President receives army chief in wake of accusations

President receives army chief in wake of accusations

BELGRADE -- President Tomislav Nikolic believes that "attacks on the (army) chief of staff" are an attempt to "humiliate everything good done in Serbia" recently.

Nikolic received General Ljubisa Dikovic on Friday morning in the Presidency, a day after it the Humanitarian Law Center (FHP) NGO accused the Serbian Army (VS) chief of being responsible for war crimes.

Nikolic said that the Dikovic was an honorable officer and that the attacks on him sought to discredit and destabilize the army.

The attacks are aimed at undermining everything good that has been done in Serbia in the last two and a half years, the president said.

"The Serbian Army is definitely an institution that enjoys great trust of the citizens. It has established excellent cooperation with armies worldwide, and its members, who are serving in the international missions in numerous countries, are achieving only top results," Nikolic said.

"We must not forget how the army helped to save the lives and property of people during the last year's catastrophic floods that hit Serbia," he said.

Nikolic underlined that for this reason it is clear "that this insidious campaign against the VS, which began last year after a major parade marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Belgrade in World War II, will not manage to shake the citizens' trust in their army".

The president said that obviously the fact that Serbia is becoming a modern, developed country is contrary to the interests of certain groups of people that lament for the times when corruption and autocracy were flourishing, because they had many benefits back then, while the living conditions of the citizens worsened.