Effort to Show Bosnian Serbs No
Need to Feel Isolated from World
BANJA LUKA, Bosnia, May 7 (Reuters) — The European Union agreed on Tuesday to give Bosnian Serb farmers $2 million worth of aid as part of an international charm offensive to isolate the Serbs' wartime leaders. A procession of foreign visitors is passing through this north Bosnian city to offer encouragement and help to what they see as the moderate wing of the Bosnian Serb leadership. International Peace Coordinator Carl Bildt inaugurated the week on Monday with a reception at a temporary office in a Banja Luka hotel.The first VIP arrival was U.S. Assistant Secretary of State John Kornblum who made a flying visit on Monday. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov was due on Tuesday and other visitors include U.N. Refugee Chief Sadako Ogata, British Aid Minister Lynda Chalker and Swiss Foreign Minister Flavio Cotti.
Bildt told reporters the visitors were out to show Bosnian Serbs that they need no longer be isolated from the outside world and the help it could offer. "This happens to be the main economic, social and cultural center of the Republika Srpska (Serb Republic) and the fact that so many of us are coming here in the sof Bosnian Serb war leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, who live in the political capital of Pale in the mountains near Sarajevo. "They're probably going ballistic with rage," Bildt said with a smile. Both Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb "president," and army chief Mladic have been indicted for war crimes and are forbidden under the Dayton peace accord to hold public office.
The two men have so far hung on, but Bildt and major power governments have been actively trying to undermine them and create a dialogue with a new generation of Serb leaders. The man they have been talking to this week is Bosnianitical of Pale. Kasagic is seen as a potential Serb candidate for presidential elections due by mid-September.
Kasagic on Tuesday signed an accord with European Union envoy Donato Chiarini to provide urgent aid to Bosnian Serb agriculture — supplement for two large state-owned meat farms in the Banja Luka area. Finally, the EU will provide about $250,000 worth of equipment for revitalising cattle breeding in Serb parts of Bosnia. Chiarini told Retuers the aid was part of a $160 million EU aid pacakage for all of Bosnia for 1996. He said it had been discussed with Serb officials for some time but the EU jumped at the chance to have it signed during Bildt's Banja Luka week.
In a dismissive reference to Pale, Chiarini added: "The economic and agricultural potential of this town cannot be compared with that of a ski resort." Bildt said the message he was hoping to put across to the Serbs was that: "There are those who are trying to isolate you and it's not us. There is an isolationist tendency in the Republika Srpska leadership, they fear our will to reach out. We want to demonstrate that we are willing to cooperate, that the block is not on our side."
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