Trump Denies Regretting US Airstrikes on Serbia

The Trumps hope to enter the White House following the November elections. Photo: Flickr/Marc Nozell.

The office of US Republican candidate Donald Trump has dismissed claims that he told a Serbian media outlet in an interview that he regretted US-led airstrikes against Serbia in 1999.

After the Serbian weekly Nedeljnik published what it claimed was an interview with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, in which he called the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999 a mistake, his office on Thursday said the interview was a hoax.

“Mr Trump never gave an interview to the Serbian weekly magazine Nedeljnik, as falsely reported by the discredited Newsweek, nor was such an interview conducted through our Indiana State Director. This was a hoax and we look forward to receiving a formal retraction and apology from all involved,” Jason Miller, Senior Communications Advisor for Trump, said.

The editorial board of Nedeljnik meanwhile issued a statement clarifying that it had received the interview through a US citizen of Serbian origin, Vladimir Rajcic, who had obtained the answers to certain questions from Suzie Jaworowski from the Trump team.

The statement also included a link to the email from her in which she claimed Trump thought “the bombing of Serbs, who had been our allies in both world wars, was a big mistake. Serbs are very good people. Unfortunately, the Clinton administration brought a lot of harm to them, to all the Balkans, where they created chaos.”

Nedeljnik attributed these answers to Trump himself.

However, Jaworowski, Indiana State Director for the Trump campaign, insisted that she was not speaking for Trump and was not “a conduit” to the presidential contender.

“Regarding the article about a media interview with a Serbian politician and Mr Trump via my email, this is completely false. I have never served as a conduit to interview Mr Trump for anyone,” Jaworowski said in a statement.

Vladimir Rajcic, who says he conducted the alleged interview with the Trump team, has meanwhile continued to claim the interview was genuine.

According to him, the interview was agreed with Jaworowski and Mike Pence, Indiana governor and Republican vice presidential candidate.

Rajcic claims the Trump team later decided to deny the interview after the US media linked his statements with the 1995 Srebrenica massacre in which 7,000 Bosniaks were killed by Bosnian Serbs.

Many media outlets and commentators in the US condemned Trump’s alleged statement about the bombing of Yugoslavia, recalling that the country was then led by Slobodan Milosevic, who was later accused of war crimes and genocide.

In June, US Vice-President Joseph Biden offered condolences to the families of 1999 NATO bombing victims and urged Serbia and Kosovo to resolve their open issues during a visit to Belgrade. However, he did not apologise for the military action itself.

“The memories of the loss of the loved ones are still fresh,” Biden said. “My condolences to the families of those whose lives were lost during the wars in the 1990s, including those whose lives were lost as the result of the NATO campaign.”

The article was originally published by Balkan Insight. It is republished here with permission.