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Karadzic Won’t Seek Office
The main board has decided to nominate Biljana Plavsic for president and Dragoljub Mirjanic for vice-president of the Bosnian Serb administration which is to rule 49 percent of Bosnia, SRNA reported after the three-day SDS main board meeting in Pale. Mirjanic is a member of the inner SDS leadership.
Momcilo Krajisnik, the influential speaker of the Bosnian Serb assembly, is to run for membership of the unified Bosnian presidency which is also to comprise Muslim and Croat representatives. Foreign Minister Aleksa Buha is to run for the post of speaker of the Bosnian Serb assembly.
The west has threatened sanctions or disqualification of the SDS if Karadzic, a twice indicted war criminal, ran for the September elections. His decision not to run in the elections is bound to ease some tension after Western powers said they were considering sanctions on the Bosnian Serbs within days if Karadzic maintained his grip on power. The United States, Britain and others insist Karadzic must be removed from effective power well before Bosnia's first post-war elections in September.
Karadzic has avoided extradition to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in the Hague, which has indicted him twice, in a blatant violation of the Dayton accord which also said he must step down from all public office. Under intense pressure from the international community and from Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, Karadzic surrendered his executive powers to Plavsic last Sunday.
Diplomats in Sarajevo said that even this covert handover of the presidential post, and the decision not to contest the elections might not be enough for the West, which fears Karadzic's continued presence would poison the political scene.
Karadzic retained his key position as chairman of the SDS, enabling him to pull the strings behind the scenes by controlling the media and police and obstructing opposition ahead of the elections. The choice of SDS candidates illustrates his intentions. "The people nominated are all hardline separatists and, apart from Krajisnik, all are in Karadzic's little pocket. There is no doubt that it would be Karadzic and Krajisnik who will be calling the shots," one said. Krajisnik, not indicted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal, is believed to be the ultimate power broker in the Bosnian Serb republic.
Karadzic's decision not to run came hours after Milosevic and international mediator Carl Bildt, meeting in Belgrade, had discussed planned elections in Bosnia and the Dayton peace pact. Milosevic threw his weight behind demands for Karadzic's departure last week and threatened reprisals unless he went.
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SARAJEVO, July 3 (Reuters) - Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic decided on Wednesday not to run in the September elections in Bosnia, easing some tensions as the West threatened sanctions if he was not ousted from power. "President of the (Bosnian Serb republic) and leader of the ruling Serb Democratic Party (SDS) Radovan Karadzic has decided not to run in the forthcoming elections in Bosnia, despite categorical demands to do so from the party's main board," the Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA reported.
Berserkistan, July 4 · Serbia Summons Plavsic for Talks on Karadzic
Berserkistan, July 3 · West Eyes Karadzic’s Moves while Weighing Sanctions
Berserkistan, July 2 · Acting President Plavsic Strikes A Hard Line
Berserkistan, July 2 · Karadzic Practices Psychiatry in Politics
Berserkistan, July 1 · Bildt: Bosnian Serb Leadership in Turmoil
Berserkistan, July 1 · In Televised Address, Karadzic Assails Opponents
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