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OMRI Pursuing Balkan Peace, No. 20, 96-05-21
From: Open Media Research Institute <http://www.omri.cz>
Pursuing Balkan Peace
No. 20, 21 May 1996
CONTENTS
[01] THE ONGOING MYSTERY OF RADOVAN KARADZIC.
[02] NEW BOSNIAN SERB PREMIER IS HARD LINE.
[03] BOSNIAN SERBS PLAY FOR TIME.
[04] PRESSURE TO CATCH KARADZIC GROWS.
[05] A NEW PUBLICATION IN DOBOJ . . .
[06] . . . AND GREEK MONEY AND IDEAS FOR THE REPUBLIKA SRPSKA.
[07] BANJA LUKA IN THE NEWS.
[08] BOSNIAN SERB AUTHORITIES HARASS INDEPENDENT RADIO.
[09] SERBS FACE HURDLES IN GOING HOME TO SARAJEVO.
[10] CALLS FOR MOSTAR ELECTIONS TO BE POSTPONED.
[11] U.S. OFFICIAL RESIGNS OVER SCHEDULING OF BOSNIAN ELECTIONS . . .
[12] . . . WHILE THE UN HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES WARNS FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT IS
RESTRICTED.
[13] YET ANOTHER CROAT-MUSLIM MILITARY AGREEMENT.
[14] WHO ARE THE SEVEN MYSTERIOUS BOSNIAN MUSLIMS?
[15] RUMP YUGOSLAV ARMY DEBATES WAR CRIMINALS' FATE.
[16] WAR CRIMES OFFICE TO OPEN IN BELGRADE.
[17] THE BOSNIAN SERB LEADERSHIP IMBROGLIO: THE VIEW ON THE GROUND.
[01] THE ONGOING MYSTERY OF RADOVAN KARADZIC.
The preceding week witnessed some sudden turns on the Bosnian Serb political
scene. First, Nasa Borba on 15 May reported that the Bosnian Serb civilian
leader and indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic announced he will run in the
upcoming elections, and said that the international community is just wasting
its time trying to find moderate Bosnian Serbs to counterbalance him. In order
to underscore this last statement, that same day Karadzic dismissed Prime
Minister Rajko Kasagic, regarded and promoted by the West as a moderate
alternative to the Pale-based hardliners. Kasagic earlier called on Bosnian
Serb leaders to respect all aspects of the Dayton peace agreement, which among
other things calls for the handover of war criminals like Karadzic himself.
Karadzic said Kasagic was discharged because he had "considerably harmed the
Republika Srpska" by not being "up to his task," AFP reported. Another Bosnian
Serb hardliner, Foreign Minister Aleksa Buha, was quoted by the Bosnian Serb
agency SRNA as calling Kasagic a "loose cannon," who, "instead of coordinating
and initiating ministerial activity and dedicating all his efforts to
restarting the economy . . . threw himself into political grandstanding."
The international community immediately slammed Karadzic for sacking his
premier, and NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana said the decision was "null
and void." The very next day Solana met with Serbian President Slobodan
Milosevic urging him to see to it that Kasagic remains prime minister. The
international community's High Representative for Bosnia Carl Bildt condemned
Karadzic for his move, which he described as "a coup that runs against the
full implementation of the peace agreement." Bildt called for a "robust"
international response; and on 16 May issued a statement jointly with Kasagic
saying they will continue to work together to break the forces of isolationism
that threaten implementation of the peace agreement. Possibly encouraged by
the international support, Kasagic said that Karadzic was not a "legitimate
leader" of the Bosnian Serbs because "he had not been elected by the people as
called for in the constitution but rather by a self-proclaimed parliament.! "
Meanwhile, Milosevic told U.S. g overnment officials he would ignore the
dismissal, which both the Serbian and rump Yugoslav governments condemned as
"illegal, null and void." Some Bosnian Serb opposition parties and
parliamentary deputies publicly backed up Kasagic.
At one moment it seemed as if the international community was going to be
successful in influencing the course of events in Pale. However, on 18 May the
Bosnian Serb parliament formally backed Karadzic regarding the sacking of
Kasagic by 84 votes to 43, and endorsed the appointment of Gojko Klickovic as
the new prime minister. Later that day Kasagic said he accepted the assembly's
decision: "I have been dismissed and I accept the decision of parliament," AFP
quoted him as saying. Meanwhile, immediately after Karadzic had appointed the
new premier, Bildt went to Pale, where he again tried to speed up Karadzic's
political demise. The next day Bildt visited Milosevic, whom he had earlier
accused of failing to fulfill his part of the Dayton accords by permitting
Kasagic's dismissal.
