U.S., allies to push Balkan leaders
to stick to Dayton accord
June 2, 1996
Web posted at: 7:30 a.m. EDT (1130 GMT)SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher will discuss the future of the fragile Bosnian peace accord and press for the ouster of two top Bosnian Serb indicted war criminals when he meets Balkan leaders in Geneva Sunday.
The meeting, which European officials will also attend, will try to ensure that post-war elections in Bosnia are held as planned in September.
U.S. officials said Christopher would press Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic to use his influence to remove Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and military commander Ratko Mladic, as he promised under last year's peace agreement.
Karadzic and Mladic are both wanted by the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague and they have embarrassed the West with their continued freedom and influence in Bosnian Serb territory.
Milosevic told U.S. Assistant Secretary of State John Kornblum in Belgrade last week that he would show in Geneva that Karadzic was no longer in charge. Diplomatic sources in Sarajevo say he will present a letter indicating this; a Belgrade news agency goes a step further to say it's Karadzic's letter of resignation.
Kornblum said such a letter would be a positive step, but that Milosevic needed to follow it up with action.
He said he had told Milosevic that support for sanctions was growing against Serbia, and that he should consider them a possibility unless they cooperated with The Hague tribunal.
Bosnia's Muslim-led government has threatened to boycott the elections unless Karadzic and Mladic are in the dock at The Hague.
Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic told Kornblum Saturday that if there is to be peace in Bosnia, the two Bosnian Serbs should first be ejected from the political scene.
According to Izetbegovic, there are other problems with the accord's implementation as well. Freedom of movement and the return of hundreds of thousands of refugees are still unresolved issues, he said.
Further jeopardizing the agreement is the continued practice of ethnic cleansing. In the Bosnian Serb territory, hardline nationalists have expelled more than 100 Muslims and Croats over the last week.
CNN Correspondent Jackie Shymanski and Reuters contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- Croat pleads guilty to war crimes in Bosnia - May 31, 1996
- Bosnian Serbs divided over Karadzic ouster - May 29, 1996
- France backs Bildt's efforts to remove Karadzic - May 26, 1996
- 'Massacre of the Innocents': Tuzla remembers - May 26, 1996
- Major visits, takes aim at hardline nationalists - May 25, 1996
- U.S. presses for arrest of Bosnia's most-wanted - May 24, 1996
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