Another Serbian State

As it is already known, at a session of the Serbian People's Assembly in Sarajevo the Republic of the Serbian People from Bosnia (RSN) was proclaimed. According to its creators' vision, RSN of Bosnia will cover "all the territories of the autonomous and all other regions where the Serbian people represent a minority due to the Second World War genocide". Quite a convenient formulation: it allows RSN to actually cover all the territories it can control or is already controlling by military force; and then, who could possibly trace all the locations where the genocide took place?

Sarajevo was chosen to be RSN's capital (which is a somewhat strange choice, taking into account the ethnic parametres). Before it enacts its own constitution, RNS will observe the Federal and

the Bosnian Constitution, except for the sections which were "outlawed" by the Serbian People's Assembly. Nobody expected that the declaration proposal concerning the creation of RSN would be enforced so soon. When it was first discussed at one of the Assembly sessions, it was concluded that the Declaration will not be enforced immediately under the condition "that the appeal for recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina is not withdrawn until January 15 1992". This Act was later reformulated: "This Declaration will be implemented on the day it is passed, regardless of the possible withdrawal of the appeal for recognition". Only Momcilo Krajisnik (the president of the Assembly) and Nikola Koljevic (one of the leaders of the Serbian Democratic Party /SDS/) voted against, which indicates that there is disagreement in the top ranks of the party and the Assembly. However, Karadzic (the leader of SDS) himself was very clear on the issue: "There is no going back to the united B&H. The time has now come for the Serbian people in the Balkans to organize themselves on a global level, regardless of the administrative borders".

On the same day the international public reacted. Official London expressed its "concern with regards to possible bloodshed in B&H". It was also established that the extremists took over and that "they will try to prevent the 'blue helmets' from coming and thus endanger the peaceful solution to the crisis".

President Izetbegovic is certainly having the most difficult time of all. Karadzic has done most of what he intended: he has under its direct jurisdiction, as he himself claims, over 66% of the Bosnian territory (and there are only around 30% of Serbs in B&H). Unless someone stops him, his next step will be to proclaim other states on the territory of RSN of B&H to, eventually, as he already announced, join the "Federal State of Yugoslavia".

Izetbegovic is on the move now. His position was made even more difficult by the resignation of general Kadijevic, with whom he was apparently on the point of reaching an agreement. The victory of the Army hard-liners, which is how Kadijevic's resignation is understood both here and abroad, will probably strengthen Karadzic's position. The EC and UN missions give a little hope, but they have so far proved to be too slow and inefficient in Balkan terms.