That same day, rump Yugoslavia's Tanjug news agency reported that Karadzic had
stepped down as president of the Republika Srpska, but SRNA said that he only
delegated some of his functions to Vice President Biljana Plavsic. On 19 May
Bildt visited Pale again, seeking from the Bosnian Serb leadership a clearer
statement on Karadzic's resignation. On his way back to Sarajevo, Bildt said
he wanted a unambiguous declaration from the Serb leadership that Karadzic
was stepping down completely. Plavsic said on 20 May, however, that Karadzic
is still president. Some opposition figures in Belgrade and Banja Luka say
that, in any event, Karadzic has ensured the continuation of his policies --
whether he himself stays around or not -- by appointing persons at least as
hard-line as he is. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[02] NEW BOSNIAN SERB PREMIER IS HARD LINE.
And Klickovic is certainly as nationalistic as his sponsor. The new prime
minister was recently in charge of organizing the exodus of the Sarajevo Serbs,
which was characterized by massive intimidation, looting, and arson, AFP
reported on 18 May. In his first comment to reporters after taking up his new
job, Klickovic struck a hard line by opposing any single Bosnian state, which
is the cornerstone of the Dayton peace accord. AFP on 19 May quoted him as
saying that "integration within Bosnia is out of the question." Klickovic
added that the Serb people will "never allow" Karadzic to be sent to the Hague-
based war crimes tribunal because "there is no reason for him to go there. One
who fights for the freedom of his people and defends his people cannot be
guilty." -- Daria Sito Sucic
[03] BOSNIAN SERBS PLAY FOR TIME.
The scenes of the past weekend were, moreover, familiar to those who have long
followed the Bosnian conflict: an international negotiator met in a series of
sessions with Bosnian Serb leaders, Milosevic, and then with the Bosnian Serbs
again. He never received a direct answer to his main demand -- in this case
that Karadzic be dumped as president -- but rather a series of promises that
seemed to go at least part way to that end. Bildt was told that Karadzic would
"be neither seen nor heard," that a referendum would be held, that Plavsic
would take over his international obligations, etc.. Karadzic, however, has no
foreign duties because no representative from abroad is supposed to meet with
the indicted war criminal. The Dayton agreement, moreover, says clearly that
he has no political future and that Milosevic is obliged to help hunt him down
and bring him to justice. Much of Bosnian opinion regards the latest moves
from Pale as "cosmetic," Oslobodjenje reported on 20 May. -- Patrick
Moore
[04] PRESSURE TO CATCH KARADZIC GROWS.
Even before these latest developments -- namely at the conclusion of meetings
in Washington to shore up the shaky Croat-Muslim federation -- federal Vice
President Ejup Ganic again demanded that IFOR catch Karadzic and fellow
indicted war criminal Gen. Ratko Mladic. The U.S. maintains, however, that
Milosevic is responsible for arresting them and handing them over to the war
crimes tribunal in The Hague, AFP reported on 17 May. Diplomats in Sarajevo
are nonetheless rethinking whether it might not be a good idea after all to go
after Karadzic in view of his role in the current Bosnian Serb power struggle
and the growing feeling that there will be no free elections with him on the
loose. Meanwhile in The Hague, the indicted Bosnian Serb Goran Lajic told the
court that he is not guilty and that the case against him is based on mistaken
identity. And on 18 May, Gen. Djordje Djukic died of cancer in Belgrade soon
after being released from The Hague on humanitarian grounds. Serbian media
suggested that he died as a result of harsh treatment at the tribunal. --
Patrick Moore and Stan Markotich
[05] A NEW PUBLICATION IN DOBOJ . . .
There have been, moreover, other news stories regarding the Bosnian Serbs but
which have not landed in the media limelight. One is that the independent bi-
weekly Alternativa has launched publication in Doboj, which is generally
regarded as a nationalist stronghold. The owner of the paper is Major
Stankovic, who was well known during the war on all sides for his military
professionalism and his humane treatment of prisoners. Alternativa provides
an outlet for numerous writers unable to publish otherwise in the Republika
Srpska. Its first issue, moreover, contained an interview with Kasagic in
which he pleaded for "tolerance and interethnic reconciliation." -- Yvonne
Badal in Sarajevo
[06] . . . AND GREEK MONEY AND IDEAS FOR THE REPUBLIKA SRPSKA.
