03.12.2015.

General Lazarevic arrived from The Hague

Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic and Minister of Justice Nikola Selakovic escorted today in the government plane General Vladimir Lazarevic from The Hague to Nis airport. General Lazarevic was also welcomed at the Nis airport by Minister of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy Aleksandar Vulin, Chief of General Staff General Ljubisa Dikovic, Commander of the Army Lieutenant General Milosav Simovic, Bishop of Raska and Prizren Teodosije, Nis Mayor Zoran Perisic, Chief of Nisava Administrative District Aleksandar Cvetkovic, other officials from the state leadership of the Armed Forces and the Church, relatives and hundreds of friends and comrades.

"The Serbian Armed Forces takes care of all its officers, non-commissioned officers, and of course of all its generals. General Lazarevic is beloved by the people of Serbia and the Serbian Armed Forces. Few people know that the tactics of General Lazarevic are implemented and studied in US military schools. Here we are today with him and his family to give him support and express our appreciation for what he has left the Serbian Armed Forces, "said Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic.

Minister of Justice Nikola Selakovic said that the Ministry of Justice, whose Minister had seen off General Lazarevic to the Hague, had not only a responsibility but also a great honour to bring our general back to Serbia, while Minister of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy Aleksandar Vulin said that today Serbia showed how much she cares and that it has not forgotten those who have defended and protected it. He thanked the family that has preserved the General all these years, and General Lazarevic which for guarding the Serbian flag so highly.

General Vladimir Lazarevic expressed his gratitude to all state bodies that since 2005 until today had tried to help him in accordance with to the conditions, primarily in terms of survival and preservation of health, and acknowledged all those who in any way had been part of his defence and all who had been with him in their prayers.

"It has been ten years of life and freedom taken away from me and my family - General Lazarevic said. – In the Hague Tribunal I was not sentenced to any particular wrongdoing of mine or any member of the Pristina Corps, of more than 70 thousand soldiers, but because I allegedly helped the three accused in my case in the expulsion of the Albanian population, without any proof beyond reasonable doubt, as they say. I stood erect before the Hague judges and prosecutors, before justice and truth, humble before God and all the fallen comrades and victims of that bloody war. I evaded this Hague scaffold deeply convinced of the immeasurable value of sacrifice for the freedom of one’s country, for the glory of ancestors and honour of descendants. And today, I respect the past, I am not satisfied with the present, and I hope the future. "

General Vladimir Lazarevic voluntarily left for The Hague in February 2005 and four years later he was sentenced to 15 years in prison, but his sentence was reduced after the appeal to 14 years in prison. Lazarevic spent over ten years in the Hague prison.