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West Pressures Serbia to Surrender Karadzic
By Kurt Schork
German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel and NATO Secretary General Javier Solana separately met Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade to demand the surrender of the Bosnian Serb war leader. They also stressed their support for Kasagic, who was dismissed by Karadzic on Wednesday for supporting the peace process in Bosnia.
Karadzic's move against his prime minister backfired, propelling the Bosnian leader's defiance of the Bosnia peace
treaty back to the top of the peacekeeping agenda. Kasagic told reporters he expected to be replaced quickly by the Bosnian Serb parliament but would remain in office until it ratified his dismissal. "With my discharge, the entire governent is breaking down," he warned.
Political sources said the huge rift between Kasagic's moderates based in Banja Luka and the hardliners, gathered round Karadzic in Pale 120 km (75 miles) to the south, was now too public to be repaired.
Bosnia High Representative Carl Bildt led an outcry of international support for the prime minister. He told reporters the time had come for Milosevic, the chief power broker between Serbs, to hand Karadzic over. The tribunal also indicted Bosnian Serb army commander General Ratko Mladic. But the immediate pressure was for Karadzic who enjoys nothing like Mladic's popularity among Serbs and would be easier for Milosevic to send to The Hague.
Urging cooperation with the international community and the Croat-Muslim half of Bosnia, Kasagic said: "Karadzic is an illegitimate president because he was not elected by the people. "I guarantee the salvation of the Serbian people while he is leading the people into ruin..."
Kasagic accused the hardliners of "creating a country of evil. I do not want to be part of such a state." Bildt said before meeting Kasagic in Banja Luka that he regarded Karadzic as the rebel. "In terms of (Bosnian Serb) ministers, when we meet them, we must ask "are you part of the Kasagic government or part of the rebellion?' If they are part of the rebellion, we must tell them to head back to Pale."
Peacekeepers know that Karadzic, who controls the police, remains a dangerous adversary and are determined to force him out of power before he can interfere in Bosnian elections set for September. Kasagic saw Solana, who was accompanied by NATO military commander General George Joulwan, before the secretary general met Milosevic in Belgrade.
"We will continue cooperating with him in his important work as prime minister," Solana said later. "For me, he is the prime minister and I've been talking to him." Sources close to Bildt said Milosevic had been warned he faced consequences if he allowed Karadzic onto rump Yugoslavian soil again as a free man.
U.N. sanctions imposed on Milosevic for 3½ years for his role in fomenting the Bosnian war have only been suspended. They can be restored if the West suspects he is breaking commitments to the peace process.
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BANJA LUKA, Bosnia, May 16 (Reuters) — International envoys urged Serbia on Thursday to turn Radovan Karadzic over to a U.N. war crimes court as Bosnian Serb premier Rajko Kasagic branded him an "illegitimate president" leading his people to ruin. The attack reinforced a head of international pressure building up for the swift extradition of Karazdic to the court which has indicted him twice.
Berserkistan, May 16 · Resolving the Karadzic Problem: 'Now Is The Time for Action'
Berserkistan, May 13 · Bosnian Serbs in Banja Luka Fear War Will Return
Berserkistan, May 10 · Bildt Wins Commitment from Moderate Serbs in Banja Luka
Berserkistan May 5 · Banja Luka Moderates Seen as Serb Successors
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