Another little-known bit of news is that Greece is investing heavily in the
RS. The Banja Luka regime paper Glas Srpski on 8 May wrote that $100 million
is coming in Greek government credits to relaunch industrial enterprises.
The Greek telecommunications company OTE offered, moreover, a "master plan"
for all RS telecommunications needs, including military ones. OTE has DM 400,
000 for the project, about which the RS PTT director said: "We decided to
choose our Greek friends for many reasons but mainly because you do not give
this important information about our telecommunications to just anybody." The
plan will enable the RS "not to be in a telephone dependency on the other
entity," i.e. the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Bildt's office and the
OSCE refused to comment on a question as to whether Greece as a NATO and EU
member is not obliged to assist in carrying out the Dayton agreement, which
stresses that Bosnia-Herzegovina is a single state. -- Jan Urban in
Sarajevo
[07] BANJA LUKA IN THE NEWS.
The Serbian power struggle has, meanwhile, thrown a spotlight on Banja Luka,
the largest city in the Republika Srpska and home now to 240,000 people, many
of whom are refugees from rural areas. During the war the place was known to
the UN as "the heart of darkness" because of the ruthlessness of the Serbs in
driving out the Muslims and Croats and in destroying historic mosques.
Karadzic's power today is represented by the police and by the nationalist
segment of the political spectrum, in which his Serbian Democratic Party (SDS)
is the largest single force. The second element in the spectrum is that close
to Milosevic and represented by the Socialist Party of the Republika Srpska.
The third division in Banja Luka political life centers on those parties and
groups committed to a modern civil society, or the "Dayton Bosnia." These
include Miodrag Zivanovic's Social Liberal Party and Milorad Dodik's Social
Democrats. Dodik, however, on 8 May withdrew from a press conference called to
launch a union of a number of centrist groupings just 40 minutes before it was
to open, prompting Zivanovic to tell OMRI that "Dodik is Milosevic's man." The
Serbian president, the Liberal leader continued, wants to create instead as
broad an anti-Karadzic front as possible, and not just limited to the rather
anti-nationalist part of the spectrum. Zivanovic is, moreover, cautious,
noting that "our dreams must be for the future" and that "the country is not
yet ripe for building democratic institutions."
Karadzic and his supporters, for their part, seek to put opposition
politicians and independent journalists under pressure, from which slander,
threats and violence are not excluded (see below). Independent Bosnian Serb
journalists told OMRI, however, that big changes could be in the offing if
Milosevic abandons the Republika Srpska west of Brcko as he did the Krajina
Serbs. This would leave Banja Luka to "gravitate toward Zagreb," as it did
before the war, the journalists concluded. It is unclear what such a move
would mean for the Dayton system.
The educational picture is, moreover, at least as topsy-turvy as the political
one. Once known for its fine school system, Banja Luka's educational policy
today is subordinated to the Republika Srpska's version of "political
correctness." Thus one teacher recently told her class that now she can reveal
"the centuries-old secret of the Vatican, namely that Jesus Christ was a
Serbian Orthodox." Other reports say that not only has the Belgrade dialect of
Serbo-Croatian been imposed on the local and rather different form, but that
the Cyrillic alphabet dominates to the point that it finds its way into
English and German lessons. -- Yvonne Badal in Sarajevo and Patrick
Moore
[08] BOSNIAN SERB AUTHORITIES HARASS INDEPENDENT RADIO.
The Banja Luka station Radio Big was taken off the air briefly on 20 May but
later was allowed to resume broadcasting. The authorities said that the
programming was cut because the station "had not paid its electricity bill."
This is a typical example of the legal or technical arguments used in Serbia
and in Croatia to silence independent media, and editor Igor Crnadak called it
"organized harassment." It is not clear how or why the station was allowed to
resume broadcasting, AFP said. The privately-owned station is easily the most
popular one in the northern part of the Republika Srpska and is the only one
to give anything like impartial coverage of the ongoing power struggle between
Bosnian Serb leaders. There are very few non-regime media in the Republika
Srpska, but they include Radio Big and the opposition newspaper Novi Prelom ,
both of which are based in Banja Luka. -- Patrick Moore
[09] SERBS FACE HURDLES IN GOING HOME TO SARAJEVO.
