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In Televised Address,
Karadzic Assails Opponents
By Kurt Schork
"Their opponent therefore is not Radovan Karadzic, their opponent is the Serb Democratic Party (SDS). Their opponent is the Serb people."
Karadzic, twice indicted for war crimes, was supposed to have resigned from public office and been delivered to the U.N. tribunal at the Hague under the terms of the Dayton peace agreement which ended the 43-month Bosnian war last year.
Instead, he has clung stubbornly to power and used his position to block full implementation of the Dayton accord. In the latest deal struck with international mediator Carl Bildt, Karadzic apparently transferred some of his duties to a deputy on Sunday.
But he was also re-elected chairman of the SDS on Saturday, giving him clear control over political life in the 49 percent of Bosnia controlled by Serbs. Karadzic's television appearance on Monday violated an agreement struck between the Bosnian Serb leadership and Bildt in May whereby Karadzic was supposed to have agreed not to be seen or heard on the public stage again.
The international community has warned that Karadzic's continued interference in the peace process could undermine
nationwide elections scheduled for September. Diplomats in Sarajevo say that the more vitriolic Karadzic's separatist rhetoric becomes, the more he will encourage nationalism among the Muslims and Croats. In a further snub to the international community, the SDS executive committee on Monday appealed to Karadzic to run in September presidential elections in direct violation of the Dayton accord.
"The newly-elected executive committee of the Serb Democratic Party has sent a unanimous appeal in line with the
will of the people of the Serb Republic to the president of the republic, Dr Radovan Karadzic, to stand in the coming elections," the Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA said.
Karadzic used his address to the SDS central committee on Monday to warn that the international community was trying to drive a wedge between the party and the Bosnian Serb people. "If they (the international community) believed in their thesis that the leadership is extreme and the people moderate... they would let elections proceed in a democratic way," Karadzic said. "But they know that the people are determined to have their own country and oppose any forced mixing with others...That is why they will try everything so that the SDS does not win."
Bildt said on Monday conflicting statements from Bosnian Serb officials on Karadzic's status were a sign of turmoil in the leadership. The Bosnian Serb president, a former Sarajevo psychiatrist, remained an unrepentant separatist and urged Serb unity through the SDS, which wants unification with Serbia. "(Our) work will not be done until we secure a triumph of more than two-thirds victory in the elections and ensure that Republika Srpska never again drown in the (Muslim-Croat) federation," he said. |
SARAJEVO, July 1 (Reuters) - Defying international demands for him to disappear from public life, Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic appeared on television on Monday spurring on his nationalist SDS party and castigating his enemies. "The international community is pressuring me not only to resign but not to engage in party business, not to support our candidates," Karadzic said in a taped broadcast of remarks he made to the SDS executive committee on Monday.
Berserkistan, July 1 · Biltd: Bosnian Serb Leadership in Turmoil
Berserkistan, July 1 · Feeling Tricked and Embarrassed, Bildt Ponders Next Move
Berserkistan, July 1 · US Awaits Karadzic’s Next Move
Berserkistan, July 1 · Despite Pressure, Rumors Karadzic Still President
Berserkistan, June 29 · By a Landslide, Karadzic is Re-elected SDS Party Chief
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