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Bildt to Report to Peace Council On Failure to Oust Karadzic
PARIS, May 22 (Reuters) — The panel monitoring the Bosnia peace accord will meet mediator Carl Bildt in Paris on Friday to hear about his failed effort to force hardline Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadjic from power, France said on Wednesday. "Carl Bildt is coming to Paris to participate in the meeting of the Peace Implementation Council, created in London to monitor the carrying out of the Paris accords," foreign ministry spokesman Yves Doutriaux said.
"France fully supports Carl Bildt's continuing efforts to assure that both the letter and the spirit of the Paris accords are respected and that individuals accused by the international tribunal can no longer exercise power," the spokesman told a regular ministry press briefing.
Bildt, the international community's representative on Bosnia, has been encouraging a split in the Bosnian Serb leadership between hardliners like Karadzic and moderates willing to work within terms of the peace accord drafted in Dayton, Ohio, last year and signed in Paris in December. But Karadzic, who has twice been indicted as a war criminal, recently sacked moderate Prime Minister Rajko Kasagic and has emerged victorious from an inter-party struggle despite efforts by the international community to rally behind Kasagic.
Bildt said in the Bosnian Serb "capital" Pale on Tuesday that he had not given up efforts to oust Karadzic from power. Bildt aides last weekend announced that Serb authorities had promised Karadzic would step aside. But Bildt later admitted he may have been premature in predicting Karadzic's early demise. The Peace Implementation Council, which meets every six months, was set up as part of the Bosnia peace accord to help ensure that the agreement is carried out.
Its membership comprises more than 40 states and 10 international organisations including the United States, Russia, France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan, the European Union and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. |
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