Queen from an Old Deck

RS vice-presidents Biljana Plavsic and Nikola Koljevic met with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic on May 21. The meeting was cordial, the smiles big and the handshakes were pronounced. Some people recalled that Plavsic refused to shake Milosevic's hand with contempt once and demanded that he renounce Communism. They added that Milosevic declared her a mental case who should be in an institution, and his wife Mira Markovic said she was like Mengele experimenting with her own people.

A statement to Tanjug said Plavsic is the "acting RS president" in charge of the implementation of the Dayton agreement. That coincides with another Tanjug report that Karadzic transferred his powers to Plavsic although both said it was just for contacts with the international community. I don't believe anyone in that game, said the international community's high representative Carl Bildt after meeting Milosevic on May 20.

When he signed the decree ousting Kasagic, Karadzic also signed a request for his own dismissal. As long as he is in power, international community spokesmen said, the civilian aspects of the Dayton agreement can't be implemented.

Karadzic couldn't oust his prime minister without the silent approval of Belgrade. There are two theories on how everything happened. One says Milosevic gave Kasagic 24 hours after his dismissal to accuse Karadzic of conducting a coup d'état and, if need be, break off all links between the Banja Luka area and the rest of the RS. Kasagic didn't have the guts for something like that and Milosevic gave him to the Pale leaders. The second says that the flexible and cooperative prime minister (at least with the international community) did not suit Milosevic. Kasagic was growing stronger by the day as the chief negotiator for the Bosnian Serbs. Pale was being pushed out but so was Milosevic. In other words he was a threat to the Serbian president and could have brought him into a position where he would have had to meet all demands on Bosnia without concessions. The support of the Serbian and Yugoslav governments came amid the confusion of reactions from the rest of the world which, both theories agree, Pale and Belgrade did not foresee.

Now that Karadzic's survival means the sanctions against the FRY could be re-imposed efforts are being made to play a trump card - Biljana Plavsic.

Plavsic has been Karadzic's close associate from the start and she is know for her statements that "six million Serbs can die so the other six million can live in freedom" and that ethnic cleansing is "a natural thing". She made all those statements in her calm nasal voice. Her new powers to negotiate with the international community are the best guarantee that Karadzic and Mladic won't be handed over to the war crimes tribunal if they back off. She's also a guarantee that not much will change in the RS.

Plavsic also suits Milosevic. He has met his obligation of ousting Karadzic from the political scene.

But, it seems international community envoys aren't about to swallow that story and now they want Karadzic and Mladic extradited as well. Plavsic could be the tool used to buy time: before the sanctions against him are re-imposed he could re-impose sanctions against the RS.