Creating a Replacement for Hard-Line
Bosnian Serb Leaders in Pale
BANJA LUKA, Bosnia, May 10 (Reuterss) — Carl Bildt, the international community's High Representative for Bosnia, on Friday wound up a week-long stay in Banja Luka where he won a commitment by moderate Serbs to the Dayton peace process. "Banja Luka was the center of Republika Srpska (The Serb Republic in Bosnia) for the past week," Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Rajko Kasagic told reporters after meeting Bildt on Friday.
He was referring to a series of visits to the north Bosnian city, the base for moderate Serb politicians, by officials including the UNHCR chief Sadako Ogata and U.S. Assistant State Secretary John Kornblum as well as Bildt. The NATO-led peace Implementation Force, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) and the International Police Task Force have all recently set up offices in Banja Luka.
Pale, the sleepy mountain village near Sarajevo chosen by the hardline Serb leaders as the seat of their power, was noticeably bypassed. Bildt believes the Bosnian Serbs must be wrenched out of the economic and political isolation imposed upon them by their leader Radovan Karadzic if the peace process is to survive what he says is a critical phase. He insists that although Republika Srpska has failed to comply with important provisions of the Dayton peace accord, including handing over indicted war criminals and freedom of movement, its people should be given the opportunity to sidestep their hardline leaders.
Building up Banja Luka as an alternative urban powerbase, and encouraging its moderate opposition politicians, are a part of Bildt's strategy to undermine Karadzic's power, ahead of the Bosnian elections scheduled for mid-September. "This week's international presence in Banja Luka has fully revealed the benefits that can flow to the people of all the Republika Srpska from contacts with Europe and the world," Bildt and Kasagic said in a joint statement.
They also said this was stipulated by full implementation of all terms of the Dayton peace agreement. "All leaders of the Republika Srpska must fully support and implement these policies aimed at economic progress, reconciliation and democracy. This is the only way for the people of Republika Srpska to build a peaceful and prosperous future together with the other peoples of Bosnia-Herzegovina," the statement said.
These words are in stark contrast with the isolationist policies Bildt says are pursued by the Pale leadership. But Kasagic said that this was just the begining "of more intense activities in the future and complete opening of Republika Srpska toward the world."
The rewards for such opening were immediately given by the European Union which agreed to provide assistance in agriculture and by the British and Japanese governments in restoring electrical power links between Banja Luka and the Federation town of Tuzla. Karadzic, fighting for his political survival at the coming elections, is keen to maintain his isolationist policy, because any proof that the three sides could live and work together would make a mockery of his rationale for waging the 3½ year Bosnian war.
Berserkistan May 5 · Banja Luka Moderates Seen as Serb Successors
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