June 29, 1996

Serbs' Leader in Bosnia Is Again Told to Step Down

By CHRIS HEDGES

ARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- As part of an intensifying Western effort to oust the Bosnian Serb leader, Dr. Radovan Karadzic, the senior civilian official overseeing the peace accord has set a July 1 deadline for his removal from office.

The official, Carl Bildt, said that if Karadzic did not step down then, Serbia, which has considerable power over the Bosnian Serbs, would face renewed international economic sanctions.

Western officials, unwilling to direct NATO troops in Bosnia to arrest Karadzic, who is under indictment in the Hague for war crimes, are hoping instead that President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia will remove Karadzic. They are especially eager to oust the hard-liner as campaigning begins for national elections in September.

"I think the leaders, both in Belgrade and Pale, know which plans we have if they don't follow the terms of the peace agreement," Bildt said.

At the Group of Seven nations' meeting in Lyon, France, the French foreign minister said the seven heads of state would call for Dr. Karadzic's removal.

But although Bildt has the authority to recommend sanctions, it is unclear whether the major powers, acting through the United Nations, would be willing to reimpose them if the July 1 deadline is not met.

Milosovic has called on the Bosnian Serb leader to step aside, but his will and ability to oust Karadzic are uncertain.

"It is a dangerous business to start predicting what will happen in Pale," said a senior Western diplomat, referring to the Bosnian Serbs' headquarters, "but the pressure on Karadzic is intense."

Karadizc, despite his indictment for war crimes, has become increasingly defiant in recent weeks. He said on Bosnian Serb television on Thursday that he would not consider stepping down as the president of the Bosnian Serb Republic unless the republic, an entity within Bosnia, gets international recognition and the disputed town of Brcko, currently under arbitration, is handed over to the Bosnian Serbs.

Bildt's office and Western diplomats have said they will not negotiate terms with Karadzic.

"Mr. Karadzic is not in a position to levy any conditions," John Kornblum, Washington's leading mediator for the former Yugoslavia, told reporters here Thursday.

Diplomats also discount a report that the Bosnian Serb commander, Ratko Mladic, was was also indicted by the Hague, is seriously ill.