June 3, 1996
Bosnians Will Vote in '96, Christopher Says
By STEVEN ERLANGER
ENEVA -- After meeting with the presidents of Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia and with other officials in charge of carrying out the peace accord for Bosnia, Secretary of State Warren Christopher said Sunday night that elections would go ahead there this year. He said he expected a date to be set by the end of this month.
Christopher also said the elections, for a national parliament and three-member presidency, could take place even if the Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, who has been charged with war crimes, was not handed over to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
There has been a growing debate about whether conditions exist in Bosnia to make free and fair elections possible by Sept. 14, as called for in the peace accord reached last fall, and whether the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe will certify that such conditions exist.
Internal reports from the security organization's monitors in Bosnia paint a dismal picture of efforts by all parties, especially the Bosnian Serbs, to thwart the freedom of movement, freedom of the press and return of refugees required under the accord. The reports were described Sunday in an article in The New York Times.
"Bosnia remains a troubled country, but the prospect of renewed violence is fading," Christopher said Sunday night. "Elections are a necessary precondition for a democratic life, another way to eliminate indicted war criminals from office and give all the people of Bosnia a chance to shape their future."
Some European officials have complained of "intense pressure" on them from Washington and European capitals to certify that free and fair elections can be held.
Christopher met Sunday with the Swiss foreign minister and chairman of the European security agency, Flavio Cotti, and with Robert Frowick, a retired American diplomat who heads the organization's Sarajevo mission.
Senior American officials said that announcement of the election date would mean certification by the European agency and that agency officials were "on board." They said the announcement could come as early as June 14, when the parties to the peace accord meet in Florence to judge compliance with them.
Christopher said it was important that Karadzic was "removed from all effective power" and ability to influence the elections. He spent two hours Sunday with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, telling him that a promise to that effect "just was not enough," and that the United States expected all people charged with war crimes to be arrested, as called for in the accord.
Christopher met separately with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic.
NATO forces "will conduct more visible and proactive patrols through the country," Christopher said, to increase civilians' freedom of movement "and to raise the likelihood of apprehending war criminals." To date, NATO has refused to seek out those indicted on charges of war crimes, most notably Karadzic and the Bosnian Serb military commander, Gen. Ratko Mladic.
Christopher said the United States would open an aid office in Banja Luka, a Bosnian city that is the headquarters for political rivals to Karadzic, "so that those who support the peace process shall see results on the ground."
Earlier in the day, Izetbegovic said the elections should not go ahead unless Karadzic was in jail at The Hague.
The Bosnian government is trying to use the issue of the election date as leverage on other matters, like suspected war criminals and freedom of movement, American officials said.
Izetbegovic supported an "agreed statement" by the three Balkan leaders that "the most important next step in the peace process will be to hold free and fair elections within the time period" set out in the peace accord, between June 14 and Sept. 14.
The leaders "recommitted themselves to the task of establishing the necessary conditions for these elections under the supervision of the OSCE," the statement continued. "Delay in elections risks widening the divisions that continue to exist."
American officials emphasized this theme, saying conditions were never going to be "perfect."
The State Department spokesman, Nicholas Burns, said that "it will not be possible to have pristine, ideal conditions" and that the United States favored creating "the best possible conditions."
Frowick has spoken of needing to make a recommendation on certification by July 15, to allow time for campaigning. Sunday, Cotti said, "We have been given the not easy task of making a general judgment about the conditions for organizing these elections."
He said he hoped "by the end of this month to be able to give an answer to that question." But after meeting both men Sunday, American officials said they "fully expect" the setting of a firm date, and thus certification, by the end of June.
They said that the European organization would continue to monitor and supervise election preparations, and that if war resumed, for instance, it would mean that elections could not go ahead as planned.
The United States put Frowick into the job to be able to guide the election process, which Washington regards as vital to the larger goal of building a unitary, multi-ethnic state. The elections, when they take place, will be under a new constitution, and since indicted war criminals are not allowed to run, they will be stripped of office.
Other Places of Interest on the WebThe Dayton Peace Accords, Provided by the U.S. Department of State International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia The United Nations The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
