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RICHARD HOLBROOKE Kissinger of the Balkans Returns to Sarajevo
Dick Holbrooke seems the only Westerner with sufficient ruthlessness, guile and bluff to play -- and beat -- Balkan politicians at their own game
"It's like the old days...who says history does not repeat itself?" said one NATO official as Holbrooke's U.S. government jet landed at a private Brussels airfield. "Great to see you, George," beamed the 55-year-old New
Yorker as he warmly embraced General George Joulwan, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe (SACEUR) -- the man in overall charge of the alliance's 60,000-strong peace Implementation Force (IFOR) in Bosnia.
Joulwan, who had helicoptered in from NATO's military headquarters in eastern Belgium to greet Holbrooke, was accompanied by NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana and the U.S.'s ambassador to NATO Robert Hunter. Reporters were also present in large numbers, reminiscent of the days when every twist and turn of Europe's worst conflict since World War Two was carefully followed by the media.
"He just loves those cameras, doesn't he?," said one U.S. diplomat admiringly as the tall, horn-rimmed spectacled investment banker walked briskly into a nearby meeting room. Admired and disliked in equal amounts by both friends and foes, "Dick" Holbrooke seems the only Westerner with sufficient ruthlessness, guile and bluff to play -- and beat -- Balkan politicians at their own game. Last November, Holbrooke crowned more than two months of non-stop travel and a three-week negotiating marathon at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio with an
agreement ending the 3˝-year Bosnian war.
In sharp contrast to the ineffectual attempts by previous mediators, an often-abrasive Holbrooke managed to secure backing from the leaders of Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia first for a ceasefire, then on a map and a constitution for a Bosnian state. Since then, he has worked on Wall Street for a major investment bank, but kept in close contact with the U.S. administration.
"Whatever you say about Dick, he gets things done," Pauline Neville-Jones, a former top official in Britain's
foreign office, who frequently clashed with Holbrooke over the West's policy in former Yugoslavia, recently told reporters. This time, however, Holbrooke's mission could be his most difficult yet -- to cajole, bully, even flatter, Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic into forcing Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic out of the leadership of his Serb Democratic Party (SDS).
The stakes for both sides are enormously high. If Karadzic is not removed from political life, elections
slated for September 14 will not be able to go ahead. If they do not, Western diplomats believe it will signal the start of the unravelling of the entire peace accords.
Holbrooke gave few clues as to what he would tell Milosevic. Alliance diplomats said he would threaten Serbia with renewed sanctions, but said the deal was most likely to be that Karadzic could remain free instead of being detained and put before the war crimes tribunal in the Hague -- at least for now. "That would get them off the immediate hook, Karadzic must be convinced he is doing a service for the Serb nation and be put out to look after his garden," said one alliance source. |
BRUSSELS, July 16 (Reuterss) - Richard Holbrooke, the man dubbed the "Kissinger of the Balkans," arrived back in Bosnia on Tuesday to try to save from collapse the Dayton peace accords he brokered. Summoned from his new Wall Street job by a jittery U.S., Holbrooke flew to Brussels for talks with top NATO officials before heading on for Sarajevo, Belgrade and Zagreb.
Berserkistan, July 16 · Holbrooke in Bosnia to Seek Karadzic’s Removal
Berserkistan, July 16 · Serbs in Doboj Threaten to take UN Police Hostage
Berserkistan, July 15 · Holbrooke Says Serbia to Blame for Dayton Failure
Berserkistan, July 15 · Holbrooke Says Serbia to Blame for Dayton Failure
Berserkistan, May 21 · Holbrooke Feared for Bosnia Without Full-Scale Arming
Berserkistan, February 21 · Holbrooke Leaves Government for Banking Career
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