Parties condemn Muslim politician's "inflammatory rhetoric"

Parties condemn Muslim politician's "inflammatory rhetoric"

BELGRADE -- Sulejman Ugljanin's statement referring to Serbia as "a chauvinist creation" carrying out discrimination against Bosniaks has been met with condemnation.

The reactions mostly came from officials of other political parties representing Bosniaks.

Ugljanin is the leader of the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) of Sandzak, chairman of the Bosniak National Council (BNV), and has in the past served as minister in several Serbian governments.

He is one of the political leaders of Bosniaks (Muslims) in Serbia's southwestern Raska District, known informally as Sandzak.

Ugljanin made the controversial statement during when he addressed a protest in Novi Pazar on February 20, during which his supporters carried a banner reading "Sandzak-autonomy," Tanjug reported.

"We want to turn the chauvinist creation called Serbia into a democratic, modern, European state," he said.

Ugljanin called on Bosniaks to resolve problems through institutions and the parliament, saying that if need be, he would ask for "NATO's assistance to come and protect Bosniaks".

"Such accusations can only be uttered by someone who is a chauvinist or hypocrite, or both," said Serbia's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications Rasim Ljajic, himself a Bosniak from Novi Pazar, who leads the Social-Democratic Party of Serbia (SDPS).

He pointed to the fact that only several months ago Ugljanin was a cabinet minister, and that at the time of the protest in Novi Pazar, SDA of Sandzak vice president and president of the municipality of Tutin Semsudin Kucevic asked for government funds for construction of roads in that Bosniak-majority...