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Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Rajko Kasagic Rejects His Dismissal 
BANJA LUKA, Bosnia, May 16 (Reuters) — Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Rajko Kasagic on Thursday rejected his dismissal by Radovan Karadzic and denounced the hardline Bosnian Serb leader as an "illegitimate president ... leading our people into ruin." His attack reinforced a head of international pressure building up for Karadzic's swift extradition for trial by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in the Hague which has indicted him twice.
NATO's political and military chiefs were demonstrating support for Kasagic in Banja Luka before following German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel to Belgrade to seek Karadzic's surrender from Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. Karadzic's attempt to sack his pro-peace prime minister on Wednesday has propelled his defiance of the Bosnia peace treaty to the top of the peacekeeping agenda. 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, who 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. Kasagic told a press conference in Banja Luka he would remain prime minister until a new government was elected. Urging cooperation with the international community and the Croat-Muslim half of Bosnia, he 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 told reporters 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 was also seeing NATO Secretary General Javier Solana and NATO military commander General George Joulwan before they met Milosevic in Belgrade. Sources close to Bildt said Milosevic had been warned not to allow Karadzic onto rump Yugoslav soil again as a free man. U.N. sanctions imposed on Milosevic for 3½ years for his role in fomenting the Bosnian war have suspended, but they could be restored if the West suspects he is breaking commitments to the peace process. Kasagic was in an optimistic mood when he arrived in Banja Luka on Wednesday evening after a confrontation with Karadzic who accused him of incompetence. The real reason for his dismissal, political source said, was his growing independence from Karadzic and parliament speaker Momcilo Krajisnik, another hardliner. Once back in Banja Luka, the main industrial town in the Bosnian Serb part of the former Yugoslav republic, Kasagic met commanders of the British NATO peacekeeping force which is headquartered there. Increased security was organised, including NATO sentries posted outside his office. |
Berserkistan May 10 · Radovan Karadzic Dismisses Prime Minister Kasagic
Berserkistan May 10 · Bildt Wins Commitment from Moderate Serbs in Banja Luka
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