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US Issues New Warning to Serbia on Karadzic
By Donald Forbes
Kornblum briefed the Serbian leader on the outcome of a meeting of international mediators in the Italian city of Florence on Friday which called again for Karadzic's removal from power. "I stressed very strongly the expectations of the United States and the international community," Kornblum said. "I told him the patience of the international community on many aspects of implementation (of the peace agreement) was beginning to wear thin." Mediators have only limited leverage over Milosevic. U.S. threats to reimpose U.N. sanctions on rump Yugoslavia and Bosnian Serbs have been met with shrugs by their leaders.
Ousting Karadzic is the West's main priority after the Florence meeting decided to hold elections in September to equip Bosnia with democratic institutions in which Serbs and the Muslim-Croat Federation would share power. The United States and its allies fear Karadzic and his hardline supporters in the Bosnian Serb Democratic Party (SDS) will try to wreck the elections if he retains power.
They have relied on Milosevic to arrest his former protege rather than order NATO peacekeeping troops in Bosnia to seize him and risk a firefight with Bosnians Serb leaders' bodyguards that could cause embarassing casualties. Milosevic has told mediators any attempt by Serbia to extradite Karadzic would cause domestic political problems which he is reluctant to stir up.
He has encouraged them to expect Karadzic's political eclipse in the elections when Bosnian Serb forces loyal to Milosevic will challenge the SDS hardliners for power. This course is regarded by Western government as too slow and too dangerous, giving Karadzic leeway to create mischief over the summer.
Mediators admit his removal from office would not lessen the hardliners' sway in the Serb half of Bosnia or, if he were not extradited, guarantee that he would not continue to wield power from the shadows. But he has become a symbol to both sides of Bosnian Serb determination to obstruct the peace agreement which Milosevic forced them into, and if possible destroy it.
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BELGRADE, June 15 (Reuters) - U.S. envoy John Kornblum warned on Saturday that the West's "patience was beginning to wear thin" over Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's failure to extradite indicted Bosnian Serb war criminals. But he told reporters he achieved no breakthrough in efforts to persuade Milosevic to surrender Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and army commander General Ratko Mladic to the U.N. war crimes tribunal.
Berserkistan, June 12 · Bildt: Karadzic Must Not Stand in Way of Elections
Berserkistan, June 11 · Mladic Close Encounter Called 'Hogwash' by NATO
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