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Serbs Meet in Belgrade to Decide Fate of Karadzic and Mladic
By Donald Forbes
Diplomats believed the outcome of the talks would be crucial to international efforts to keep the step-by-step implementation of the Bosnian peace agreement on track and curb the reviving power of hardliners grouped around Karadzic.
Milosevic, under threat by Washington of renewed economic sanctions, summoned the top echelon of the Bosnian Serb
government ahead of a visit to Belgrade later this week by U.S. mediator John Kornblum. The group included Bosnian Serb parliament speaker Momcilo Krajisnik and "vice-president" Biljana Plavsic to whom Karadzic delegated part of his authority this month. Bosnian Serb sources said the talks would define the extent of Serb cooperation with the peace process and arbitration over the future of the disputed north Bosnian town of Brcko.
Leading Bosnian Serb moderates who have lost ground in recent confrontations with the hardliners were absent from the meeting.
Both men should have been removed from power under the treaty but have clung on, undermining the peace process and raising fears they will try to wreck Bosnian elections in September. Hardliners have suggested Karadzic is ready to leave the public stage and Bosnian Serb sources said Milosevic could force him to sign such an undertaking on Tuesday. But the West fears that he would still remain a powerful influence behind the scenes and that only his removal to The Hague would fully guarantee that he no longer exercised power. Mediators believe Milosevic has the ability to turn Karadzic and Mladic over but doubt whether he has the will.
The success of the peace plan would be thrown into doubt if he goes no further than the Bosnian Serb plan to ostensibly neutralise Karadzic. The West was infuriated this month when Mladic was feted at a military funeral in Belgrade instead of being arrested.
The independent Belgrade news agency Beta said hardliners were trying to reinforce their position in the north Bosnian town of Banja Luka where opposition to their obstruction of the peace process is strong. Opposition sources said the industrial town's "moderate" mayor Predrag Radic would be replaced by a hardliner by the end of the week.
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BELGRADE, May 28 (Reuters) - Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic met the hardline Bosnian Serb leadership on Tuesday to decide the fate of their "president" Radovan Karadzic and army commander Ratko Mladic, both wanted by the U.N. as war criminals. Secret talks began under American pressure for the surrender of the two men to the U.N. war crimes court in The Hague, media reports in Belgrade quoted informed Bosnian Serb sources as saying. No official announcement of the meeting was issued but Karadzic and Mladic were reported to be in Serbian capital.
Berserkistan is a world news service of Michael Linder Productions, Inc.
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