Joseph: Hill's statement about the unwise bombings, but in time his gesture will be understood

Joseph this statement by the co-co-co-co-side diplomat is seeing it as an unwise act, until in a series of tweets, he mentions Serbia's tendency to victimise and not give up its genocide past.

“Ambassador Chris Hill expressed his condolences about losing the lives of Serbs during the 1990s wars and specifically in NATO's air campaign. Was it wise to do so? Not”

The answer to the question of whether it was wrong is more complex, says Joseph.

The “was not wise because, since the moment of 2010 when the Serbian Parliament silently recognised the genocide committed in Srebrenica, Serbia has moved back to dealing with the past ... while its democracy has moved back. The revision is the core of the Vuciqi regime”.

“Like Putin with the Russians, Vucic encourages Serbs to think of themselves as victims, not authors. For Belgrade, Kosovo's last story begins in 1999, with NATO bombings, not in 1989, with the removal of autonomy ʹ and a decade of brutal depression”.

Joseph says that this is not only misleading, since it includes statements that hinder obligations to missing persons. Here he cited a statement by Serbian Minister Dacic.

“in 2020, Foreign Minister Daciq asked this thrilling question: “What will we do with Serbs showing where Albanian troops are buried throughout Serbia? Hill's statement was also unwise because Russia relating its criminal invasion of Ukraine, referring to NATO bombings in 1999. Putin uses Western military and political intervention in Kosovo as fuel for the Russian basic complaint, promoting war”.

So, the condolences made to strengthen the opportunistic sense of Russian and Serbian sacrifice. Instead of calming grief, condolences drive Serbs away to understand the truth: their losses, including the loss of Kosovo, are largely the result of Serbian aggression”.

The American analyst says no one should be surprised because Vuciq did not change the victim's drill even after then Vice President Biden expressed condolences in 2016, using the same words as Hill.

“The US has consistently defended the rights of Serb victims. Ask Hashim Thaci, now in The Hague court room”, Joseph has said.

The Hill-directed trick by Serbs illustrates the dangers of expressing condolences where revisionism reigns. Total, massive imbalance between the number of Serb victims and the number of victims in the hands of Serbs still is essentially ignored in Serbia”.

Joseph says no one knows better than Ambassador Hill why diplomacy failed, which Hill himself spoke of, saying diplomacy's failure has consequences.

A cynical Serb dictator took power by abusing Kosovo, refusing to restore even a modest form of autonomy. Ironia: Today Belgrade seeks a form of autonomy for Kosovo Serbs, as it puts the same thing out for Albanians”.

Although it is not a wise statement, Joseph says Ambassador Hill is not necessarily wrong because he expressed condolences.

“Diplomacy failed. Serbs died. The Serbian nation experiences the NATO bombing as a national trauma despite the guilt of Serbian leadership for crimes in Kosovo (Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia)”.

Joseph recalls that Hill, as ambassador to then-called Macedonia during the NATO campaign, played an important role in the human housing of Kosovo Albanian refugees expelled during the war.

Joseph says he recognises this at first hand as he also worked in a refugee camp in Stenkovec near the Macedonia-Kosovo border.

Western “Velrates ) American values include recognition of those who lost in conflict and the pain of surviving family members. In time, with Serbia's eventual return to the democratic road, the sincerity of Hill's” gesture will be understood, Joseph concludes.