The Man in the High Castle

"The only thing any normal person sees is that Karadzic's rating has dropped dramatically over the past year - he was close to zero, and now he is the absolute favorite. No one can oust him today and that is because of the policies of the international community," VREME was told by Predrag Lazarevic, a leading member of the Banja Luka intellectual forum and a subtle analyst of conditions in the Bosnian Serb Republic (RS). Lazarevic would not say whether the international community consciously raised Karadzic's ratings or made a political error.

Miodrag Zivanovic, leader of the Banja Luka Social Liberal Party said the RS president made a great deal with the international community; he removed himself from his post and became stronger than ever before. "Karadzic is in a comfortable position now: he has less duties, a wall of people around him and he still orders a lot of things but isn't responsible for anything," Zivanovic said.

The one thing that does bother the RS opposition leaders is the ease with which the Pale leaders managed to dampen their clash with Kasagic.

The opposition (strong only in Banja Luka) stood by the ousted prime minister who it never liked because it had no opportunity of presenting its political stand on the state media and used the clash to say what it does and does not want. "Kasagic wasn't much but what can you do," a Banja Luka politician said.

Rajko Kasagic was never liked as chairman of the Banja Luka executive board. He was seen as the extended arm of Pale. When he complained that the RS state TV was keeping him off the air many people smiled knowingly and recalled how he didn't allow Mayor Predrag Radic on Banja Luka TV once. In the last days of his premiership, Kasagic got Radic's support and people said he had advanced. Kasagic began insisting on Banja Luka's particularities and advocated it as the capital of the RS, condemned the approach of the media towards the opposition and tried to secure normal conditions for the election campaign.

The RS opposition, at least its more prominent members, lent their support to Kasagic's policy of openness and condemned the closed policy that led to his ouster. Kasagic was a man who was fascinated by the world and with his contacts with international mediators and often repeated that the Serbs have to understand that the world has no ill intentions.

At age 54 he wanted to hear a song by Croatian singer Arsen Dedic on the radio and assumed correctly that the station record library had been cleansed.

Now that Karadzic has decided to hide behind Biljana Plavsic he could decided to move the government to Banja Luka. That was indicated by the new Prime Minister Gojko Klickovic who said that "in the future all ministers will be in one place, the seat of the government which the RS parliament will choose soon". Bosnian Krajina MPs from Karadzic's SDS party said the president promised Banja Luka will be the center of the RS if they help topple Kasagic. They said Banja Luka as the capital is a solution to be considered in light of the coming arbitration over Brcko. If Brcko is lost, the RS would be cut in two giving the Banja Luka area as the capital much more weight.

Official Belgrade didn't really get excited by events in Bosnia which is unusual since Belgrade always reacted fiercely when the Bosnian Serb leaders endangered the interests of Serbia. The Belgrade regime press cried foul when the RS authorities obstructed the election campaigning by the RS Socialist party.

The reconciliation between Plavsic and Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic is a sign that the Serbian leadership supports Karadzic's decision and Karadzic is testing the Dayton agreement by removing the prime minister and reorganizing his authorities.

Gojko Klickovic, RS Prime Minister

Gojko Klickovic is the new RS prime minister appointed by RS President Radovan Karadzic and confirmed by the RS parliament headed by Speaker Momcilo Krajisnik.

He was born in Krupa Na Uni on March 25, 1955. Graduated sociology in Sarajevo and went on to post-graduate studies and degrees of law and economics in Osijek and Belgrade.

His political career is linked to his home town where he did every job except the priest's: chairman of the local SDS party board, mayor and deputy mayor, chairman of the crisis committee and president of the local war presidency. Krupa is within the Moslem-Croat Federation today and its population have become refugees.

A VREME reporter met Klickovic in the kitchens of the Banja Luka Red Cross for the first time when he was in charge of the refugees. He was chopping cabbage for a stew. Asked if anyone but the Serbs can eat there he said he feeds only Serbs.

His career advanced in the meantime and he went on to become deputy health care and labor minister. He also held the post of chairman of the refugee committee and took care of refugees from the Krajina and Sarajevo who spent most of the winter hungry and cold in Zvornik, Bijeljina, Brcko, Srebrenica.

Foreign reporters said they asked an IFOR officer if he had talked to Klickovic. The answer: "what would I possibly have to talk to him about?"