 |
Karadzic May Seek Presidency of Republika Srpska
Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Gojko Klickovic describes
calls to arrest Karadzic as 'hysteria.'
By Davor Huic
His defiant words were in sharp contrast with the assessment shared by virtually all conference participants that removing Karadzic and his military chief General Ratko Mladic from public life was fundamental for free and fair elections in Bosnia. "According to our laws nobody can be extradited," Klickovic told reporters. "The same applies to President Karadzic and General Mladic. Also, our government did not accept any such obligation in Dayton."
A Karadzic candidacy would be in clear breach of the Dayton peace pact which ended the 43-month war last November. "There is no way he can do that," U.S. envoy Robert Frowick, head of the international mission organising polls in Bosnia, told reporters. "Those indicted for war crimes are disbarred from public office."
The international community says the presence of Karadzic in public life is poisoning the political atmosphere in all of Bosnia, where the September elections are meant to forge common institutions for Serbs, Muslims and Croats. Chief mediator Carl Bildt and the president of the Hague tribunal, Antonio Cassese, both repeated demands at the conference for the removal of Karadzic and Mladic. The two, held responsible for atrocities in a brutal war that claimed thousands of lives, have been clinging to their positions.
Klickovic said that Mladic was still carrying out his duties as the commander of the Bosnian Serb army and that he talked with him on the telephone "every morning." Karadzic has adopted a lower public profile but is engaged in the "internal reorganisation" of the ruling Bosnian Serb SDS party and its preparations for the elections, he added. Klickovic said his government was not happy with the Hague tribunal's work, branding it a political, not judicial, body.
"So far we have not got the impression that the tribunal is working in accordance with the rules of law. It remains a political institution," he said. "In the course of today's discussion, our delegation will give a reply to the hysteria of Mr Cassese." Cassese called on the international community to exert more pressure to bring major war crime suspects to trial.
He suggested that if the NATO-led peace Implementation Force (IFOR) in Bosnia could not or would not arrest Karadzic and Mladic, the Bosnian Serbs and their patrons in rump Yugoslavia should be hit with partial economic and sporting sanctions. Klickovic said he was sure that IFOR would not attempt to arrest Karadzic and Mladic. "They are aware of what such an adventure would entail, because the two of them are defended not only by the army and the police but by the people as well," he said. |
FLORENCE, Italy 14 (Reuters) - A senior Bosnian Serb on Friday dismissed demands for the arrest of indicted war criminals as "hysteria" and said hardline leader Radovan Karadzic may take part in Bosnia's planned elections. The prime minister of the Bosnian Serbs, Gojko Klickovic, spoke to reporters during a two-day ministerial review conference in Florence which is expected to recommended calling Bosnia's first post-war elections by September 14.
Klickovic said Karadzic, indicted with Mladic by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague, may even run for the presidency of Republika Srpska, the Bosnian Serb entity, at future elections. "(Karadzic may take part) in any future elections, including the forthcoming ones, but he will decide for himself whether to run or not," Klickovic said.
Berserkistan, June 12 · Bildt: Karadzic Must Not Stand in Way of Elections
Berserkistan, JJune 11 · Mladic Close Encounter Called 'Hogwash' by NATO
Berserkistan is a world news service of Michael Linder Productions, Inc.
©1995-1996, All Rights Reserved