding for that. This because our hardest question is precisely that – since it is necessary, as never before, that all of us, together, find the answer; the one that will last, that will exclude conflict as an option and that will benefit everyone in this region.

I would like to try to solve our conflicts, but finding a solution requires a head hot from thinking

I would like, as the President of the Republic, to try to resolve our conflicts, if possible, once and for all and if not possible, then nothing. It would be just one of our numerous failures, common Serbian and Albanian. Finding a solution requires a head hot from constant thinking, a heart that is cold to excessive emotions, and hands mired with compromises. Both in our and Albanian hands.

It requires, again following the example of Shimon Peres, that we, to whom history did not give anything except blood and wars, finally use our greatest resource – our own head – and find a solution. It requires the work of everyone and awareness that what we are doing is a long, intricate and often painful process but primarily it requires change in our collective mindset, which often perceives every deal as a defeat. That’s simply not true. We did not get anything so great in wars that we lost in peace. As everything we received and lost in wars, we paid with the highest price possible –  one that cannot be compensated. With our lives and the lives of our children. This has to stop. It is time for Serbia to work, think, and win, win without conflicts.  I am convinced that we are able to do it as soon as today. After all, imagine what could happen. And do not be silent about this.

Serbia needs a responsible and serious approach, brave and realistic, but with a look to the future

All the paths of political cooperation and economic progress would be open to Serbia. The European Union’s doors, too. Otherwise, we will maintain the conflict whose essence we do not understand; both of us, without difference, will be heroic until the first battle. However, what about the consequences? Who cares about the consequences as someone else will take care of that in the future.

At the end, for “until the first battle” heroes, but also for those generous Serbs who easily give to others what belong to the Serbs, I conceive that Serbia needs a serious and responsible approach, courageous and realistic. An approach with a view to the future and not to short-term interests after the next elections. Serbia has the courage to live and fight for the future. Today, Serbia is respected everywhere in the world; three years ago Serbia was bankrupt while today there is a surplus in the budget, the growth of the economy much higher than the European average, and Serbia has shown that it is able to win. All this not only in basketball and water polo, but also in the economy and politics.

In order to make our progress steady and sustainable, we must at least try to resolve the Kosovo (Gordian) knot, not shy away and leave the greatest burden to our children. To live means to love the land on which children walk, not just to brag about the victories of our grandfathers.