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U.S. Says Milosevic’s Stance on Karadzic Not Good Enough
Karadzic has installed some of his closest aides in posts in Pale, the Bosnian Serb capital, and the Clinton administration is concerned he could run the Serb republic from behind the scenes. Kornblum said he told Milosevic that Karadzic, who has been indicted by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, must be removed from power and taken to the Netherlands for trial. Tens of thousands of Muslims were killed during a 3½-year ethnic conflict in Bosnia that ended last year with a peace accord.
One of its main provisions calls for punishment of war criminals. Karadzic, who was the Bosnian Serbs’ political leader, and Ratko Mladic, their military commander who also remains at large, are the most notorious among more than 50 indicted suspects. Kornblum said he told Milosevic that permitting war criminals to remain free was "very corrosive"" to the Dayton Accords, signed last December in Paris to end the war.
The United States is insisting on clear evidence that Karadzic is out of power and has not merely disappeared from public view but maintains control through deputies.
The chief prosecutor, Richard Goldstone, has urged that NATO peace enforcers take an active role in apprehending Karadzic and Mladic, who was in Belgrade for a funeral of another suspect and was seen last winter on a skiing vacation in Pale.
Nicholas Burns, the State Department spokesman, denied reports from Sarajevo that the United States and its NATO allies would probably end up accepting an arrangement under which Karadzic and Mladic both continued to wield power in Bosnia. "There will be no deals here," Burns said. "The United States will not be party to any agreement that would allow them to stay in power and to escape being brought to justice."
In preparing for elections in September, American diplomats will cooperate with Bosnian Serbs, but only if they are not stand-ins for Karadzic, State Department officials said.
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WASHINGTON, May 24 (AP) — The Clinton administration is dissatisfied with assurances from Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic that "the skids are greased" to remove wanted war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic from power in Bosnia, a U.S. official said today. The official, chief U.S. negotiator John C. Kornblum, said he rejected the assurance on the spot at a meeting Wednesday in Belgrade with the Serbian leader, who is the key to American hopes for a lasting peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina. "He told me he had all the skids greased," Kornblum said in an interview today after his return from the Balkans. "I told him that’s not enough."
Berserkistan, May 24 · Bildt Will Ask France to Help Remove Karadzic
Berserkistan, May 23 · Goldstone Believes Karadzic, Mladic Will Stand Trial
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