‘I would have ethnically cleansed Kosovo in 1998’, says Serbian minister – opening a Balkan Pandora’s Box

First published in Denik N.

Statements about Serbia and Kosovo, let alone ethnic cleansing, are extraordinarily sensitive in the Balkans after the brutal wars of the 1990s. One Serbian minister has now shocked the region by saying that she would have “ethnically cleansed” Kosovo in 1998.

Despite Western efforts, relations between the two countries have reached an impasse, and many no longer believe that there is a way out.

The Serbian minister for public administration and local self-government Snežana Paunović, who is also a senior figure in the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), sparked the scandal with remarks during a television interview.

She said: “And now to our mistakes and our stupidity: if I had been Slobodan Milošević (Serbian and Yugoslav president between 1989 and 2000, a dictator, editor’s note), in 1998 I would have ethnically cleansed Kosovo. It is probably the harshest statement I have ever made in my life.”