Serbian Ambassador defends dictator

Ambassador of Serbia to Belarus Stojan Jevtic says the EU economic sanctions against the Belarusian authorities are a “mistake”.

He said it at a press conference in Minsk today, Interfax news agency reports.

Stojan Jevtic noted his country had joined the EU sanctions against official Minsk, but the move hadn't affected the cooperation between Belarus and Serbia.

“There were problems. We had a period when Serbia was expected to show its attitude toward certain problems in the way the EU wanted it. But our stance didn't harm Belarus and our mutual cooperation,” the ambassador of Serbia noted.

Stojan Jevtic said the European Union continued to cooperate with Minsk despite the imposed sanctions. According to him, Serbia had to join them to be able to sign a free trade agreement with the EU.

Stojan Jevtic said that “the economic sanctions and sanctions in general are a mistake”. “We, the Serbs, had been under sanctions for more than 10 years. The sanctions were economic and more severe. We know how difficult it is to be hit by sanctions. We know this method of influencing a state cannot have any results,” he noted.

His discontent over the EU sanctions can be explained by the posts he held in communist Yugoslavia and under rule of Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic. Jevtic had been vice president of the country's big bank – Agrobank – since 1986 and chaired the head office of AIK Bank in 1999.  He was minister of agriculture after the dictator's overthrow and chairman of the  Chamber of Commerce and Industry. As the Chamber chairman he visit Belarus in 2007.

Photo: vb.by