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NATO official: Karadzic supporters planned coup
September 9, 1997
Web posted at: 9:29 a.m. EDT (1329 GMT)BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina (CNN) -- NATO-led peace troops thwarted a plan by Bosnian Serb infiltrators to oust the democratically elected Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic, a senior NATO official told CNN on Tuesday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said infiltrators wearing uniforms and carrying weapons and false identity papers had been ready to take over the police station in Banja Luka.
The official said this was part of a coordinated plan to replace Plavsic with supporters of her main rival, former president and indicted war-crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic.
"This was going to be an effort to intimidate and drive out the legitimately elected government of the Bosnian Serb Republic," the official told CNN. "We thwarted a coup attempt."
The statement came after the NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR) turned back dozens of buses carrying Karadzic supporters who wanted to join an anti-Plavsic rally in her stronghold of Banja Luka. The buses were trying to break through a roadblock at Modrica, east of Banja Luka.
Momcilo Krajisnik, a Karadzic supporter and the Serb representative in Bosnia-Herzegovina's collective presidency, claimed he was effectively being held hostage by police loyal to Plavsic in a hotel in Banja Luka. Prime Minister Gojko Klickovic was also with Krajisnik.
Following an intervention by Gen. Jacques Klein, U.S. deputy to the international high representative in Bosnia, Carlos Westendorp, said the hard-line politicians would be allowed to leave but that their bodyguards would have to lay down their weapons.
Krajisnik refuses to compromise on TV offer
The confrontation was one of the latest developments in a two-month-old power struggle between Karadzic, who was forced to retire from active politics under an agreement with international peace mediators, and Plavsic, who has accused Karadzic and Krajisnik of corruption.
CNN's Mike Hanna reports from Banja Luka: 
342K/30 sec. AIFF or WAV sound The Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA, which is controlled by the hard-liners, alleged that Krajisnik and his group were "brutalized" and their cars confiscated by police on Monday night.
The rally in Banja Luka attracted only 150 Karadzic supporters, after the demonstrators on buses were turned away, but SFOR reported tense standoffs between peacekeepers and frustrated Karadzic activists. Five police were reportedly hurt in clashes at a checkpoint outside the city.
Plavsic met Krajisnik in the presence of Patriarch Pavle of the Serbian Orthodox Church during the rally Monday, in an attempt to find a way to resolve the power struggle.
Political sources said Krajisnik refused an offer by Plavsic to share national access to Bosnian Serb television, which now has rival studios in Banja Luka and in Pale, outside Sarajevo, where the hard-liners are based.
Both Krajisnik and Plavsic rejected Pavle's suggestion that they should put themselves up for re-election to test their personal support when the Bosnian Serb republic, which is part of the Bosnian federation, holds parliamentary elections next month.
International mediators feared that a confrontation had been engineered to affect the outcome of a campaign for Bosnian local elections next weekend whose success is vital to the next stage of the peace process.
Correspondents Mike Hanna and Jamie McIntyre contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- NATO: Coup attempt against Bosnian leader thwarted - September 9, 1997
- Bosnian hard-liners stage defiant rally - September 8, 1997
- Workers excavate mass grave in Bosnia - September 3, 1997
- In Bosnia, ethnic cleansing scars are difficult to heal - August 31, 1997
- U.N. police evacuated in troubled Bosnian town - August 28, 1997
- U.S., German officials: Attacks in Bosnia must stop - July 27, 1997
Related sites:
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- NATO - official site
- Operations IFOR & SFOR provides information relating to NATO's role in bringing peace in the Former Yugoslavia
- OSCE: Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina - providing information about the OSCE's activities, particularly as they relate to the elections scheduled for September 14, and to assist refugees to vote
- Croatia/Bosnia-Herzegovina - from CARE
- BosniaLINK - the official Department of Defense information system about U.S. military activities in Operation JOINT GUARD, the NATO peacekeeping mission in Bosnia
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.
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