IMPLEMENTATION FROM "BELOW"

Echoes of Madeleine Albright's Visit to Republica Srpska

AIM Banja Luka, 4 June, 1997

Judging by scenes on state television, the visit of Madeleine Albright to Republica Srpska will be remembered more for the spactacular protocol and security measures than for messages addressed by the high guest to the people and the political officials. The exchange of gifts with President Biljana Plavsic and cordial hand-shaking confused radical extremists to such an extent that in the person who was considered to be the severest "enemy" of the Serbs from East River they suddenly started recognizing a sincere friend.

Messages from the meeting as carried by state media were intended to show to the Serbs that the Americans have finally adopted equal treatment of the Serbs. "The stance of Mrs Albright was very well balanced. She showed much better undertsanding for our party than it was previously the case", stated head of the office of the president of Republica Srpska, Milos Prica, to state news-agency Srna immediately after the meeting. The "well-balanced stance" of Mrs Albright was also conveyed to the people by President Plavsic in a statement given to state television late in the evening. President Plavsic said that Mrs Albright had especially stressed the problems of the return of refugees, freedom of movement, preparations for the forthcoming donors' conference, and implementation of the arbitration decision for the part of interethnic line in the region of Brcko, but failed to tell them that Mrs Albright had also clearly demanded extradition of war criminals and underlined that this was the condition for improvement of relations between the USA and RS and for receiving financial aid. In its interpretation of the statement of Nicholas Burns, spokesman of the White House, state-controlled Glas srpski carried that "Mrs. Albright presented to the president of RS the necessity of implementation of the Dayton accords in all its aspects" and that "primarily, the indicted for war crimes were discussed". Therefore, the public is forced to assess the objectives, nature and success of the visit of the head of American administration, indirectly, by reading between the lines.

All state media began their reporting about the visit of Madeleine Albright to B&H with the meeting with the members of the Presidency of B&H and statements of Momcilo Krajisnik. Due to such chronology in reporting, President Plavsic was at the very end of all the reports. In this way, the relation between "the President and the President in the Presidency" was once more in the centre of interest. It is assumed that due to that very fact, President Plavsic decided to convene a press conference in Banja Luka two days after Mrs. Albright's visit, and tell the journalists some of the details of the meeting. Among other, the datum that after the joint meeting they had a very friendly tete-a-tete "about some important matters".

Mrs. Albright has not said anything new during the visit. The political weight of her words lies in the fact that they were uttered in the Bosnian Bermuda triangle between Sarajevo, Brcko and Banja Luka, and with rhetoric which is in diplomatic vocabulary marked as a "firm stance". For connoisseurs of local conditions, this visit introduced a radical turn into political relations in B&H. Two symbolic moves which will be linked to the name of Madeleine Albright and be attributed to the Americans will mark the future. Opening of the bridge across the Sava in Brcko and establishment of the Standing Committee for military issues in the presence of the American senator and military expert, Carl Levine, is a clear indication to local leaders and the people under whose guardianship they are and what road to Europe and the 21st century should be taken.

For political parties of the Serbs from the left bank of the Drina which are still developing their national option of "the sacred Serb land", Mrs. Albright's visit is just a new form of pressure exerted on the Serbs. Miodrag Rakic, secretary general of the Serb Radical Party of RS, commented that Albright's visit was "yet another attempt of exerting pressure and a wish to satisfy interests of America". For the Serb Party of Krajina and Posavina, the aim of the visit was "re-creation of Yugoslavia". Aleksandar Iliskovic, vice-president of this party, believes that with her visit to Brcko, Mrs. Albright made it clear that this Serb town was "in the game again".

Leaders of the opposition parties of "left orientation" were more moderate and agreed in the assessments that this visit was a clear message that the Dayton accords had to be implemented. Miodrag Zivanovic, President of the Social Liberal Party of RS, believes that this is a matter of increasing pressure against the ruling structures in B&H and applying a methodology which differs from the one applied by the European Union which consisted of implementation from "below" - from local communities towards the entities. Zivko Radisic, leader of the Socialist Party, put the visit in the context of responsibility of the USA as the leading superpower which created the Dayton accords and therefore answer for their implementation. Among the reactions were also vague guesses such as the one about "the objective to remove from power oligarchies which have superimposed their interests to everything else" (Radoslav Brdjanin, Serb National Party) to the statement of Slavko Zupljanin (Serb Patriotic Party) that "the USA have no more time for the Balkans and wish to go further to the East".

On her way through RS, Mrs. Albright was not left without support. The Association of banished citizens of Drvar issued a statement "giving full support to the USA in their effort to ensure return of refugees and banished persons". The typical American atmosphere was created. Mrs, Albright was welcomed in Banja Luka by about a hundred members of families of persons killed and disappeared in the war, who were in peaceful protest and disturbed the walk planned by protocol from hotel Bosna to Banski dvor where the office of the President of the Republic is. Mrs. Albright's arrival in Banja Luka was delayed for more than an hour due to which meetings with "personages from civic life" and the press conference were cancelled. A journalist of the CNN whose cameras were permitted to follow Mrs Albringht all the way, confided in a colleague that "madam is eager to go back". In a single day, so many wonders - it really is too much.

After this visit, the Bosnian story is beginning to remind of the story about a group of hikers who got lost after a long excursion. On top of a hill, one of them asked the guide: "Where are we?" After carefully studying the map, the guide answered: "According to my map, we are on that hill over there".

Branko Peric