RTS invites two convicted war criminals to the programme to commemorate NATO bombings

Two convicted war criminals -- former Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic and Yugoslav Army General Vladimir Lazarevic -- appeared at Serbia's public broadcaster, Serbia's Radio-Television(RTS) on Tuesday evening and refused to commit the crimes they were convicted of.

Sainovic and Lazarevic were among the guests in the RTS recording program Upitnik (which focused on the anniversary of the start of NATO bombings in Yugoslavia on 24 March 1999.

The Western military alliance launched its air strikes in an effort to persuade Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to end his military campaign against the Kosovo Liberation Army, which included wide ethnic cleansing. But as the bombings continued, Milosevic's forces committed a series of massacres against ethnic Albanian civilians.

Asked about these crimes during the RTS programme, Sainovic insisted “those were acts by individuals”, for which Yugoslav authorities could not be held accountable.

Someone had to pay for this, and we paid,” he added.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia sentenced Saiinovic to 18 years in prison and Lazarevqi to 14 years for the killings, deportations and inhuman treatment of Kosovo Albanians during the 1999 war.

But Lazarevic denied the massive exhibition of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians who fled Kosovo in the spring of 1999 to avoid killings by Yugoslav troops and police.

Asked about ethnic Albanian refugees, Lazarevic told RTS: “We knew they would devise an exod”.

Sainovic was released in August 2015 after serving two-thirds of his sentence, and Lazarevic in December 2015.

Also convicted of the same crimes were Yugoslav Army generals Nebojsa Pavkoviq and Dragoljub Ojdanic and Serbian police general Sreten Lukic.