While he avoided discussing issues of ethnicity in Serbia and the conflict in Kosovo in his speech, several members of the sizeable crowd questioned him on the controversies.

Djindjic said that he is working with the other countries and provinces in the Balkans to stabilize the region economically and politically.

“The first step should be to start to discuss,” he said. “The second step is to make small projects. We need to find mutual interests like joining the E.U.”

Djindjic said he was optimistic that, if given the opportunity to prove itself, Serbia could be welcomed into the E.U. by 2012.

“Since we have achieved some huge evils in recent years, it’s time to show what good we can achieve,” he said.

Accordingly, Djindjic said that if any of the suspected war criminals from the Bosnian war or the Kosovo conflict are apprehended, his government would immediately send them to the War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague.

Under Serbian law, such an extradition procedure is illegal, but Djindjic said breaking with the constitution and conceding to international law was important to show that Serbia is a “credible partner.”

Establishing credibility is important, he said, because over the past six centuries, his country has seen only civil war and dictatorship.

“That we have people working to change that is new,” he said.

—Staff writer Katherine M. Dimengo can be reached at dimengo@fas.harvard.edu.