BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: UNITED NATIONS SUPPORTS OSCE PROPOSAL TO BAN SERB NATIONALISTS FROM FORTHCOMING ELECTIONS IN BOSNIA UNLESS THEY REMOVE RADOVAN KARADZIC FROM POWER

Record ID: 337730

  • Title: BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: UNITED NATIONS SUPPORTS OSCE PROPOSAL TO BAN SERB NATIONALISTS FROM FORTHCOMING ELECTIONS IN BOSNIA UNLESS THEY REMOVE RADOVAN KARADZIC FROM POWER
  • Date: 8th July 1996
  • Summary: SARAJEVO AND NEAR PALE (JULY 8 + 9, 1996) (RTV ACCESS ALL) SARAJEVO (JULY 9, 1996) 1. SLV INTERIOR U.N. HEADQUARTERS IN SARAJEVO 0.06 2. MV U.N. SPOKESMAN ALEXANDER IVANKO SPEAKING (ENGLISH) 0.37 3.LV PRESS 0.42 NEAR PALE (JULY 8, 1996) 4. MV VARIOUS OF NEWLY APPOINTED BOSNIAN SERB VICE-PRESIDENT BILJANA PLAVSIC MEETING BOSNIAN SERB MILITARY COMMANDERS (4 SHOTS) 1.17 TRANSCRIPT SEQ.2 IVANKO: "NO INDICTED WAR CRIMINAL INCLUDING KARADZIC CAN PLAY ANY ROLE IN THE FORTHCOMING ELECTIONS. THE U.N. WILL FULLY SUPPORT ANY DECISION MADE BY THE OSCE." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 23rd July 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SARAJEVO AND NEAR PALE, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
  • City:
  • Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Reuters ID: LVADLFE2H3LTSB9KGZJDHZ3XDJPW
  • Story Text: - INTRO: The United Nations has welcomed a threat that Serb nationalists in Bosnia will be barred from the upcoming elections unless they remove two indicted war criminals from power.

    ------------------------------------------------------------- The pledge by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) that the leading Serb nationalist SDS party will not be allowed to take part in September's elections is the latest move in a concerted campaign to remove Radovan Karadzic from power.

    Alexander Ivanko, the chief U.N. spokesman in Sarajevo, said the world body would support the move proposed by the chief of OSCE's Bosnia mission, Robert Frowick.

    Ambassador Frowick made his announcement that the SDS would be barred so long as Radovan Karadzic remained its chairman at OSCE's fifth parliamentary session in Stockholm on Monday (July 8).

    Under the Dayton accord, OSCE has the daunting task of organising Bosnia-wide elections on September 14. The peace accord bans all those indicted for war crimes from holding public office.

    Given that the SDS are the ruling party in the Serb republic, Frowick is gambling that it will decide to dump Karadzic rather than be excluded from the elections.

    However, if the SDS boycotts the balloting, the entire election could be called into question, in effect handing nationalist Serb hardliners a veto over the Dayton process.

    Karadzic recently handed over his powers, but not his title, as president of that 49 per cent of Bosnia known as the Serb Republic to his Vice-President, Biljana Plavsic.

    He was re-elected chairman of the SDS, a position which enables him to control the police, media and army and ensure that separatist Serb goals are not lost in the multi-ethnic democracy which Dayton set out to build in Bosnia.

    Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Gojko Klickovic has been quoted by the Bosnian Serb newsagency SRNA, as saying that he considered the OSCE threat to be "undemocratic".


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