Dr. Radovan Karadzic, President of the Serb Republic in BH

DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: June 19, 1944, the village of Petnica on Mt. Durmitor, Montenegro.

PROFESSION: Before the war he was a wellknown psychiatrist (an expert on depressive states) and poet. He then became the Bosnian Serb leader, a politician, Serb Republic in BH President, and when necessary, a cartographer.

BIOGRAPHY: He arrived in Sarajevo when fifteen and enrolled at the Medical Secondary School, later graduating from the Medical Faculty in Sarajevo, and specializing in Psychiatry. Karadzic completed part of his education in the USA. He worked in the state hospital in Sarajevo. ``An understanding of the human soul,'' helped him get through 11 months in investigative detention (1987). He was discharged as innocent (a unique case in the former BH), because it was never proved that he had built his summer house in Pale with embezzled money. Karadzic has published four books of poetry.

POLITICAL CAREER: Claims that everything started back in 1968 when he held a rousing speech from the roof of the faculty of Philosophy in Sarajevo, after which he claimed that he was under constant surveillance by the secret police. He embarked on a political career officially in 1989 when he was chosen president of the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) because nobody else wished to take on the job, and the Serbs were late in organizing along political lines. He played the role of political ``fillin,'' his task was to take the brunt for a few laps and then cede the place to someone else (like at athletic meets in Zurich). With time he became the stubbornest longdistance runner, but in Geneva. No one believed that he would bask in the limelight of world politics one day. His biggest enemies admit that he has become a serious player. Serb Republic in BH VicePresident Biljana Plavsic claims that he is ``the best Serb politician.'' (``He has the psychological and physical stamina to endure it all'').

WAR PHILOSOPHY: At the start of the war he upheld the general Bosnian principle: ``never try to achieve by peaceful means what you can by force.'' Later, when he had sufficient territory at his disposal, he said: ``We will all have to make concessions, no one can get it all...,'' or: ``It's better to give a bit of our territory, to give up some of our dreams and have peace in the Balkans.''

GREATEST DISAPPOINTMENT: Without doubt, BosniaHerzegovina President Alija Izetbegovic. At the founding congress of the SDS, Izetbegovic was guest of honor and received the longest applause. In summer 1990, the two men paid their respects to Serb and Muslim World War Two victims on the bridge over the Drina River in Foca, and said that ``Blood must never flow down the Drina River ever again.'' At the time, Karadzic told some Belgrade journalists: ``Our Muslims are much closer to us (Bosnian Serbs), than many Christian peoples in Europe.'' After the elections in Bosnia, love turned to hatred. ``It's impossible to continue with Alija and the Muslims...'' Today the two men consider each other as being most responsible for the war in Bosnia, and view one another as war criminals and ``the greatest liars on earth.''

PERSONAL TRIUMPH: In Athens Greek PM Constantine Mitsotakis lent him his gold fountain pen to sign the VanceOwen plan. Karadzic gave it back and signed with a pencil. A few days later, in Pale (Bosnian Serb political center), he withdrew his signature and presented Mitsotakis with ``gusle'' (onestring folk fiddle). Answering Milosevic's pressure to sign the plan, Karadzic dared ignore it and managed to remain on his feet.

WHAT HE BELIEVES IN: That the United Serb Lands will one day be more powerful than the USA.

CHARACTERISTICS: Very patient and composed, a skillful negotiator, charming, softspoken. Has no problems with journalists.

SPECIAL TALENT: To speak of the same thing in an entirely different way, with an innocent expression at the same time. Asked: Why are you shelling Sarajevo?, he replied: ``We're not, it's the Muslims,'' ``We're not attacking, just protecting our hearths around Sarajevo,'' ``When you catch a snake, you don't grab the tail but the head, because it can bite you.'' On cohabitation: ``Muslims were never our enemies. Only the Ustashi are our natural enemies. Serbs and Muslims have never clashed, and history proves this, unless a third party was involved,'' ``Serbs and Croats were never enemies before 1918, when they entered a joint state. Serbs and Croats will never be enemies once they separate their states,'' ``Serbs cannot live together with Muslims and Croats. I told Owen not to dump us into the same sack like cats and dogs.''

WHAT HE SHOULD BE WARY OF: Above all, a prolongation of the war in Bosnia. Mirjana Markovic's diaries/column (M.M. is the League of Communists Movement for Yugoslavia leader and Slobodan Milosevic's wife, and a regular columnist in the Belgradebased biweekly ``Duga''ed. note).

WHAT HE SHOULD READ: The part of Yugoslav President Zoran Lilic's latest speech where he says that ``millions of citizens in Yugoslavia cannot be held hostage by any one leader, either of Yugoslavia, the Serb Republic in BH or the Republic of Serb Krajina.''