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Bildt Refuses Karadzic’s Face-Saving Pleas
‘There is no doubt in Carl Bildt's mind that in the short term we will see Mr Karadzic out of political power and that in the longer term, he will end up in The Hague like all the indicted war criminals on the list.’
As the Bosnian Serb leadership met in their government seat of Pale to weigh Karadzic's future, a spokesman for Bildt told reporters no deals were on offer and added: "It is (Bildt's) firm expectation that we are going to see Mr Karadzic exiting the scene. There is no doubt in Carl Bildt's mind that in the short term we will see Mr Karadzic out of political power and that in the longer term, he will end up in The Hague like all the indicted war criminals on the list."
Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic shattered Karadzic's last hopes of surviving intense international pressure for his resignation when he demanded the Bosnian Serb leader's instant departure under threat of reprisals. Karadzic's removal from power, as an indicted U.N. war criminal and to prevent him wrecking the peace process, was a cornerstone of the Bosnian peace agreement which Milosevic helped negotiate to end the war.
The Serbian leader's ultimatum on Monday, after months of foot-dragging, took the Pale government unawares. The Bosnian Serb republic cannot function without support from Belgrade. Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Gojko Klickovic reacted on Wednesday with a demand for a virtual rewrite of the peace agreement as the price of Karadzic's compliance.
The independent Belgrade news letter VIP quoted Pale sources as saying that the Bosnian Serbs had won some support from Milosevic for their conditions. They want recognition of Bosnian Serb sovereignty and a guarantee they can keep the northern town of Brcko which had a Muslim-Croat majority before the war. Diplomatic sources said it was unlikely that Milosevic would budge in the face of a blanket refusal by the Big Powers to re-open the treaty terms.
The Bildt spokesman, Michael Maclay, said: "Carl Bildt's position is very clear: that is full compliance with the peace agreement... there is no interest on the part of (his) office in conditions and no conditions have actually been put to us."
The Bosnian Serbs have made an art of stalling tactics, throwing up unacceptable conditions and making contradictory statements to buy time. Klickovic confirmed that Karadzic would not be a candidate for Bosnian Serb president in elections in September but said he would stay on in office unless the terms on sovereignty and Brcko were met. But he said also that Karadzic's presidential duties would increasingly be carried out by foreign minister Aleksa Buha, the man tipped to replace him, and vice-president Biljana Plavsic. Bildt refuses to deal with Plavsic on the grounds that there is no difference between her and Karadzic and her status in Belgrade is low.
Karadzic's resignation would be largely symbolic since the hardliners would remain in power in Pale to orchestrate the Bosnian Serb election campaign and he is not even the most influential among them. However, it would be a serious public defeat for them at the hands of the international community and Bildt if they are forced to let him go.
Karadzic and his co-accused, Bosnian Serb Army commander General Ratko Mladic, have appointed Belgrade lawyer Igor Pantelic to represent them at the U.N. war crimes tribunal in the Hague. The court on Thursday rejected Pantelic's request to sit in on the court's initial hearing, ruling that he could only remain during the reading of the indictments. Thereafter a seat would be reserved for him in the public gallery.
Swedish prosecutor Eric Ostberg had argued that Pantelic should be admitted only if accompanied by Karadzic and Mladic to prevent the hearing, held under a mechanism known as Rule 61, being turned into a trial in absentia. |
PALE, Bosnia, June 27 (Reuters) - Carl Bildt, the West's chief mediator in Bosnia, turned a deaf ear on Thursday to demands by Bosnian Serb hardliners for face-saving concessions in return for the resignation of president Radovan Karadzic.
Berserkistan, June 26 · Klickovic Tries to Cut a Deal for Karadzic’s Departure
Berserkistan, June 26 · Karadzic Threatens to Bring Down Serbia
Berserkistan, June 26 · Karadzic is Still a Hero to Many Serbs
Berserkistan, June 26 · Karadzic, Mladic Dispatch a Lawyer to the Tribunal
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