Q:
A:
People and their dignity must be respected
Belgrade,
7 June 2006
Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said today, commenting on the attack on Serbian Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Ivana Dulic-Markovic, that everyone is welcome to criticize the government’s work from an expert and political angle in the parliament and the public sphere, but all must adhere to the fundamental principle of respecting people and their dignity.
Vojislav Kostunica
The Serbian government’s official website presents the Prime Minister’s statement in full.
“In March 2004, when as mandator for forming the Serbian government I proposed that Ivana Dulic-Markovic be appointed minister of agriculture, I did so with the full confidence that Serbia will acquire a good minister. During the previous two years, that confidence was completely justified on a professional and a human level.
In the foundations of the long lasting nation-building ideals of Serbia, of which we are proud, there were never any criteria of judging people according to ethnicity or any other such category, rather only one measure of judgment was valid – of acting in the interest of Serbia and her citizens.
Insults and attempts to humiliate people are completely alien to our tradition. When such an incident occurs, it becomes more than necessary to hear a public apology, as a gesture reflecting the willingness to put an end to all forms of ethnic discrimination forever.
The public has with complete justification condemned the attack on Minister Ivana Dulic-Markovic and has stood up in her defence, which is an important and satisfying fact, and also gives hope that in the future such ugly and unjustified attacks on people will stop.
Everyone is welcome to criticize the government’s work from an expert and political angle in the parliament and the public sphere, but all must hold to the fundamental principle which has always been observed in Serbia, according to which people and their dignity must be respected,” reads the statement by the Serbian Prime Minister.
“In March 2004, when as mandator for forming the Serbian government I proposed that Ivana Dulic-Markovic be appointed minister of agriculture, I did so with the full confidence that Serbia will acquire a good minister. During the previous two years, that confidence was completely justified on a professional and a human level.
In the foundations of the long lasting nation-building ideals of Serbia, of which we are proud, there were never any criteria of judging people according to ethnicity or any other such category, rather only one measure of judgment was valid – of acting in the interest of Serbia and her citizens.
Insults and attempts to humiliate people are completely alien to our tradition. When such an incident occurs, it becomes more than necessary to hear a public apology, as a gesture reflecting the willingness to put an end to all forms of ethnic discrimination forever.
The public has with complete justification condemned the attack on Minister Ivana Dulic-Markovic and has stood up in her defence, which is an important and satisfying fact, and also gives hope that in the future such ugly and unjustified attacks on people will stop.
Everyone is welcome to criticize the government’s work from an expert and political angle in the parliament and the public sphere, but all must hold to the fundamental principle which has always been observed in Serbia, according to which people and their dignity must be respected,” reads the statement by the Serbian Prime Minister.
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