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Bildt: Karadzic Must Not Stand in Way of Elections
"We have made some progress, both in making clear that Karadzic has to go, and in persuading President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia to exert pressure to that end," said Bildt, the international community's High Representative in Bosnia.
"The Florence meeting must send the message once more," the former Swedish prime minister added. He said elections in Bosnia, which are to be held by September 14 under the Bosnian peace pact, would be "more than usually important."
Bildt said it was "a matter of urgent concern" that Karadzic was still clinging to power in defiance of a clause of the Dayton peace accords for Bosnia which forbids indicted war criminals from holding public office. "Karadzic's clinging to office is preventing people from moving on from the psychology of war to the manners and language of peace," Bildt said.
Ordinary people in Bosnia did however hunger for a return to normality and they realised that the future does not lie in ethnic ghettos, he said.
The international community could provide Bosnians with the reassurance and encouragement they needed -- particularly in the form of money for reconstruction. Bildt also singled out assistance to the media as important, as local media were not objective. Bosnian Serb radio and television were "often churning out propaganda of the most objectionable, Stalinist variety."
He added: "However, the worst possible response would be to run up the white flag, say it is all far too difficult, and announce that there is no point in going through with the elections."
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LONDON, June 12 (Reuters) - Indicted war criminals like Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic must not be allowed to stand in the way of elections in Bosnia, international mediator Carl Bildt said in an article in Thursday's London Times. This must be a central message to emerge from an international meeting which opens on Thursday in Florence to review progress towards peace in Bosnia after nearly four years of war, Bildt said.
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