Returning to the Bosnian capital, the anti-nationalist Serbian Civic Council
(SGV), which remained loyal to the Bosnian government throughout the war, says
that several legal difficulties stand in the way of Serbs wanting to live in
Sarajevo again. Many of these people were among the 60,000 pressured by the
Bosnian Serb authorities into abandoning their flats and houses earlier this
year but now want to go back after spending months in makeshift camps. The SGV
says that they have difficulty in obtaining Bosnian passports, however, and
that their flats have been occupied by Muslim refugees from Srebrenica and
Zepa, Onasa noted on 18 May. A group of independent intellectuals charged that
all three sides are practicing "silent ethnic cleansing" and point to Sarajevo,
Banja Luka, and both parts of Mostar as examples, Oslobodjenje noted on 20
May. Elsewhere, the SGV joined Muslim parties in criticizing the current rules
for the May elections in Mostar, saying that they make it impossible for 90%
of the Serbs from there to vote because refugees are barred from the ballot. --
Patrick Moore
[10] CALLS FOR MOSTAR ELECTIONS TO BE POSTPONED.
Nor do the Mostar Muslims like the rules, even though their mayor had earlier
approved them. The Muslims on 20 May sent a letter to EU administrator Ricardo
Peres Casado requesting a postponement of the vote but did not specify a new
date, AFP reported. That same day former Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic called
for the Mostar elections to be held in September to coincide with the general
ones Meanwhile, Muhamed Sacirbey, Bosnia's ambassador to the UN and one of the
framers of the Dayton peace accord's section on Mostar, said the signing of
the election rules in the peace accord was a matter of mutual misunderstanding
between the Bosnians on one side and the international community on the other,
Oslobodjenje reported on 21 May. He said that he and his colleague Safet
Orucevic had clearly understood that refugees would be allowed to vote. --
Daria Sito Sucic
[11] U.S. OFFICIAL RESIGNS OVER SCHEDULING OF BOSNIAN ELECTIONS . . .
William Steubner, chief of staff of the OSCE mission, has also protested some
election rules, but this time those for the Bosnia-wide ballot slated for mid-
September at the latest. The American resigned to object to the timing, AFP
reported on 15 May. Steubner believes September is too early to meet OSCE
conditions for the elections, such as setting up free media, enforcing the
right of refugees and displaced people to return to their pre-war homes to
vote, and excluding indicted war criminals from the electoral process. Robert
Frowick, the head of the OSCE mission in Bosnia, told The Washington Post he
was greatly pressured to guarantee that the Bosnian elections would be held in
September, as scheduled in the Dayton peace accord. Frowick stressed that the
dangers of postponing the vote were greater than those of holding it on time. -
- Daria Sito Sucic
[12] . . . WHILE THE UN HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES WARNS FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT IS
RESTRICTED.
And on the key issues of freedom of movement and the right of refugees to go
home, Sadako Ogata said on 13 May that freedom of movement remains "severely
restricted" in Bosnia, citing Mostar as an example, AFP reported. She also
warned European governments that they would "destabilize the fragile peace" if
they sent home 700,000 Bosnian refugees prematurely, Onasa reported. That same
day, the ministers for refugees of the Republika Srpska, of the Bosnian
Federation, and of Bosnia-Herzegovina signed a joint declaration saying they
would encourage individuals expelled by ethnic cleansing to visit their homes.
The declaration is based on the 10 principles introduced by UNHCR that
regulate visits of returnees to their pre-war homes, Nasa Borba reported on
14 May. -- Daria Sito Sucic
[13] YET ANOTHER CROAT-MUSLIM MILITARY AGREEMENT.
Nor was this the only document of dubious practical value to make the news.
Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic, Bosnian Croat leader and federal
President Kresimir Zubak, federal Vice President Ejup Ganic, and Bosnian Prime
Minister Hasan Muratovic were among the dozen or so participants attending a
"forum" in Washington to shore up the shaky Croat-Muslim federation. (The
Belgrade daily Nasa Borba said that the Croats and Muslims had been summoned
by their American sponsors to an "informative discussion," which in Serbia is
a euphemism for a police interrogation.) U.S. Secretary of State Warren
Christopher said it is important to strengthen the federation as a cornerstone
of the Dayton peace agreement. He and Zubak made optimistic statements, but
Ganic slammed international peacekeepers for not only not arresting indicted
war criminals Karadzic and Mladic, but for also sharing "the same roof" with
them, AFP reported on 14 May. The Croats and Muslims signed an agreement that
same day to unite their armed forces under a common defense ministry within
three years. They have made and reneged on several such promises before, but
the rather long and hence possibly realistic three-year timetable seems new. --
Patrick Moore
[14] WHO ARE THE SEVEN MYSTERIOUS BOSNIAN MUSLIMS?
