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NATO Won’t Rule Out Military Action in Capturing Karadzic
‘All options are open... the road between the Hague and Pale is getting shorter, shorter, and shorter’
By Johnathan Clayton
"All options are open... the road between the Hague and Pale is getting shorter, shorter, and shorter," NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana told reporters. He added this was a critical moment for the future of the Bosnian peace process, but said the diplomatic process had not been exhausted.
"In the last few days there has been enormous diplomatic activity...we are putting all the pressure possible on the parties to comply with Dayton," he said in reference to the arrival back in the Balkans of U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke. NATO's commander in Bosnia Admiral Leighton Smith said any military action against Karadzic or his military sidekick Ratko Mladic would be a "high-risk venture," but was within his force's capability.
"It is not going to be like knocking on the door and delivering a warrant...(but) Western armies follow orders," he said. Both men, joined by NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe General George Joulwan, were addressing a news conference following a short ceremony to pay tribute to Smith who retires at the end of the month.
"I do not accept there is a black mark on our mission. Our job is not to arrest them...we can and we will detain them," he told reporters. He added that peace Implementation Force (IFOR) troops would not be intimidated by threats from Bosnian Serbs to take hostages if the military try to snatch Karadzic. Under Dayton, Karadzic and Mladic were supposed to have been handed over to the International War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague. Instead they remain at large.
The issue came to a head last week after the man charged with organising free elections in Bosnia -- which under Dayton should be held by September 14 -- said they could not go ahead while Karadzic remained leader of his party. Robert Frowick, U.S. ambassador to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said he would decide if the ballot can go ahead on Friday or whether Karadzic's Serb Democratic Party (SDS) should be barred. His stand has received strong backing from the U.S. State Department, but is at odds with the more gradualist approach of the international representative in Bosnia Carl Bildt who says elections without the SDS are meaningless.
Bildt, who argues Karadzic has been weakened by handing over his duties as Bosnian Serb president, would prefer "flawed elections" with a limited two-year mandate, but which keep the peace process alive. Alliance diplomats say Holbrooke is expected to try to urge Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic to pressure the SDS to drop Karadzic, but not push for his immediate detention and transfer to the Hague. |
BRUSSELS, July 17 (Reuters) - NATO's military and political leadership, resolutely defending their mission in Bosnia,
declined on Wednesday to rule out action to detain Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic if current diplomatic efforts fail.
Their comments came as Richard Holbrooke, summoned from Wall Street to try to save the Dayton peace accords he himself brokered, stepped up efforts to push Karadzic out of political life. Smith, who was awarded a medal for his work in overseeing the biggest ground operation in Europe since the end of World War Two, rejected suggestions failure to arraign war criminals was a "black mark" against the 60,000-strong mission.
Berserkistan, July 17 · Holbrooke Urges Milosevic to Surrender Radovan Karadic
Berserkistan, July 16 · Holbrooke Pulls No Punches Responding to Serb Threats
Berserkistan, July 16 · Holbrooke in Bosnia to Seek Karadzic’s Removal
Berserkistan, July 16 · Izetbegovic Warns Holbrooke of Bosnian Election Boycott
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