ANTI-NATO PROTEST BY VOJISLAV SESELJ

On this date, 24 March 2015, Supporters of the Serb Radical Party (SRS) staged a protest in Belgrade when they burned flags of NATO, the EU, the United States, and Kosovo. A similar incident happened again on 10 March 2016 by the leader, Vojislav Seselj.

Serb ultranationalist leader Vojislav Seselj holds a burning European Union flag in front of the High Court building in Belgrade, March 10, 2016.

INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.voanews.com/content/serb-nationalist-defies-court-burns-european-union-nato-flags/3229558.html

Serb Nationalist Defies Court, Burns EU, NATO Flags

VOA News

March 10, 2016 4:35 PM

Serbian ultranationalist Vojislav Seselj set fire to European Union and NATO flags outside a Belgrade court Thursday, insisting he would not return to The Hague to hear the verdict in his war crimes trial later this month.

Seselj, 61, who has liver cancer, was allowed to return to Serbia for treatment in November 2014 while awaiting judgment from the U.N. war crimes court.  

Four months after Seselj was freed, judges in The Hague ordered him to return March 31 to hear his verdict, saying he had broken terms of his release by telling supporters he would never go back.

Seselj was tried on three counts of crimes against humanity, which included persecution, deportation and forcible transfers, and six other charges that included torture and murder during wars in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia’s Vojvodina region, amid the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Seselj surrendered in 2003, and his trial ran from 2007 to 2012.

Seselj’s display of defiance came after Serbia’s High Court canceled a hearing on his extradition to The Hague tribunal on Thursday, citing procedural reasons. The nationalist instead burned the EU flag outside the building, saying, “It burns well,” before setting fire to the NATO flag as well.

“I will not go voluntarily, but I will use every opportunity to inflict expert professional, political and moral damage on The Hague tribunal,” Seselj told dozens of cheering supporters.

The extradition could increase political pressure on Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and his Progressive Party just before a parliamentary election on April 24. Vucic, a former protege of Seselj, broke with his party in 2008 to pursue a more pro-Western course.

As leader of the far-right Serbian Radical Party, Seselj plans to run for parliament in the coming election.

His return to The Hague might improve his popularity, helping his party pass the 5 percent threshold of votes required to enter parliament.

  

Supporters of the Serb Radical Party (SRS) on Tuesday March 24, 2015, staged a protest in Belgrade when they burned flags of NATO, the EU, the United States, and Kosovo.

[PHOTO SOURCE: http://inserbia.info/today/2015/03/belgrade-radicals-burn-flags-of-nato-us-eu-and-kosovo/]

Serbia: Radical Party's Seselj burns EU and NATO flags outside court

Published on Mar 10, 2016

President of the Serbian Radical Party Vojislav Seselj burned EU and NATO flags outside the Higher Court in Belgrade one Thursday. Seselj has been scheduled to appear at a hearing where he was to be questioned on the Hague Tribunal's request that Serbia extradite him regarding his war crimes trial dating back to the time of Yugoslavia. However, the hearing was postponed. The Hague Tribunal has set March 31 as the date for the reading of the verdict.

SOT, Vojislav Seselj, President of the Serbian Radical Party (Serbian): "After the adoption of the IPAP agreement with NATO, Serbia is no longer an independent and free country."

SOT, Vojislav Seselj, President of the Serbian Radical Party (Serbian): "This regime is making a mistake in the economic, social, educational, cultural and health policy, because it wants to introduce us into the European Union where all are traditional Serbian enemies. We will not go in the EU! We will not join NATO!"

SOT, Vojislav Seselj, President of the Serbian Radical Party (Serbian): "We Serbian Radicals will do everything in our power to prevent the delivery of Vjerica Radeta, Petar Jojic and Jova Ostojic to the Hague Tribunal."

SOT, Vojislav Seselj, President of the Serbian Radical Party (Serbian): "We are facing elections and the Serbian nation will know to assess who are the patriots and who are not. Who is fighting for an upright and free Serbia, and who wants Serbia in the EU and NATO slavery?"

VIDEO SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY7CGicjkQI