Personal Statement
Radomir Dimić
I have only three wishes for 2008!!! The first, most important wish is peace. I wish for peace to prevail throughout the world. I wish for wars, the killing of people, suffering, and disasters to end. I wish for human life to be above that. I wish for Kosovo, Bosnia, Croatia, and many other wars and losses of life to never be repeated.
The second with I wish for - it could also be first - is health. I wish for health, not only for my family or my children. I wish for health for all of the children of the world and luck and family prosperity for all people, regardless of their citizenship or religious beliefs. I would add love and freedom to good health.
As the third wish, I wish that in 2008 Kosovo will be an oasis of peace, freedom, and well-being and a symbol of multiethnic life, tolerance, and prosperity. I wish for Kosovo to start down a new path - the path of European and civilized values. I wish for democratic processes and maturity, but also other achievements, to become a member of the European family and to come to a European system of values.
To realize my three wishes, I have decided to dedicate myself to Kosovo. Together with the citizens of Kosovo, I will participate in building and forming a European future for Kosovo. I will love Kosovo and live in Kosovo. I want to love Kosovo more than Tadić, Koštunica, and other hypochondriacs from Belgrade do, because I do not want to be a hostage of their sick politics. Since the Milošević regime killed my father, mother, and spouse, the mother of three young children, drove me from Pristina and left me unemployed, I am not be obligated to endure the degradation of these recycled Milošević policies, which left me and the rest of the Serbian nation in poverty and isolation. Serbs lived in containers for seven years. My motherless children felt the ‘care’ of Mother Serbia when they were hungry and homeless for ten days in the middle of winter, in the rain and wind.
I cannot love Tadić or Koštunica because of that they divide Kosovar Serbs into suitable and unsuitable. Suitable Serbs under the leadership of usurping leaders have everything. Disobedient and unsuitable Serbs who vote in the Kosovo elections don’t have anything. We are ‘betrayers of Serbia.’ They constantly punish us, even prohibiting our children from studying if they do not have a thousand euros.
I love Kosovo more than Belgrade because I was born in Kosovo and my ancestors have been there for centuries. I love it because of my Albanian, Turkish, Bosniak and Roma friends. I love it because of Rugova Gorge, Barileva, The Peć Patriarchate, Pristina mosques, and the Clock Tower. I love free and open Kosovo. I love civil society and multiethnic and democratic Kosovo. I want to speak Serbian, my mother tongue, and think in a democratic way. I want to understand the desires of the citizens of Kosovo. Their wish is an independent Kosovo. Kosovo independence is supported by the world’s biggest force - the USA, but also the majority of Europe. Kosovo has already been de facto independent for eight years. Independence was actually given to Kosovo by the Milošević regime through its policies of ethnic cleansing, pillage, and destruction of property. Serbs did not oppose this. The independence of Kosovo in largest part was helped by the same Serbs who filled their pockets with proceeds from stolen property. Consequently, Kosovo is not Serbia and Serbia is not in Kosovo. All the official Serbian resolutions only throw dust in the eyes of Kosovar Serbs and cause them agony.
Around ninety percent of the population of Kosovo is Albanian. They are independent. Serbia can recognize it or not. If nearly the whole world is for independence, can I go against them? Should we start a new war or bloodbath? Should we go to war against the whole world? No. I do not want war. I will not allow my children to be killed for armchair generals Tadić and Koštunica. Even if I have to choose between war and Kosovo independence, I am for Kosovo independence. In an independent Kosovo accepted by many countries, I believe that my independence will be equal to the independence of all Kosovar citizens. I want to trust in Kosovo institutions and the people of Kosovo that my basic human rights will not be endangered. Only the Albanian people, democratic Kosovo institutions, Albanian politicians and the intellectual elite can free the Serbian community from their fear of Kosovo independence. It is necessary to offer a hand of reconciliation and to bury the battleaxes. Albanians should help Serbs to leave their isolation, their armored enclaves. Kosovo independence will not be the end of the world if the Kosovar government guarantees the return of all displaced Serbs and creates conditions for their existence, with security, employment, and societal, economic, and cultural integration. Serbs, on the other hand, should confront the new reality and show a greater desire and bravery to participate in building a joint future of Kosovo. I honestly believe that post-war hatred will quickly disappear, the drums of war will fall silent, extremists will be quiet, and many antagonisms will be wiped away.
I want to believe that a new time will come, a time when I will be able to freely go with Mr. Thaçi or any Kosovar Albanian politician to Leposavić and Zvečan, The Peć Patriarchate, and the mosque of Mufti Trnava. We will freely drink coffee in Pristina, Prizren, and Đakovica. But I don’t want to go to Goraždevac with Mr. Rücker. The Serbs there shoot him and no one is convicted of it. I want to go - and I will go - to the Bogujevac’s home in Podujevo and the Berisha’s home in Suva Reka, but also the Simić’s, to express compassion to all of them and to alleviate suffering. Only in this way can we go forward. Only in this way can Kosovo show that it is ripe for democracy and independence.
Those are my three wishes. The third wish shows my personal position. I am aware of the great danger that I am exposed to. I could pay a high price because of it, but that is my choice. The path that I have chosen is a path of reconciliation and forgiveness. I love Kosovo, live in Kosovo, and will die in Kosovo!
