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Feeling Tricked and Embarrassed, Carl Bildt Ponders Next Move
Political pressures to remove Radovan Karadzic fail.
Michael Steiner, deputy to Bosnian High Representative Carl Bildt, said: "It is now up to the international community to follow up its solemn words with actions." He warned that failure to force Karadzic, indicted by the U.N. as a war criminal, out of power could endanger the success of Bosnia's post-war inter-ethnic elections in September.
Bildt announced on Sunday that Karadzic had bowed to demands for his resignation but was immediately contradicted by Bosnian Serb vice president Biljana Plavsic to whom Karadzic was said to have ceded power. Plavsic said Karadzic would stay as president at least until the September 14 elections.
It was a damaging setback for Bildt, who was tricked the same way by Karadzic in May. Diplomats in Sarajevo acknowledged that Bosnian Serb hardliners managing Karadzic had made the outside world look foolish. Under the Dayton peace accord for Bosnia, Karadzic should relinquish public office and surrender to the U.N. war crimes tribunal at The Hague. But he was re-elected leader of the Bosnian Serb ruling SDS party at the weekend.
Bildt was due back in the Bosnian capital later on Monday to to try to salvage some credibility for his team's efforts to neutralise Karadzic. He has already backed away from threats to seek U.N. sanctions against the Bosnian Serbs if they did not get rid of their "president" by July 1. Sanctions have also been envisaged by the United States and its allies but no timetable which might force the Serbs to comply has been laid down.
Steiner said sanctions were only one option but he refused to say what others were available. Admiral Leighton Smith, the commander of NATO peacekeeping troops in Bosnia, stressed there would be no change in his policy towards arresting Karadzic for extradition to the U.N. war crimes court in The Hague.
Without specific political orders, NATO troops will detain Karadzic if they find him but will not look for him. That effectively means he is under minimal threat from NATO. Bosnian Serb leaders were meeting in Pale, their government seat outside Sarajevo, apparently without having shut the door on some form of compliance with the West.
The independent Belgrade newsletter VIP, quoting Pale sources, said Karadzic might be having second thoughts about making Plavsic his temporary replacement and could appoint "foreign minister" Aleksa Buha. Buha was the front-runner until a week ago when ultimatums for Karadzic's departure from rump Yugoslavia and Bildt hardened the Bosnian Serbs' will to resist rather than be seen to roll over under outside pressure.
But a temporary handover of power would not meet Bildt's demands for Karadzic's permanent disappearance from public life since he could revoke it at any time. Steiner said the Bildt mission was also unhappy that Karadzic had been reconfirmed as head of the ruling SDS. This will guarantee him continued influence in the election campaign which Bosnian Serbs will use to undermine the peace process.
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SARAJEVO, July 1 (Reuters) - Bosnia mediators, embarrassed by Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic's evasion of what they thought was a cast-iron plan for his ouster, appealed on Monday for stronger international support. Major Western powers, which want his absence from the political scene, have voiced dissatisfaction with a statement that Karadzic had handed over power to his deputy but would retain his title as president of the Serb separatists.
Berserkistan, July 1 · Despite Pressure, Rumors Karadzic Still President
Berserkistan, June 29 · G7 Summit Tells Karadzic to Quit or Face Sanctions
Berserkistan, June 29 · By a Landslide, Karadzic is Re-elected SDS Party Chief
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