Dodik calls U.S. diplomat "liar, troublemaker"
30 November 2010 | 12:59 -> 20:33 | Source: B92, Tanjug
BANJA LUKA, ZAGREB -- RS President Milorad Dodik has reacted to one Wikileaks cable that mentioned his name, as reported today in the Croatian media.
Milorad Dodik (FoNet, file)
According to U.S. diplomatic cables published by the whistleblowing website, Dodik - then prime minister of the Serb republic (RS) in Bosnia-Herzegovina - voiced his support for the so-called Ahtisaari plan.
The U.S. diplomat who reported that he uttered the words is a liar and and troublemaker, said Dodik on Tuesday.
The cable, sent in May 2007 by U.S. State Department official
Daniel Fried
, also quotes Dodik as saying that "Kosovo's recognition would follow after such a decision (to adopt the plan) by the UN Security Council".
UN envoy Martti Ahtrisaari drafted his plan for Kosovo's supervised independence, which the Kosovo Albanian authorities used as a base for their 2008 UDI. However, the plan was never adopted by the Security Council, and was rejected by Belgrade.
Getting in the spirit of the "cablegate", where published U.S. diplomatic documents compare world leaders "candidly" with Hitler and cartoon characters, Dodik used strong words to refute this report.
"My behavior regarding Kosovo is clear and I have demonstrated and proved it. As far as the fabled Fried, he has shown himself to be a troublemaker and a liar who tried to push through Kosovo's independence in many places," Dodik was quoted as saying.
"I never met with Fried alone, I never said those words to him, and he will never be able to find a witness to that," Dodik concluded.
Fried's cable came after his meeting with Croatian officials in the spring of 2007, according to reports.
Zagreb daily Jutarnji List printed some of the 1,686 cables sent from Zagreb that have been published thus far. One of them says that former Croat PM Ivo Sanader and President Stjepan Mesić referred to then Serbian PM Vojislav Koštunica as a "nationalist", because of his position on Kosovo, but they praised Serbian President Boris Tadić, whom they said "shared their way of thinking".
According to the report, Sanader also warned that in case Croats moved out of Bosnia and RS separated, the remainder of that country would constitute for a "small Islamic state in Europe", while Mesić agreed with this assessment.
But Fried told them that a third entity was "out of the question" in Bosnia, and that Croats in Bosnia "should come to the U.S. embassy in Sarajevo for help".