BosNet NEWS - May 5, 96

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From: Nermin Zukic <[email protected]>

CONTENTS

[01] Misc News

[01] Misc News

``We knew that the Iranians would try to use the aid to buy political influence. It was a calculated policy based on the feeling that you had to choose between a lot of bad choices... And the choice that was chosen kept the Sarajevo government alive. But it left a problem...were the Iranians excessively influential on the ground?''

Congress on Wednesday voted to investigate President Clinton's decision to ignore to the arms shipments in 1994 and 1995.

``The Iranian presence in Bosnia is now down to a tiny number of people...'' When discussed the role of US ambassador to Croatia and President Tudjman, Holbrooke said : ``Galbraith was instructed to say: 'I have no instructions'. The Croatians interpreted that, reasonably, as a yellow light...''

Ljiljana Karadzic, wife of nationalist Bosnian Serb leader and indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic believes the West misunderstands her husband: ``They say in the West that Radovan wanted to destroy (the Bosnian capital) Sarajevo in revenge because he was marginalised as a Montenegrin at parties...They quote his poem, the one he wrote in 1969, where he said he wanted to burn Sarajevo down, and they compare him with (the notorious Roman Emperor) Nero. It was just a moment of depression... Why don't they ever mention his poems about nature and children?''

The book by Mario Mian is titles ``Karadzic -- Hangman, Psychiatrist, Poet''.

``Me and my daughter Sonja were unable to attend (another Serbian warlord, sought by Interpol) Arkan's and Ceca's wedding in Belgrade... I would've worn my Chanel (suit) -- the one I wore when we greeted (former U.S. president Jimmy) Carter.''

``There is a narrow window -- six weeks to two months at most -- within which Karadzic and Mladic have to be removed or the entire Dayton peace process could come unglued,'' said a western diplomat in Sarajevo who spoke on condition of anonimity. ``Everyone agrees their continued presence is incompatible with free and fair elections (due by November) and the decision on whether to go forward with elections has to be made sometime in June. But nobody wants the job getting rid of them.''

``A wall of nationalist prevarication and procrastination is threatening to subvert Dayton's goals... The key to the success of the Dayton agreement depends on the removal of what is a relatively small number of individuals who have been indicted on charges of serious war crimes. Their continued presence...remains the single most important obstacle to progress,'' former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell said in Sarajevo in Saturday. Mitchell is now the chairman of International Crisis Group (ICG), which currently monitors DPA implementation.

Commenting on the need to bring war criminals to justice Senator Mitchell said: ``The entire (Dayton) process could founder on this one factor.''

``Remove them and Dayton will, I believe stand a reasonable chance of success... The foremost way of achieving this over-riding goal is to persuade Croatia and Serbia, as contracting parties to the Dayton agreement, to hand over or organize the surrender of those indicted of war crimes... If this requires another summit of all the parties to Dayton, then it should occur promptly,'' said Mitchell.

``The success of free and fair elections, the freedom to return to their homes of up to two million refugees and displaced persons and the future stability of this part of the world all depend overwhelmingly on bringing these individuals to trial,'' Mitchell said in a statement issued in London.

``Let's just say that those who would faithfully implement the Dayton accords are not ascendant... Mr. Bildt's view is that there is a danger that imposing sanctions [against rump-YU and nationalist Serb entity] would be running up the white flag and admitting that partition is inevitable... The alternative is patience and pressure through the sorts of negotiations which are now under way,'' said Michael Maclay, spokesman for international mediator Carl Bildt, in a statement which challenges the logic and previous experience.

Two people were reported killed and as many as 10 wounded in a clash as Bosnian Serb hard-line nationalists are trying to establish and preserve ethnically pure entity. This came despite the facts that reintegration rights were guaranteed under DPA.

Commenting on the murders, the former Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic, said about bystanders wearing NATO-IFOR uniforms: ``If they remain passive in the face of the violation of basic human rights, my question would be what are they here for... There is an ``UNPROFORization (of NATO).''

``As (an) American diplomat put it, General Djukic was the smoking gun, the connection between the Belgrade regime and the so-called Bosnian Serb army,'' Bosnia's UN ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey, representing Bosnia in a suit against rump-YU, told the World Court on Wednesday.

Rump-YU claimed it had played no part in the Bosnian war, adding that B&H had illegally seceded from Yugoslavia and its government did not represent all of Bosnia's people.

``This argument is certainly irrelevant to the issue of jurisdiction before the court today... Nor is it a defence to responsibility for genocide... If this case is abandoned then the consequences of ethnic cleansing, genocide, would also be less likely to be reversed in pursuing the full implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement... Bosnia and Herzegovina and its people have suffered the worst injustice in Europe since the unmatchable horrors of the Holocaust...'' Sacirbey said.

``This case is directed at the state of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which bears responsibility for the violations of the Genocide Convention suffered by Bosnia and Herzegovina and its people... He who loves Bosnia cannot hate that word (reconciliation) because there is no Bosnia without reconciliation... The suffering that has taken place and the harm that has been caused is too grave to be swept under the carpet or consigned to the annals of the past until a judicial determination is made,'' said Sacirbey.

The World Court -- formally known as the International Court of Justice is expected to rule on the case within several months.

``This is the first time that any of the parties to the Dayton agreement have executed an arrest warrant issued by the tribunal,'' the spokesman for ICTY said, after Bosnian government arrested two persons indicted for war crimes. The March 22 indictment against Delic, Landzo and two other suspects, Zejnil Delalic and Zdravko Mucic, was the tribunal's first for crimes committed against Bosnian Serbs. Bosnia was expected to hand over the two suspects soon.

Delic has been charged with four murders at the camp and Landzo with five.

"Tudjman just cannot accept the fact that his party lost the elections in Zagreb... He believes that only he and his party are the true guardians of Croatia's national interests. What happens if we win the Presidential elections next year? Where are the guarantees that if we have new city elections we won't go through this whole mess again?" said Drazen Budisa, a member of Croatian parliament and the fourth mayoral candidate to be rejected by the president.

The president has cited "national security" in exercising his veto to keep out all four candidates the opposition suggested in the last six months. "The city assembly has been engaged in unlawful acts. It tried to raise public salaries without proper approval from the budget, a move designed only to win support. And it tried to replace the directors of public utilities," claimed Dr. Ivic Pasalic, a senior presidential adviser.

"This is about patronage and power... The ruling party has made a lot of money from the privatization of state property. Tudjman is not about to turn over the city administration, that can monitor these sales, to his opponents," commented a diplomat.

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