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US: 'Not Now' on Serb Sanctions
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The United States said Wednesday it had no intention of moving now to punish Serbia despite President Slobodan Milosevic's refusal to comply with a promise to apprehend Bosnian Serb leaders accused of war crimes. Seeking to have the international community reimpose sanctions "is an option available to us ... (but) we have not yet decided to exercise that option," State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns told reporters.
Although it has been six months since Bosnian peace accords were signed in Dayton, Ohio, "We're going to give them (Serbians) a chance to make sure that there is full compliance with Dayton,"he said. "I don't think it would be wise for us to react emotionally just because we've seen ... the video of (Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko) Mladic in Belgrade yesterday. And we have (Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan) Karadzic striking back and countering a move to displace him over the weekend."
Milosevic violated the Dayton agreement by not having Mladic arrested when the Bosnian Serb military commander attended a funeral in Belgrade at the weekend, Burns said.
Under the 1995 Bosnian peace deal brokered by the United States, Karadzic and Mladic are barred from holding power. But Karadzic in particular has continued to exercise influence in the Bosnian Serb sector and his presence is seen increasingly as an impediment to free and fair elections due by mid-September. Bosnia's Muslim-led government has threatened to boycott the polls unless Karadzic and Mladic, who have been indicted by the international war crimes tribunal at The Hague, are arrested.
Burns acknowledged that the tribunal's chief prosecutor, Richard Goldstone, pressed unsuccessfully during talks in Washington this week for the United States to support giving NATO-led implementation forces (IFOR) in Bosnia a greater role in apprehending Karadzic and Mladic.
Burns stressed that responsibility for that job rests first and foremost with the parties to the Dayton accords, including Serbia, which represented Bosnian Serbs at the talks. But he reiterated, "if IFOR can be helpful, if these people (Karadzic and Mladic), in essence, run into IFOR patrols, then IFOR has a responsibility to secure them for transport to The Hague."
In the meantime, he said, "what we are going to do is calmly, deliberately and very forcefully assert our continuing belief that as we proceed towards elections the Bosnian Serbs must commit themselves to full compliance with all of the conditions for elections such as freedom of movement and that the conditions in the Dayton accord that call for fulfillment of war crimes requirements, that they be adhered to as well."
Burns acknowledged, however, that "at some point, we'll have to sit back and say, Has the measure of compliance by
Serbia and the Bosnian Serbs been adequate? And if the answer is no, then we have some quite significant options at our disposal." |
Berserkistan, May 21 · Ratko Mladic Seen at Djukic Funeral
Berserkistan, May 21 · Serbia's Milosevic Warned of U.S. Sanctions
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