From: malenovi@plains.NoDak.edu (Nikola V. Malenovic )
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: Bosnia (VREME NDA 13.Apr 1992)
Date: 13 Apr 92 14:34:52 GMT
Article-I.D.: plains.16727
Organization: North Dakota State University, Fargo


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     "Vreme" News Digest Agency                      No. 29, April 13 1992.
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    Bosnia
    ------


                  INTERNATIONAL PROTECTORATE IS THE SOLUTION


           Radovan Karadzic  fled to Pale (near  Sarajevo) where he
           is protected  by guns, leaving the  Serbs in Sarajevo in
                                   the lurch

    "The whole  problem, of course,  is the division  of Bosnia. It  is very
    likely that there  exists some kind of arrangement, or  at least a tacit
    agreement, between  the three national  parties to go  through with this
    dirty job, since a multinational  and a multiconfessional state makes no
    sense in  times when all  the other republics  of former Yugoslavia  are
    founded on  a national principle. Such  a state simply wouldn't  fit in.
    This war is waged over the frontiers of the future Yugoslavia".

    This  is how  Dr. Grebo,  professor at  the Faculty  of Law in Sarajevo,
    comments  on the  latest events  in B&H.  The telephone conversation was
    interrupted by  news of renewed clashes  in the Bosnian capital  after a
    short-lived  truce,  that  thanks  to  an  agreement between Serbian and
    Moslem extremists the eight men who  shot with snipers from the "Holiday
    Inn"  at  the  crowd  were  released,  that  fighting  was  spreading in
    Zvornik... Mr. Grebo  stressed that Serbs were not  being slaughtered in
    Sarajevo, but that  they were merely in the same  boat as everyone else.
    He warned that the appeal to the citizens of Serbia to protect officers'
    families,  allegedly threatened  by massacre,  could easily  turn into a
    call  for  lynch.  "Such  statements  are  inhumane  and sound even more
    hypocritical after Karadzic fled to Pale  where he is safe, protected by
    guns, leaving the Serbs in Sarajevo in the lurch", he said.

    When asked to  analyze the events in B&H within  the context of the past
    months' events in Yugoslavia, professor  Grebo said that the creation of
    chaos in Sarajevo was directly connected with April 6, i.e. the decision
    of the EC and the USA to  recognize B&H. According to him, the ambitions
    of  the Serbian  side were  best described  by Mr.  Maksic, the  federal
    Deputy  Foreign  Minister,  who  had   said  that  the  recognition  was
    premature, and  that the international community  should have waited for
    the national states  to assume their full shape. On  the other hand, Mr.
    Izetbegovic wanted to ensure the international recognition of B&H within
    its  present  borders,  thus  avoiding  the  formation of three national
    cantons  in the  republic. The  fact that  both Serbia  and Croatia  are
    displeased  about   the  presence  of  General   Nambiar,  the  UNPROFOR
    Commander, and his units in B&H, should not be overlooked.

    Professor  Grebo explained  the conflicts  in Bosanski  Brod, Bijeljina,
    Zvornik  and Visegrad,  by their   proximity to  the Serbian  border. He
    thought that they were provoked on  the eve of the planned annexation of
    these  territories to  the future  Yugoslavia. "The  river Drina  is the
    trouble  spot",   there  were  no  serious   conflicts  in  the  usually
    troublesome Eastern Herzegovina, nor in Banja Luka and Bosanska Krajina.
    They were concentrated in regions close to the Serbian border (Mr. Grebo
    talked to  VREME on April  9, 1992). Sarajevo  became the center  of the
    crisis because of the presence  of government institutions, however, Mr.
    Grebo admitted that he didn't expect a civil war in the very capital. "I
    rather thought  that we would  share the destiny  of Dubrovnik and  that
    Sarajevo would be held under siege".

    Listing other  causes of the  conflict in B&H,  Mr. Grebo mentioned  the
    presence of Paraga's units in Western Herzegovina, and the fact that the
    authorities in the republic either turned a blind eye to their presence,
    or reacted very timidly. That, of  course, does not approve Arkan's (the
    leader of  the so-called Serbian  Tigers - volunteer  units) presence in
    Bosnia...

    The Army, as Mr. Grebo sees it, is  acting exactly in the same way as it
    did in Croatia.  It was always late, allegedly  being neutral, allegedly
    creating a buffer-zone,  but in actual fact legalizing  dual authority -
    of  SDS (Karadzic's  Serbian Democratic  Party), along  with the central
    authority.  Until  now,  the  Serbs  had,  at least theoretically, their
    representatives within  the legal power  structure in B&H,  however, the
    process of establishing their own  separate authority has been completed
    in the past few days. Karadzic  is issuing orders from Pale. The Serbian
    representatives  in the  Presidency of  B&H, Biljana  Plavsic and Nikola
    Koljevic, have  resigned (at the  moment when the  Presidency took power
    from the  Parliament and when Stjepan  Kljuic, the former leader  of HDZ
    /Croatian  Democratic  Union/  for  Bosnia  reappeared  on the political
    scene,  this time  in battle-fatigues);  the Serbian  Ministers withdrew
    from the Government, the self-proclaimed  Serbian Republic of B&H formed
    its ethnically homogeneous police...

    What will happen next in Bosnia and Herzegovina? According to Mr. Grebo,
    there can be no agreement between  the leading political factors in B&H.
    It  is also  very unlikely  that new  elections will  be held.  The only
    possible solution is the  establishment of an international protectorate
    over  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina.  There  is  no  doubt that international
    factors will have  more influence on the crisis in  B&H than local ones.
    The republic  authorities have practically  no control over  the present
    situation,  and  Milosevic  and  Tudjman  have  less influence than they
    think, said Dr. Grebo.
                                                             Roksanda Nincic


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     "Vreme" News Digest Agency                      No. 29, April 13 1992.
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