General in His Labyrinth

General Ratko Mladic, the commander of the Republika Srpska army, was last seen in public last Thursday, September 14, when he met with Slobodan Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic and Richard Holbrooke. The US State Department announced after the meeting that Mladic had finally agreed to withdraw his heavy weapons from around Sarajevo and comply with NATO's demands, supported by Milosevic, Karadzic and Koljevic. Two days later, Holbrooke came to Belgrade for another round of talks with Milosevic, but Mladic - who was to attend the meeting too - did not show up. On Sunday, September 17, Bosnian Serb parliament speaker Momcilo Krajisnik said after the talks with a delegation of the Russian Duma that General Mladic was "a few days ago taken to a hospital for kidney stone problems" and that he "will soon undergo surgery." The only official information after this statement was that General Mladic was treated at the Military Medical Academy in Belgrade, that he was feeling fine but did not receive visitors.

Vreme has learned from unofficial sources that the general's kidney stone was diffused by an ultrasonic device and that he was released from his apartment on the 13th floor on Wednesday. He is currenly recovering from the operation in his residence in Belgrade and may be back on the front in a few days.

Illness never chooses the timing or the victim, but everyone was pleased with the timing of the kidney attack that has befallen the commander of the Bosnian Serb army. Late last week, Mladic's stubborn refusal to order the pull-out of heavy guns outside the 20-km exclusion zone around Sarajevo seemed to have brought the entire peace process to the point of collapse. After two weeks of air strikes on Bosnian Serb targets, NATO was facing what's-too-much-is-too-much criticism from all sides and was in a dilemma what to do next. Meanwhile, the West began to doubt Milosevic's real influence on Mladic and some diplomats said the Serbian president might again be playing a "double game" by pretending to be a peace-maker but on the other side encouraging Mladic to ignore NATO's demands.

The Bosnian Serb civilian leadership was gradually losing control of the situation, so that Koljevic's promise to Yasushi Akashi on September 10 that Serb artillery will be withdrawn was denied only hours later by a message faxed to the same address from Mladic's office that no heavy guns will be pulled out. The following day, Mladic met UNPROFOR commander Bernard Janvier in Mali Zvornik, at Milosevic's initiative. He insisted that NATO must stop its air strikes before any further talks. Before walking out of the meeting, Janvier reportedly told Mladic: "Mister, you are not here to set conditions, but to fulfill them." NATO air raids continued.

And then, all of a sudden, Mladic yielded to the pressure by Milosevic and Holbrooke and shortly afterwards, his kidney stone moved. Except for the patient, everyone else was relieved: the Serbian president reaffirmed his role as a "factor of peace in the Balkans," and the Bosnian Serbs and their leader Karadzic did not have to shiver at the sound of NATO planes any more. In the silence of the 13th floor apartment, Mladic was given a chance to cure his kidneys and his vanity, but preserve what he cared the most about - the image of a staunch warrior, who sees "offensive as his destiny," who never surrenders but whose unexpected illness has interefered with his determination to repulse the joint Croat-Moslem offensive in western Bosnia. Ironically, he was released from the hospital the same day when the offensive ceased.

With his kidney stone dispersed, Mladic was still to solve the real problems, which started the moment he accepted the post of commander of Karadzic's Serb forces in the war of dirty means and infeasible objectives. When Milosevic made his famous turn towards peace and confronted Karadzic in August last year, Mladic avoided too long to declare himself publicly and both Karadzic and Milosevic seemed to have lost trust in him in the meantime. Karadzic's attempt to replace Mladic in July failed, but the general's powers were drastically reduced early this year when speculations appeared in the press that Mladic was Milosevic's man who could one day succeed the Bosnian Serb leader.

The Bosnian Serb army was ever since cut from the RS's social and housing funds and Mladic himself complained that he could no longer promote his officers without an approval from Pale. As part of the restrictions, a law abolished the right of BSA officers to free-of-charge medical treatments. Salaries in the army were declining proportionally to the rise of salaries of civilian officials and the engine capacity of their limousines. Mladic insisted on several closed-door meetings that the civilian authorities must stop interefering with his job, saying that this could lead to a disaster. In response, his powers were limitted again and he was nearly sacked.

Milosevic also was tired of waiting for the general to help him solve the dispute with Karadzic. Now that he has settled the problem without Mladic's help, there is no need to spare him any longer. Any further attempt by Mladic to play as an independent player could cost him a high price. A diplomat in Belgrade says that only a week before Mladic's urinary problem, the general had a serious quarrel with Milosevic during their joint meeting with Russian deputy foreign minister, Igor Ivanov. The Serbian president and the general yelled and cursed at each other before the bewildered Russian official, the diplomat said.

Milosevic may even forgive him everything, but the fact is that he no longer needs the general and neither does Karadzic. Military operations in Bosnia have lately given way to a diplomatic "swap of territories" and the role of the BSA will accordingly diminish. The international war crimes tribunal in the Hague is the only one still interested in Mladic's health and his whereabouts.