Turning to a rather different military story, a scandal is emerging over a
U.S. IFOR officer's decision earlier this month to hand over to Bosnian Serb
police a group of seven uniformed and armed Muslims. The men surrendered to
the Americans near Zvornik on the Bosnian border with Serbia shortly after
IFOR heard explosions in the area, Reuters reported on 13 May. The officer
said that he turned the men over to the Serb police because they appeared to
be civilians despite their dress, because their weapons were in violation of
the Dayton agreement, and because they were caught on Bosnian Serb territory.
U.S. Maj. Gen. William Nash reportedly disagreed strongly with his
subordinate's action and tried unsuccessfully to retake the men from the
Serbs. Bosnian officials suggested that the men had escaped the fall of
Srebrenica last summer and had been hiding out in caves ever since, but IFOR
said they looked too well fed and well groomed to have been living rough. The
Bosnian government says they are not its soldiers and has been playing down
the incident, but AFP reported that Vice President Ganic has demanded that
IFOR free the seven. The men nonetheless continued to be held in Zvornik until
they were transferred to a Bijeljina prison, Onasa wrote on 18 May. -- Patrick
Moore
[15] RUMP YUGOSLAV ARMY DEBATES WAR CRIMINALS' FATE.
Moving on to Serbia, the high command of the rump Yugoslav army recently
debated the fate of three officers -- Gen. Mile Mrksic, Col. Veselin
Sljivancanin and Capt. Miroslav Radic -- accused of and indicted in the 1991
massacre of at least 260 civilians near the Croatian city of Vukovar. On 10
May SRNA, citing Belgrade's independent Radio B 92, reported that one group in
the command advocated that under no circumstances should the three be turned
over to The Hague, allegedly because that group felt such a move would violate
the rump Yugoslav constitution and have a highly detrimental effect on
military morale. Another group, however, succeeded in having its view
endorsed: namely, that the question of whether or not the accused should be
turned over to The Hague be deferred to political authorities. The report also
noted that those who advocated the political approach indicated that both the
high command and all military personnel ought to come to terms with the
possibility of the "worst possible case scenario," suggesting that the accused
may be considering surrender. -- Stan Markotich
[16] WAR CRIMES OFFICE TO OPEN IN BELGRADE.
The rump Yugoslav government in fact on 15 May announced officially that an
office representing the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia will be opened in Belgrade, AFP reported that same day. While
outstanding details concerning the office's opening must be approved by both
Belgrade and the court, Belgrade is on record as saying the office "will be
able to receive anyone who wishes to make a declaration relating to war
crimes" and that its chief officer will have diplomatic immunity. Rump
Yugoslavia's "slowness" in cooperating with the Tribunal compelled its
president, Antonio Cassese, as recently as last month to call for
reinstituting sanctions against rump Yugoslavia, AFP added. -- Stan
Markotich
[17] THE BOSNIAN SERB LEADERSHIP IMBROGLIO: THE VIEW ON THE GROUND.
"I did not imagine Karadzic could be so desperate as to make this kind of
mistake," an official from the ruling Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) in Banja
Luka told OMRI a day after Karadzic sacked his own Prime Minister Kasagic. The
irreconcilable rift that had existed between Kasagic and Karadzic for some
time became an accelerated conflict over the last two weeks after the British
IFOR division moved to Banja Luka, thus making it impossible for Karadzic as
an indicted war criminal to even think about visiting the largest and most
important city in Republika Srpska . "If he [Karadzic] sat in Pale and talked
on TV, he could comfortably wait for Carl Bildt and the international
community to make mistakes. Now he thinks that he has an opportunity for open
confrontation. This can harm the SDS in the elections," concluded a former
follower of Karadzic.
Miodrag Zivanovic, leader of the opposition Social Liberal Party (see above)
said that Karadzic's sacking means "very fast polarization and that is good."
