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The Karadzic Proxy: Biljana Plavsic
In one well-known example, she refused to shake the hand of Serbia’s President Slobodan Milosevic in 1993, until then a hero among Bosnian Serbs. A renowned anti-Communist, born to a family of wealthy merchants and intellectuals in Tuzla in northern Bosnia, Plavsic has often said she once abhorred politics. She had a quiet, respectable career as a biology professor at Sarajevo University. A graduate of Zagreb University, in the 1970s she received a fellowship in the United States, where she spent two years lecturing and doing research.
With the fall of communism in the former Yugoslavia, Plavsic become an activist in 1990 in Karadzic’s new Serb Democratic Party in Bosnia. It was a time when new, non-communist parties flourished, but so did nationalism, bringing disaster to the most ethnically diverse republic in the country — Bosnia.
Some say Plavsic played a key role in the war. “We are looking at one of the architects of the ethnic cleansing,” said an official close to Carl Bildt, who holds the international community’s top civilian job in Bosnia. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.
On Saturday, Karadzic said Plavsic would partly replace him, representing Bosnian Serbs in negotiations with foreign officials. Karadzic apparently hopes that by placing Plavsic in the limelight, he’ll lessen pressure for him to be arrested by an international peacekeeping force. But politically, Plavsic is very much like her leader.
She stood by him when he led Serbs to rebel against the Muslim-Croat majority that wanted to split from the Serb-dominated former federation. “If they want to be independent from Yugoslavia, we have the right to be independent from them,” Plavsic often said in the days when she and Karadzic were among the Serb nationalists who proclaimed an independent Serb state in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
During the fighting, she often was seen at places where Serbs conducted the worst systematic killing of rival Muslims and Croats. She is well-remembered for walking hand-in-hand with a Serb paramilitary leader, Zeljko Raznatovic, better known as Arkan, during his 1992 seizure of Bijeljina, a northeastern Bosnian town that became a symbol of Serb atrocities. In front of cameras, a euphoric Plavsic kissed Arkan on the cheek. He later named her “the Serb empress” and gave her his self-styled “Obilic” medal for bravery. “I always kiss the heroes,” she later explained.
She has been at odds for years with Milosevic, the Communist-turned-nationalist who instigated Serb rebellions in Bosnia and Croatia. Milosevic eventually switched gears and pressured Bosnian Serbs to accept a peace deal. Plavsic was the first to publicly admonish Milosevic for giving up the dream of uniting Serbs from the former Yugoslavia in one state — a “Greater Serbia.” In 1993, Plavsic refused to shake his hand. Milosevic retaliated by banning her from Serbia, where she had spent part of the war in a comfortable apartment provided by the state.
Serene and elegantly dressed, Plavsic has been an idol for many Bosnian Serbs. But not all. She is said to have shocked a group of grieving Serb mothers and widows whose sons and husbands were killed during the early months of the war in 1992. “Don’t cry,” she said. “Don’t weep. This is only the beginning.” She was right. An estimated 200,000 people died in the war.
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BELGRADE, Yugoslavia, May 20 (AP) — Serb liberals shudder at the mention of her name. Nationalists call her “the Serbian empress.” Biljana Plavsic, the hawkish vice-president of the Bosnian Serbs’ self-proclaimed republic, was chosen Saturday by Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic to be his proxy with the international community as he dodged demands to step down. The coming weeks will show if the 66-year-old Plavsic will be more cooperative than Karadzic. But judging from her stubborn nationalist role throughout the Bosnian war, it’s hardly likely.
Berserkistan, May 20 · Bildt Has 'Understanding' from Karadzic
Berserkistan, May 20 · Bildt Insists Removal of Karadzic is Proceeding
Berserkistan, May 19 · Bildt: Beginning of End for Karadzic
Berserkistan, May 19 · Is Karadzic Really Gone? Officials, Media Scramble for Answers
Berserkistan, May 19 · Bosnian Serb News Agency Denies Karadzic is Steping Down
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