Clinton Envoy Escalates War of Words in Bosnia

PALE, Bosnia-Herzegovina —  With the West dealt a serious setback in its efforts to boost Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic, the Clinton administration’s senior envoy to Bosnia confronted hard-liners here Saturday with threats of “the most serious consequences imaginable” if they fail to obey peace accords that ended the country’s war 20 months ago.

Robert Gelbard warned that “any and all force necessary” will be used to make recalcitrant Bosnian Serbs end inflammatory anti-West rhetoric and respect Plavsic’s authority.

The warnings came in the wake of Thursday’s attack on U.S. troops who were trying to take control of a Bosnian Serb police station in the northern city of Brcko. In those clashes with Bosnian Serbs loyal to former Bosnian Serb president and indicted war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic, two U.S. military personnel were wounded.

Gelbard, emerging from a meeting with Karadzic ally Momcilo Krajisnik, the Bosnian Serb member of Bosnia’s three-man presidency, said the hard-liners are totalitarians who use terrorist tactics.

Despite his tough talk, however, Washington and its European allies continue to face a dilemma: The Brcko incident was a significant setback just as Plavsic was gaining momentum in her struggle to wrest power from the Karadzic faction. U.S. troops were bloodied, nervous allies were spooked, and the move to expand Plavsic’s influence hit a brick wall.

“It was a debacle, for all sides,” conceded one Western diplomat.

Western officials now must plot their next move. Some North Atlantic Treaty Organization commanders were already queasy about taking sides in Plavsic’s challenge to Karadzic and are rethinking the strategy, according to diplomatic sources.

In Brcko, U.S. troops of the NATO-led peacekeeping mission were forced to pull back when they tried to take control of the police station in order to ease the installation of pro-Plavsic police. They were met by furious mobs. Instead of assisting Plavsic, the result was a messy melee, with scenes of U.S. soldiers being taunted and stoned.

Until then, Plavsic had scored important victories. Her supporters had control of a critical television transmitter covering much of the northern part of the Republika Srpska--the Bosnian Serb half of the country--and were fully in charge of police departments and party infrastructure in the cities of Banja Luka and nearby Prijedor, as well as of much of the army. But other key cities--Doboj, Bijeljina and Brcko--remain in dispute, with police loyal to Karadzic still in place, according to Western officials who are monitoring the developments.

Washington is promoting Plavsic’s quest to isolate Karadzic--who has been indicted on genocide charges by the international war crimes tribunal at The Hague--as a way to remove him from the political scene without having to mount a military operation to arrest him.

The Brcko violence gave Karadzic forces a rallying point and may have emboldened them, at least temporarily, diplomats say.

Gelbard’s appearances Saturday here in Pale, Karadzic’s headquarters, and later with Plavsic in Banja Luka are part of an emergency mission to salvage the peace process and force cooperation from the pro-Karadzic Bosnian Serb faction.

“We are clearly at the most critical moment, in terms of not just the implementation of the [peace] agreement, but in terms of the future of the Republika Srpska, that has ever happened,” Gelbard said.

He sought to dispel the idea that the Brcko violence will slow Plavsic’s gains.

“We don’t consider this a setback,” Gelbard said in an interview. “The overall trend is quite favorable to her.”

Gelbard said that Krajisnik and his associates “show no interest at all” in complying with the peace accords, and he added that he believes they are “panicked and in disarray.”

“They are leading the Republika Srpska down the road to destruction,” he said.

While demanding better behavior from the Serbs, Gelbard declined to outline a specific ultimatum. And threats mean little here.

Krajisnik, speaking to reporters after Gelbard’s departure, appeared unfazed by the Clinton envoy’s visit and said that the residents of Brcko were merely defending a police station from “unreasonable and violent” occupation by NATO troops.

“In a way, I understand Mr. Gelbard,” Krajisnik said. “He’s both a politician and a policeman, so he uses stricter words when he is talking. But the solution is not in threats.”

Krajisnik made one conciliatory gesture, shifting the bulk of the blame from the West and onto Plavsic herself, whom he pointedly refused to address as president.

“The most guilty are certain forces led by Madame Plavsic that are promoting this chaos by toying with a coup and that are trying to get hold of power in a coup-like way,” he said.

In addition to fomenting violence against NATO forces, the Pale hard-liners have stonewalled other elements of the peace accords, diplomats say. Krajisnik has refused to attend meetings of the joint presidency, blocking agreements on civil aviation legislation and other issues. And last week, he boycotted the formal presentation of credentials by the new U.S. ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina.

NATO and senior Western officials have vowed to crack down on the Karadzic-controlled state radio and television network, source of much of the anti-West rhetoric. But on Saturday night, just hours after Gelbard’s mission, an unrepentant Pale television issued a new threat against Plavsic.

Comparing her to President John F. Kennedy, who it said was killed because of his attempts to reorganize American society, state television said “anti-state activities” exact “the highest price,” even when committed by the chief of state.

“Of course,” the broadcast added, “none of us wants a lynching or to shed Serbian blood. But everyone must be responsible for his mistakes.”