Some skeptics thought this was just another trick to ensure the continuation
of Karadzic's segregationist policy and blocking the implementation of the
Dayton agreement. In language reminiscent of communist times, Karadzic stated:
"I believe that Kasagic is a well-intentioned and honest man and that his
mistakes were the consequence of inexperience in politics... [But] we cannot
act on our own, in contravention of state institutions. Such actions only give
our enemies hope and prolong our suffering." Since then, Kasagic disappeared
from all government-controlled media. Banja Luka regime radio and TV broadcast
several commentaries describing him as "a man on the international
community's payroll."
Kasagic fought back, proclaiming Karadzic's presidency "illegal." Bildt
immediately showed his support of Kasagic. Bildt used words of unprecedented
conviction saying he was "outraged" over the "illegal" step of Pale
leadership. He swore that Kasagic will remain the prime minister in the eyes
of the international community and that all contacts with him will continue.
NATO's Solana came to Banja Luka explicitly to show his support for the
ousted premier. The U.S., British, and French governments and 28 Bosnian
Serb parliamentary deputies also voiced their support of Kasagic. Even
Belgrade disapproved of the removal of a "moderate" politician. Milosevic
agreed with Solana that the sacking was "too much." Milosevic met with three
of Karadzic's closest allies -- Bosnian Serb Parliament Chairman Momcilo
Krajisnik, Foreign Minister Aleksa Buha, and Vice President Nikola Koljevic.
For a day or two, it seemed that Karadzic had finally gone one step too
far.
On 17 May, two days after sacking Kasagic, the RS government representatives
did not attend scheduled meetings with international and federal officials in
Sarajevo and the first rumors of a special session in Pale of RS parliamentary
officials began to circulate. That evening, the Pale government held its own
meeting and events started to move in a different direction. Krajisnik's
intention to appoint as prime minister Gojko Klickovic, a fierce supporter of
Karadzic, was leaked to the media. Nicknamed "the biggest mustache in the
government," Klickovic early this year successfully led a special government
commission in charge of organizing the evacuation of Serbs from five Sarajevo
suburbs. Krajisnik was always Karadzic's closest ally. Together they have
effective control over two important tools of power, the police forces and the
state TV and radio network.
Karadzic's next closest ally has been Bosnian Serb Vice President Biljana
Plavsic, a hard-core nationalist. At the beginning of the war, Plavsic
reportedly told a top UNHCR official that it is a "well-known fact" that the
Muslims feed the bodies of murdered Serb children to the animals in the
Sarajevo zoo. It came, moreover, as a surprise when, after being assured that
the parliament will unanimously support Klickovic's appointment, Bildt went on
Saturday to Pale to speak with Krajisnik. Bildt then retreated from his
unequivocal support of Kasagic and said the full implementation of the Dayton
peace agreement "is not primarily a question of personalities, it is a
question of policy lines." This was reminiscent of a crisis in the Sarajevo
suburbs in February and March 1996, when Bildt tried to avoid open political
confrontation by making deals with Krajisnik, which Klickovic then immediately
carried out. As a result, more than 60,000 Sarajevo Serbs left the suburbs.
This time, in only one hour of debate with Krajisnik, all the strong
statements Western governments had made were forgotten. Kasagic was out and
Karadzic secured the prime minister's post for his devoted hard-liner.
That night, SRNA reported that Karadzic decided to "hand over to Biljana
Plavsic the power to deal with the international community." On Sunday, 19 May,
Bildt tried to sell this as the outcome of intense diplomatic pressure, even
hinting that this signaled Karadzic was on his way to The Hague. International
media speculated that within 24 hours Karadzic would step down and issue a
written resignation. However, the Sunday evening news on Pale TV gave a very
different impression. Krajisnik denounced speculations that Karadzic would
resign as "another trick aimed at trying to impose pressure on the RS." SRNA
quoted an anonymous source "near to the leadership of our country" as saying,
"if this pressure continues, we will move toward organizing a very quick
referendum to show the real will of the people." SRNA reported that
parliament's unanimous vote to support Klickovic represented the defeat of
Bildt and NATO and that the West is afraid of "the unbelievable growth of
popular support" for Karadzic. The TV news broadcast ended with a statement
from two international law professors from Athens, who described the Hague
tribunal as "illegal interference into the internal affairs of a sovereign
country." Whatever developments the next few weeks bring, Karadzic's policy
line is secured. -- Jan Urban in Sarajevo
Compiled by Patrick Moore
This material was reprinted with permission of the Open Media
Research Institute, a nonprofit organization with research offices in
Prague, Czech Republic.
For more information on OMRI publications please write to [email protected].
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