The Hague Handicap

Bosnian Serb Republic (RS) President Radovan Karadzic has completed the final operations prior to the peace meeting in the US air base at Dayton, Ohio. Since Slobodan Milosevic, at least as far as the Americans are concerned, is the undisputed chief of the Serb parade, contacts with him were unavoidable. So one of the conclusions of the RS parliament session in Banja Luka was to inform Milosevic of their stands. The media reported that Milosevic wouldn't see them but that he met with an RS delegation, headed by Koljevic, in Dobanovci. The facts are different. Milosevic did have his picture taken with Holbrooke and the other mediators for the official media, but he also met with the entire RS leadership including Karadzic at the time. There were some 20 parliament members in Dobanovci including independents. Milosevic talked to the entire delegation for three hours and spent as much time arguing with Karadzic and his associates.

Since the meeting with Milosevic (and meeting with Zhirinovsky in Zvornik) was included in the other documents, a new parliament session was scheduled in Bijeljina. In the meantime, Karadzic turned to affairs at home. He held a meeting with the SDS Bijeljina local board which publicly voiced its disagreement with the policies of the party's executive board. The Bijeljina board wanted the top party leaders to be held accountable for bad personnel policies along with the local authorities, but Karadzic opposed their objections. Although that meeting lasted five hours, the Bijeljina board did not back down but stayed firm in their stand that changes and purges are needed to oust compromised officials. The epilogue was surprising. Velibor Ostojic, chairman of the SDS executive board, told Pale TV that the Bijeljina board admitted they were wrong.

The parliament session in that town did not discuss the Bosnian Serb Army's (BSA) refusal to accept the dismissals of four generals, nor the stands of the Patriotic Front, but appointed a new prime minister, adopted a platform for Dayton and named delegation members. Rajko Kasagic was appointed prime minister from the post of Bijeljina local council chairman. That choice was interpreted as a compromise in regard to Bosnian Krajina deputies, though that is hardly understandable as such since Kasagic is loyal to Karadzic and has been fighting with Banja Luka Mayor Radic for a long time. Kasagic's appointment will solve nothing and that is shown by the fact that the cabinet will remain unchanged.

The only BSA member there was General Manojlo Milovanovic which showed that the clash with Mladic is ongoing; he received parliament authorization to negotiate with a Russian military delegation on behalf of the General Staff (which he chairs) because "the Russians aren't giving in to the West so easily any longer".

The main job was adopting a platform and naming a delegation. Since Karadzic is handicapped by The Hague in terms of travel, Momcilo Krajisnik, Nikola Koljevic and Aleksa Buha were appointed along with Vladimir Lukic (former prime minister), Radomir Lukic (long time director of the Bosnia-Herzegovina land register who is supposed to prove that Serbs do own 64% of that territory), Gaso Mijatovic and Karadzic's advisor Jovan Zametica.

Then they adopted a platform for the negotiations which has eight points linked to the constitutional agreement and four points on territorial priorities: the union with the Moslem-Croat Federation, equality of entities, the right to veto, right to confederal links with the FRY and a referendum on remaining in the union and full independence. In terms of the borders, the Sava river with a 20 kilometer corridor, borders on the Una and Neretva rivers and access to the sea. Serb intellectuals who came to Bijeljina on Monday agreed with the document. Dobrica Cosic came by car while the others arrived in a van. Those others were: academics Milorad Ekmedzic, Slavko Leovac, Ljuba Tadic and Veselin Djuretic as well as Budimir Kosutic, Brana Crncevic, Djoga and Nogo and Dragos Kalajic.

But since Milosevic has written proof that he is chief negotiator, the stands of Karadzic's parliament and "true patriots" won't be treated any better than the parliament in the official media: Politika published just a short report on page 14. Cosic and the others weren't mentioned. So Karadzic will get another document to prove his policies are right.