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"I should have said deportation, not ethnic cleansing"/ Serbian minister does not back down from statements on Kosovo

2026-07-17 14:13:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

"I should have said deportation, not ethnic cleansing"/ Serbian

The Minister of State Administration and Local Self-Government in Serbia, Snezhana Paunovic, spoke in an interview regarding the statement made a few days ago about "ethnic cleansing in Kosovo".

Paunovic said that seven seconds of her interview with the Serbian media outlet "Kurir" were taken out of context in order to accuse her of ethnic cleansing.

But she did not back down from her stance, saying it would have been better to have used the term "deportation", not "ethnic cleansing", to avoid backlash.

"Maybe I should have said deportation, just to avoid so much criticism from all sides. But anyone who is reasonable understands what I was talking about, although unfortunately that term slipped my mind. At the end of the day, when you yourself have been the subject of ethnic cleansing, or almost happened, because they are still trying to do it, it is natural that the expression 'ethnic cleansing' remains in your mind because of what you have experienced ," she said on TV Prva.

Among other things, the minister criticized the initiative of 53 opposition MPs in the Serbian Parliament, who demanded that she be dismissed from her post. Meanwhile, regarding the declaration of "non grata" by Kosovo, she described the Minister of Interior, Xhelal Sveçla, as a "terrorist."

We recall that Minister Paunovic stated in an interview broadcast on TV Kurir on July 11 that in 1998, if she had been in the position of the then president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, she would have ethnically cleansed Kosovo.

"If I were Slobodan Milosevic, I would have ethnically cleansed Kosovo in '98. And that's the harshest opinion I've ever said in my life ," Paunovic said.

The European Union has also reacted to her statement. Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos described Paunovic's statement and her continued tenure as "unacceptable." /CNA





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