Klaus, Zeman: Kosovo a terrorist state, Prague should not have recognised it

PRAGUE - In an interview marking 25 years of their country's NATO membership, former Czech presidents Vaclav Klaus and Milos Zeman told public television broadcaster Ceska televize the 1999 NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was a huge mistake and that the so-called Kosovo was a terrorist state Prague should not have recognised.

Immediately at the beginning of the interview, Zeman said the bombing of FR Yugoslavia was a "gross mistake" by NATO for which he had apologised to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

Agreeing with Zeman's assessment, Klaus said that, at the time, he had been angered by the Czech government's decision to allow NATO bombers to fly over Czech territory on their way to FR Yugoslavia.

The TV station's host noted that former NATO Secretary General George Robertson had said in Prague that co-existence in Kosovo existed as a result of a successful NATO intervention, but Zeman disagreed with the claim.

"Former president of Kosovo Hasim Taci currently stands before the Hague international criminal tribunal because of war crimes, as does an entire team of leading Kosovo officials. I have been saying that Kosovo is, in essence, a terrorist state. I have not substantiated this only with drastic cases such as organ harvesting, even from living people," Zeman said.

He said similar violence might have been committed on the Serbian side, too, but noted that it had been much smaller in scope and unsystematic.

"It was not a government doctrine, while Kosovo was, and is, a terrorist state. Klaus and I disagreed on many issues, but neither of us had no intent whatsoever of signing our consent to name a Czech ambassador in Kosovo," Zeman said.

Pointing out Pristina's treatment of Serbs in the north of Kosovo, Zeman said the Pristina government "is really not a normal democratic regime."

Klaus agreed with this to a great extent.

"I believed it was scandalous that then FM (Karel) Schwarzenberg recognised Kosovo without a government debate and without even informing the president of the Czech Republic - which was me at the time - that something like that would happen. I was very angry with Schwarzenberg, and that should never have happened," he said.