BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: MANY BOSNIAN SERBS STILL SUPPORT RADOVAN KARADZIC AS ELECTION CAMPAIGNS CONTINUE

Record ID: 646676

  • Title: BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA: MANY BOSNIAN SERBS STILL SUPPORT RADOVAN KARADZIC AS ELECTION CAMPAIGNS CONTINUE
  • Date: 7th September 1996
  • Summary: VARIOUS LOCATIONS, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA (SEPTEMBER 7 AND 8, 1996/ RECENT AND FILE) (RTV/ RTV (A) - ACCESS ALL) DOBRINJA, SARAJEVO (RECENT) (SEPTEMBER 6, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV/SV SERB DEMOCRATIC PARTY (SDS) RALLY/ SCORES OF POSTERS OF FORMER BOSNIAN SERB LEADER AND INDICTED WAR CRIMINAL RADOVAN KARADZIC (3 SHOTS) 0.16 SARAJEVO (SEPTEMBER 8, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 2. SV AMBASSADOR ROBERT FROWICK, HEAD OF ORGANISATION FOR SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE (OSCE) MISSION IN BOSNIA SPEAKING (ENGLISH) 0.56 VISEGRAD (SEPTEMBER 7, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 3. LV SPEAKER AT SDS RALLY SAYING "I AM NOT ALLOWED TO SAY HIS NAME" (SERBO-CROAT)/ CROWD CHANTING "RADOVAN" 1.10 VUCIJI POTOK, NEAR GORAZDE (SEPTEMBER 8, 1996, 1996) 4. GV COUNTRYSIDE/ LV DAMAGED HOUSES ON HILLSIDE (2 SHOTS) 1.20 5. LV BOSNIAN GOVERNMENT INVESTIGATION TEAM DIGGING AT GRAVE SITE 1.26 6. SV INVESTIGATOR MARKING TWO BODIES OF CHILDREN (2 SHOTS) 1.39 7. SV INVESTIGATOR LIFTING REMAINS FROM GRAVE 1.49 8. SV INVESTIGATORS AROUND GRAVE SITE 1.54 9. SLV INVESTIGATION TEAM CARRYING OFF BODY OF CHILD WRAPPED IN PLASTIC SHEET 2.03 BIHAC (SEPTEMBER 8, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 10. TV CROWDS GATHERING FOR SERB DEMOCRATIC PARTY (SDA) RALLY 2.10 11. LV PEOPLE AND SOLDIERS CARRYING GREEN AND WHITE SDA FLAGS 2.23 12. SV EJUP GANIC, VICE PRESIDENT OF BOSNIAN FEDERATION SHAKING HANDS AT RALLY 2.34 13. SV CROWDS CLAPPING AND CHEERING (2 SHOTS) 2.46 NEAR PALE (FILE - SEPTEMBER 1995) (RTV (A) - ACCESS ALL) 14. LV NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANISATION (NATO) FIGHTER PLANES OVERHEAD/ MISSILE EXPLODING NEAR PALE (2 SHOTS) 3.05 PALE (SEPTEMBER 8, 1996) (RTV (A) - ACCESS ALL) 15. LV CRATER CAUSED BY NATO AIRSTRIKE/ PAN TO FAMILY VISITING SITE OF NATO AIRSTRIKE, RUINED HOUSE 3.14 16. SV MOURNING RELATIVES AROUND RUINED HOUSE (2 SHOTS) 3.32 17. SV GRAVE FOR RELATIVES KILLED BY NATO AIRSTRIKE 3.42 SEQUENCE 2 TRANSCRIPT: FROWICK: "WE HAVE HAD SOME ENCOUNTERS WITH THE REPUBLIKA SRPSKA LEADERSHIP ABOUT THIS. THEY HAVE TOLD US THERE WOULD NOT BE KARADZIC POSTERS AT SDS POLITICAL RALLIES AND I THINK THERE HAVEN'T BEEN AS PART OF THE OFFICIAL BACKDROP. THE PROBLEM IS PEOPLE WHO COME TO THOSE RALLIES CARRYING POSTERS. SO WE HAVE TO MAKE SUBJECTIVE JUDGEMENTS AS TO THE DEGREE OF INFRINGEMENT OF THE BASIC AGREEMENT REACHED BY MR HOLBROOKE." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 22nd September 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
  • City:
  • Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Reuters ID: LVA9N0EZKOSA0D9H4LVE2OE6CL2R
  • Story Text: INTRO: As the September 14 polling day in Bosnia-Herzegovina draws nearer, election campaigns are in full swing raising some concern over the high profile still enjoyed by indicted war criminal, former Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic.

    Despite being barred from public life, Radovan Karadzic is still very much in evidence as the Bosnian as the September 14 polling day approaches.

    Addressing concern at the continued open support for Karadzic, Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe(OSCE) Ambassador, Robert Frowick, said the Republika Srpska leadership has assured them no Karadzic posters would appear at political events.

    "We have had some encounters with the Republika Srbska leadership and they have told us that there would not be Karadzic posters at SDS (Serb Democratic Party) political parties. They haven't been as part of the official backdrop. The problem is people who come to rallies carrying these posters", Frowick said.

    That agreement, hammered out between a reluctant Bosnian Serb leadership and United States (U.S.) diplomat Richard Holbrooke, forbade Karadzic from running for office in the upcoming elections or of keeping his post as president of the Bosnian Serb Republic.

    Karadzic, who is wanted by the war crimes tribunal in the Hague on a long list of indictments, stepped down but not out of the limelight.

    At an SDS rally in Visegrad this weekend one speaker fired up the crowd by saying "I am not allowed to say his name but he is with us all the time". The crowd responded with chants of "Radovan, Radovan".

    At the tiny village of Vuciji Potok, 20 kilometers southeast of Gorazde, a Bosnian government investigation began digging on Sunday (September 8) at a site where one villager believes his wife, daughter, sixteen-month-old baby and two young sisters were buried after they had allegedly been shot by Bosnian Serb soldiers in 1992.

    The Bosnian government team investigating the alleged atrocities believe there are up to 28 sites in the region and removed 9 bodies on Sunday, all of which were women and children.

    One grave site contained a mother next to her baby. Another, two sisters believed to be 6 and 9-years-old.

    Also on Sunday, about 5,000 supporters of Bosnia's ruling Serb Democratic Party (SDA) party gathered in the northern Bosnian town of Bihac.

    Bihac, which lived through one of the bloodiest sieges of the Bosnian war, is one of the few areas in Bosnia where the SDA faces any serious competition to its political dominance.

    Not only were the Moslems fighting the encircling Serbs, but they also faced attack from rebel Moslems led by Fikret Abdic.

    Abdic, despite being indicted by a Bosnian court on war crimes, is running against the SDA and his support in the region still remains strong.

    One year after the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) airstrikes which ended the fighting and paved the way for the September 14 polls, Bosnian Serbs around Pale commemorated those killed during NATO airstrikes in the area.

    One family returned to their ruined home to pay respects to Alexander Milovic, one of six Bosnian Serbs killed during the air raids.


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