ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, July 1, 1996 TAG: 9607010115
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
SOURCE: The Washington Post
NOTE: Above
RADOVAN KARADZIC'S maneuver only added to the quandary for Western powers, who call him a war criminal.
Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic handed over authority to a hard-line nationalist colleague, Western officials announced Sunday, in a move that staves off the resumption of crippling economic sanctions but does not diminish the influence over Bosnian Serbs of the man accused of genocide and crimes against humanity.
Karadzic announced that Biljana Plavsic, 66, a biology professor and former Fulbright scholar, would take his job as president of the Bosnian Serbs. But in a written statement sent to Carl Bildt, the top Western diplomat in Bosnia, he did not formally resign, but rather transferred authority to Plavsic because of a ``temporary inability to perform ... functions.''
Plavsic told Belgrade's BK television Sunday that Karadzic ``remains president, and I am a vice president.''
Karadzic's maneuver put the Western powers in a difficult position, diplomats said. Under the Dayton peace accord, Karadzic was to have been arrested and turned over to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague in December, when the deal was signed in Paris, or Serbia would face sanctions.
But Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic was unwilling to comply, so Bildt modified the demands and said Karadzic had to permanently leave his position as president, or sanctions would be imposed.
The diplomats said the West was not eager to reimpose sanctions, which had been in place from May 1992 until after the Dayton accord. Such an act against Serbian-dominated Yugoslavia and the Bosnian Serbs would signify problems with the Dayton accord, expose rifts among the Western powers and Russia, and potentially jeopardize Milosevic's cooperation with the West.
The officials said Bildt was forced to modify his position again and approve Karadzic's transfer of authority, which he did Sunday. Colum Murphy, Bildt's chief spokesman, confirmed that Bildt's threats of sanctions ``are on hold.''
Karadzic's move to hand over the reins of power to Plavsic was accompanied by maneuvers on his part to ensure an enduring influence over the Bosnian Serbs. Saturday, he was re-elected as chief of the Serbian Democratic Party, the ruling party of the Bosnian Serbs. As such, he will be able to control Bosnian Serb territory just as Communist Party bosses controlled Yugoslavia until 1990.
LENGTH: Medium: 54 linesby CNB