"Serbia won't recognize Abkhazia, S. Ossetia"
24 September 2008 | 11:45 | Source: Tanjug
VIENNA -- Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić has said that Serbia is not going to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

"We are not going to do that," Jeremić said in an interview to the Vienna daily Die Presse.

"We are grateful for the support Moscow is giving us over Kosovo, but what we have here is a protection of our national interests," he underlined, adding that "we are not a part of some Russian policy".

The foreign minister voiced his belief that no agreement will be reached between Russia and the United States on the recognitions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and Kosovo.

"Russia has given us assurances that it will not change its position on Kosovo," he pointed out, adding that as far as the province was concerned, Serbia will continue to use diplomatic means.

"The sovereignty and territorial integrity of internationally recognized countries is something what we regard as sacrosanct, whether it be Serbia, or any other country in the world," Jeremić continued.

"When Kosovo declared its independence unilaterally, we warned that it represented a dangerous precedent," he said.

"Some countries thought that Kosovo was a special case and that an exception to the rule should be made, but this is very dangerous," Jeremić noted.

"When someone makes an exception under international law, they must know that someone else in some other part of the world will do the same," the foreign minister told the Austrian newspaper.

Previous "dangerous precedent" were the independence of Pakistan, caused by the British in 1947, and then of Bangladesh, of Somalia, and of Bosnia, all obtained by force of arms.

As for the Ossetians, I guess that their yearning for independence is strong as that of the Albanians in Tetovo: they do not want to be subjected to a regional alien government.

But they do not want independence, they just want to be reunited with their own people, just across a new absurd border imposed by the West.