15. 08. 2005

MINISTER ILIC: B92 PSYCHIATRIC CASE

KOPAONIK, BELGRADE, August 15, 2005 – Capital Investments Minister Velimir Ilic responded with his customary threats and obscenities today when a B92 journalists attempted to ask him about his role in the withdrawal of charges against Marko Milosevic, the son of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic. Speaking at a ground-breaking ceremony for a cable railway in the Kopaonik Tourist Centre, Ilic said that he had spoken to the alleged victim of death threats from the former president’s son in an attempt to protect him from the pressure to which he had been subjected in Pozarevac because of the court proceedings against Marko Milosevic. Zoran Milovanovic, who first accused Milosevic’s junior of threatening him with a chainsaw as well as striking him, then this month, suddenly changed his statement, is a close relative of Minister Ilic. The minister says that proceedings against Marko Milosevic which have not been finalised after five years don’t need to go any further. “Marko Milosevic has done nothing illegal in his life, the only thing is he struck Zoran Milovanovic. There’s no point in commenting. At that time there were violent murders of Badza, the army minister, the general director of JAT and so to support a charge from Zoran Milovanovic, a boy who has nothing to live on, this doesn’t need to happen, if there’s nothing else,” said Ilic. Ilic took extreme exception to questions from B92 journalist Ana Veljkovic about the Milosevic affair. At that point the minister’s media advisor, former state media journalist Petar Lazovic, stepped in and told Veljkovic to send a message to RTV B92 Director Veran Matic that he would kill him. A short time later, at a press conference, Lazovic denied the threat. Lazovic: I told you to tell Veran Matic to go [obscenity deleted]? B92: No, you said that as well. You said everything. Ilic: We’ve come here for an important, a very serious investment. Ladies and gentlemen from B92, wherever you go you make chaos. Wherever you come you practice provocation. You’re sick, you need a psychiatric clinic, you need to go for collective treatment. You tread treatment at Kopaonik, we’ll make a centre for you, to take care of you. I can promise you that, here I’ll promise you that your great professional, Veran Matic, making people look like idiots in Serbia. I claim that openly. We’ve gathered here for a serious matter. You’re just talking about Marko Milosevic, forget Marko, why is Marko so important in your life? Please, don’t get in our way in this serious work. Following this outburst Minister Ilic then directed a personal attack on the B92 journalist. “You just talk, you’re so aggressive, you’re one of those that can’t get married. I worry about you. What will you do? No one will want you. Relax here, enjoy and be nice with us,” he said. After Ilic’s closure, the representatives of local community who were following the conference loudly supported and applauded the Minister’s statement.