1. Serbia as a small peace loving country should remain militarily neutral. Serbia should not be a member of any military alliance. Serbia differs from the rest of the countries in the region firstly, that it has never been a member of Warsaw nor of NATO pact and, secondly, no country in the region has ever been the victim of NATO attack, except Serbia. Serbian neutrality has been defined by the National Assembly Resolution binding the Government and all State institutions.
This has been steady principal position of Belgrade Forum.
2. As Serbia has already joined Partnership of Peace, this also is part of political reality. Austria, Sweden, Finland are constitutionally neutral countries but members of PFP.
3. Since its aggression on Serbia (Yugoslavia) in 1999, NATO has demonstrated that it was meant to be precedent for launching similar attacks and military interventions in other regions out of its jurisdiction defined by the NATO Founding Act. Its offensive character was later confirmed in Iraq and elsewhere. In addition, NATO has demonstrated its ignorance of the basic International principles, Laws and the role of UN Security Council.
4. Having played a leading role in supporting unilateral, illegal secession of Kosovo and Metohija from Serbia in 2007, USA government and NATO, proved that their prime interest in 1999, was to establish NATO state on the 15 percent of Serbian State territory. USA first established Bondsteel military base in Kosovo and Metohija in 1999, the biggest American military camp outside USA soil. USA Government had no Serbia’s or UN authorization to establish such a base. It was an impetus to spreading military bases further towards East (for example, four in Bulgaria, another four in Romania and so on). USA and other NATO countries have established “independent Kosovo’s Army” by “transforming” the terrorist KLA/UCK.
5. Public opinion polls show that about 75 percent of Serbia’s population is against Serbia’s membership to NATO.
6. As the part of the present Government is clearly pro-NATO, they may be tempted to ignore the will of the majority, and force their short-cut way towards membership to NATO. That’s why many civil society associations, including the Belgrade Forum, as well as many political parties keep publically cautioning that final decision on the NATO membership is exclusively in the hands of the people who will have a say at a referendum.
7. Formally the Government agrees with inevitability of referendum. But in practice nobody dears to organize it as the result is quite clear in advance. So Serbia is faced with NATO advocates tactics - step by step getting deeper involved in NATO structures and operations directing the process to the point of no return. At the same time NATO and the Government spend huge amounts of money propagating NATO as the guardian of paradise. The masters of this operation count with effects of promises of “better life” to the nation suffering of poverty, unemployment and confusion.

Živadin Jovanović
President of the Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals