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Kornblum: 'Karadzic Is Not in Power'
SARAJEVO, May 23 (Reuters) — The U.S chief negotiator for Bosnia, pressing for full implementation of the Dayton peace accord, said on Thursday his country no longer considered hardline Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic to be power. "If you saw what I said in Belgrade yesterday, our view on this subject is very clear. That is that Karadzic is not in power," John Kornblum told reporters after meeting Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and the Bosnian ambassador to the United Nations, Muhamed Sacirbey, in Sarajevo.
Kornblum arrived from the United States on Wednesday to push forward civilian aspects of the Dayton peace accord. The pact has become bogged down over faulty preparations for Bosnia-wide elections and the refusal by Bosnian Serb leaders accused of being war criminals to step down. The presence in power of Karadzic, indicted twice by the International War Crimes Tribunal, is widely regarded as the most significant obstacle to peace in Bosnia.
Kornblum told Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic on Wednesday that renewed sanctions against rump Yugoslavia would be a real prospect if the peace process in neighbouring Bosnia did not restart.
Under the Dayton accord, Milosevic was obliged to ensure Karadzic had left power before the elections scheduled for mid-September are held. Karadzic refuses to budge and has threatened to hold a referendum to cement his power in the almost one half of Bosnia that the Serb hold and call Republika Srpska.
Asked if he came to put pressure on the Bosnian Serbs, Kornblum said: "If you want to use the word pressure, the pressure that we have is a strong American engagement for positive implementation and for the installation of authorities in Srpska who will support the implementation (of Dayton)." Kornblum said he'd be going home in the afternoon to report to Secretary of State Warren Christopher and "to prepare for the session in Geneva, which I think will be very important to keep this process on track."
The United States, Russia and European powers will meet the leaders of Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia in Geneva on June 2, European diplomats said on Thursday. Major powers, led by Christopher, will express their growing
concern about civilian aspects of the Bosnian peace agreement and urge Balkan leaders to make sure there is full compliance, the diplomats said.
Almost six months after the Dayton peace agreement was signed in Paris, there are also concerns about the return of refugees, the prospects for rebuilding a multi-ethnic Bosnia, and the workings of the shaky Muslim-Croat federation. Sacirbey said Bosnia intends to continue to fully support the process but is concerned if the Bosnian Serb isolations were to win the elections. "This could produce a new tension and a new situation that
nobody would like to see," he said.
"I think ambassador Kornblum has indicated to us that the United States has a strong interest to making sure that the elections do not bring about those results and that they would do what is necessary to make sure that Dayton is fully implemented," Sacirbey said.
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