Serbian Warlord Was Determined to Fight NATO

PRAVDA.Ru has already reported about the latest meeting at The Hague Tribunal devoted to Slobodan Milosevic's trial. The former Yugoslavian president had to account for the notorious Serbian warlord Arkan (his real name is Zeljko Raznatovic). Below are several excerpts of the interviews with notorious Serbian warlord Arkan taken by American reporters online. Arkan was the leader of the infamous paramilitary group the Tigers. He was killed in 2000.

As we have heard, you stated in Yugoslavia that the sentence against you was ridiculous. Is it really that ridiculous?

Yes, it is. You are talking to me with such a tone, although you bombed civilians in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, you exterminated the people of Vietnam, you conducted genocide against Cambodia, you mutilated innocent people in biological experiments, you killed the people of Grenada and Panama. And now you are talking to me like to a war crime criminal only because I am defending my country. You do not even know where Yugoslavia is. 

But I believe, sir, we know where you are on the map.

Good, you know it now, now you will know exactly where we are.

You stated that your paramilitary groups were not in Kosovo. Can you swear of that?

I have no paramilitary groups. I have always been commanded by the Yugoslavian army. To be more precise, I am the commander of voluntary units of the civil defense of Yugoslavia. All my volunteers are prepared for struggle. If NATO's ground troops come here, we will defend our land: man against man, warrior against warrior. We will fight to the last. I am not a Muslim fanatic, I am a Christian, but I will defend my land. We never intend to surrender. Never.

It has been reported that you are holding three young men. What is going to happen to them?

Yes, we have taken three American soldiers prisoner. What would you do if you took three Yugoslavian soldiers your prisoners in the US? Wouldn't you consider them as spies? I am not a judge, so I cannot say anything about a punishment for them. They had no IDs, no humanitarian aid, they were carrying guns and something else. They will obviously be judged in a military the court. Most likely they will be released in several weeks or months. I do not know, how long this stupid war will continue.

Are you really intended to wage war against NATO troops?

This is the only fatherland that I have. If NATO attacks, if Russia attacks, we will defend our country, our wives and our children. We will defend our Kosovo -Serbian land. If we do not have enough weapons, we will fight with stones and pitchforks and we will die like warriors.

I would like to know, where do Kosovo's Serbs to?

If you start saying that we eat Albanians and drink their blood to explain that, it will simply be your propaganda. I know how this machine works. I watch American television and it is ridiculous for me to see a report about unprecedented ethnic cleansing, showing the "outlawed" quietly locking their doors, packing their things and slowly pulling out in comfortable cars.

Why do Serbs claim Kosovo, if they comprise only ten percent of the population there?

There used to be a communist regime in Albania, we were forced to accept immigrants. We were giving them loans to build homes, we were giving them land for 50 years. The Albanian population has grown larger. Serbian women were giving birth to one or two children, Albanian women were delivering up to 15 children. Probably, only one percent of Serbs will manage to stay alive. But we do not intend to give away our land for that reason. The meager terrorist group maintained by the CIA and the US has turned into the "Kosovo Liberation Army." You call it a "liberating organization" as long as it is corresponds to America's interests. As soon as it starts acting against your will, it will become a "terrorist gang." Kosovo Serbs should be a part of Serbia. You have New Mexico, Texas states in the US. What if the Mexican population of those states say that they want to add Taxes to Mexico? What would you do?

Why isn't it possible to achieve a peaceful agreement? Humanity and peaceful life come first for us.

I stand for peace because I know what war is. I would like to solve everything peacefully. We do not want to down your helicopters - they are so beautiful and powerful. We do not intend to bomb other countries: we do not have so many bombs. We are reasonable people, we are ready to negotiate - it is a lot better than to wage war. But when huge NATO wishes to destroy tiny Serbia… The US is attacking innocent people just because they do not want to follow NATO's policy. We like democracy, but we want to have the democracy of our own, the Serbian democracy.

What do you think about the mission of Yevgeny Primakov?

There is no mission, it is not a Russian state. I think that Primakov is intended to sell us for the Western money. I do not believe him, I think it is useless to await any help from him.

How do you explain Milosevic's permanent statements when he says that he is prepared for peace, although he continues the war?

I do not know what Milosevic thinks and what he is intended to do. You must understand a very important thing. Milosevic has a very large opposition in Yugoslavia. I am the head of the Serbian Unity party. However, Slobodan Milosevic enjoys great popularity in the country at present. All political parties support the policy that he is running. The US administration has assisted to it with the bombing.

Is it really true that civilians suffer from the bombing?

The US bombs our military factories, where civilian employees are working. You bomb the bridges that people cover with their bodies; you bomb columns of tractors taking them for tanks. Your bombs fall down on innocent people in settlements and cities. But we can live under the bombs too. They arrange concerts in the streets of Belgrade - people sing songs under the bombs. You will never be able to understand those people.

Deputy chief of Brussels police department arrested Arkan in 1975 for robbing a bank: "He is the most dangerous man I have ever seen. He is not just a criminal, he is a rabid dog." The "rabid dog" escaped from the prison four years later, having climbed over a six-meter high wall. He was arrested again in 1979 in Holland for an armed robbery of a department store, but he escaped again in nine months. Now, when he became a Serbian patriot, he is not willing to talk about that period of his life.