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Sacirbey: U.S. Applying Undue Pressure On Bosnia Over Elections
Bosnia's ambassador to the United Nations
Srpska is the name of the self-declared Serb half of Bosnia. According to the peace agreement reached last November near Dayton, Ohio, it is supposed to be joined with a Muslim-Croat federation within a Bosnian union. Bosnian Serb leaders -- particularly their president, Radovan Karadzic, and army commander, Gen. Ratko Mladic -- strongly object to that arrangement and advocate a clean partition along ethnic lines.
Both men have been indicted by the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. They have ignored a provision in the peace accord that bans them from power, and both remain holed up in Serb-held eastern Bosnia. "Elections would under current conditions legitimize extremists, particularly Karadzic and Mladic," said Sacirbey, who participated in the Dayton conference as Bosnia’s foreign minister.
In a major policy statement, Sacirbey, who is Bosnia’s main spokesman abroad, said his government opposed elections -- slated to be held by mid-September -- because basic conditions for a fair ballot, such as freedom of movement between the Serb and Muslim-Croat entities and a free press, do not exist. This puts the authorities in Sarajevo at odds with the United States, which has been pressing for elections to be held as scheduled. Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, the other two parties to the Dayton accord, also support the ballot.
Secretary of State Warren Christopher said in Geneva last Sunday that elections would go ahead in September.
Referring to talks with unidentified U.S. diplomats, Sacirbey said: "I was one of the people who was told: ‘I guess we’re going to have to say that while Milosevic and Tudjman want elections, the Bosnians are against them -- that’s what we’re going to have to tell the world.’"
Commenting on Sacirbey’s statement, State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic had told Christopher he supported holding elections in September. "We hope very much that (elections) will go forward because they are necessary to delegitimize the war criminals who are in charge of the Republika Srpska and to bring into power a different group of political leaders who we hope will be more moderate," Burns said.
Sacirbey said the minimum condition needed for elections to be held are the arrest by the 60,000-man NATO force of indicted war criminals and the guaranteeing of freedom of movement. Bosnians complain that this has been severely limited by repeated attacks by Serb thugs on returning Muslim and Croat refugees. |
WASHINGTON June 7 (AP) -- A senior Bosnian official accused the United States Friday of exerting undue pressure on his government to hold elections. Muhamed Sacirbey, Bosnia’s ambassador to the United Nations, also blasted U.S.-led peacekeepers in his country, saying their timidity was turning them into little more than "well-dressed tourists." "Bosnia needs and wants free and fair elections as soon as possible," Sacirbey said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. But "the necessary conditions for those elections certainly do not exist today in much of the country, particularly Republika Srpska."
Berserkistan, June 7 · Human Rights Watch/Helsinki Says Bosnian Elections Can Undo Dayton
Berserkistan, June 5 · Frowick Angers OSCE Staff with Spin on Elections
Berserkistan, June 4 · Major Powers: Elections Must Stay on Schedule
Berserkistan, June 3 · Voter Registration Begins in Bosnia
Berserkistan, June 2 · Bosnia’s Elections Remain on Track Despite Karadzic
Berserkistan, June 2 · Bosnia: Fair Elections, but Not at Any Price
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