MILOSEVIC AND KRAJISNIK LEFT ALONE ON THE STAGE

The Last Days of Biljana Plavsic

AIM Banja Luka, 22 July, 1997

Squaring accounts with organized crime which persons from the political and state top of Republica Srpska are deeply involved in, and which president of Republica Srpska Biljana Plavsic initiated a month ago, turned into her personal conflict with almost the entire party and state team which presides in Pale. The President has got majority of deputies in the national assembly, the ministers and the prime minister, the main board of the ruling Serb Democratic Party, the Serb Radical Party and all the state media against her. The military command whose support the president had probably counted on, was reserved in the beginning, but it has lately started to "take stand" close to the one of the team from Pale. The Serb Orthodox Church which has from the beginning of the war participated in the political life and has clear political commitments, is still neutral in this case. So far, the only one who reacted by issuing an appeal for reconciliation was Herzegovina-Zahumlje Bishop Atanasije. President Plavsic says that the bishop wondered what kind of a state this was in which it was impossible to replace a minister, but the president of the state could easily be recalled, but the state media failed to publish this statement of his.

It is becoming clearer every day that the President has entered this war completely unprepared and without a single ally in her own state. Her struggle is increasingly reminding of the war waged by the leadership of the Bosnian Serbs.

The latest blow was inflicted against the President by the main board of her Serb Democratic Party (SDS) which decided on 20 July to expel her from it with the explanation that with her statements and decisions she had deviated from the program of the party. The session of the main board, according to the words of the President, was chaired by Radovan Karadzic. Among other, the President was held responsible for having signed the conclusions reached in Sintra, for having accepted prolongation of arbitration for Brcko, for having agreed to reduction of the number of Serb policemen and dissolution of the ministry of police in Banja Luka and Brcko. Such accusations in all legal states, if they implied violation of law, would be qualified as the gravest form of crime of high treason and the president would end up in the dock or at best in exile.

The President was given the opportunity to address the public concerning the expulsion in the most popular program of state television. "The main board expelled me because I am not fit since I have opened the question of crime", said the President and quoted a part of the SDS program which mentions commitments to building of a legal state. Members of the main board, says the President, do not read the program of the party any more but neo-communist directives for work they themselves had adopted.

After the several times publicly stated criticism of her party in which it was characterized as non-democratic and its top people as usurpers of power, protagonists of state crime and morally dubious, the decision on expulsion should have been expected. Just a few days prior to it, President Plavsic had explained her relations with the SDS in her interview given to Belgrade weekly NIN: "Since I have, unfortunately, remained the only defender of the SDS program, I believe that I am more entitled to remain in the SDS than they are, because this program says that RS will not be a party state, but a legal state. I have no intention to leave the SDS myself. If necessary, let them throw me out."

Party discipline in the SDS has always been founded on the well-known principles of "democratic centralism" of communist parties which punished every opinion that was different, especially if publicly expressed, by throwing out those dared speak out. Cases of Kupresanin, Brdjanin and Kasagic are fresh examples of desertion from the SDS. The thing that appears for the first time in the political history of communist and postcommunist societies is expulsion of the president of the state from the party, although she has not yet been recalled and discharged from the highest state duty.

Exchange of Accusations

The decision about expulsion of Biljana Plavsic from the SDS followed a few unsuccessful talks she had had with Momcilo Krajisnik in Banja Luka and then their mutual serious accusations. The President accused Krajisnik of scheming all around RS without political and state authorization, referring to his latest visits to Brcko, Banja Luka and Prijedor, where he had talked with the local leaders about "political and security situation" and consolidated the front against the President.

"I wonder who he represents? He is employed in Bosnia & Herzegovina and our Constitution does not prescribe his rights and responsibilities", Biljana Plavsic asked in whose name Krajisnik was coming to talk to her. Krajisnik reproached the President for having been engaged with unimportant matters, instead of state business and future of the people and for refusing to cooperate with the political and state agencies. To such accusations, the President clearly answered: "State crime is not an unimportant matter, and there shall be no compromise about principles of state policy".

From the assembly platform or via state media, politically less significant people addressed accusations to the President which could hardly be heard even among quarrelling demi-monde in the street. The President was reprimanded for not knowing her own language and grammar (poet Toholj), for her nephews having spent the war in Switzerland (deputy Vjestica) and for a man from her personal security having been seen stealing from a supermarket in Grbavica. Chairman of the assembly, Dragan Kalinic threatened the President that he would raise charges for slander, and deputy Boro Sendic said that the only remedy for the President was a bullet between the eyes.

Who Enjoys Belgrade's Support?

After the incident at the airport, the official Belgrade was reserved for a long time and refused to meddle in any way in the Serb-Serb conflict on the other side of the Drina. When the conflict escalated to the extent that there was almost no possibility of a compromise, in his well-known manner Milosevic sent two invitation letters to Belgrade to negotiations "in the interest of the Serb nation". President Plavsic refused the invitation and invited Milosevic to finally come to Banja Luka and talk here about the local problems. Milosevic's warning in the second letter that it could be too late for talks reminded the public in RS of the political debacle and fall of the Republic of Serb Krajina and caused considerable agitation of the public.

After the unsuccessful attempt to mediate, Milosevic initiated action through his emissaries. Just a day prior to expulsion of Biljana Plavsic from the SDS, the Main Board of the Socialist Party of RS sat in session in Brcko together with deputies of the Alliance for Peace and Progress. Nikola Sainovic, a high political representative of the Socialist Party of Serbia was present at the meeting and spent a whole day trying to convince the Socialists that their deputies should go to Pale to the session of the dissolved national assembly. Majority of the members of the main board of the Socialists were confused by this stand of Belgrade. Milovan Stankovic, deputy from Doboj, sharply reprimanded the "comrades from Belgrade" for support offered to Pale and for their general policy towards RS. Sources close to AIM claim that Belgrade had demanded from the Socialists to go to the last session of the dissolved assembly as well when the president of RS was recalled.

Orchestrated attacks against the President obviously enjoy silent support of the official Belgrade. In such a constellation of forces President Plavsic cannot count on support of the military leadership of RS either, nor on the support of the people. Men from general staff of the army of RS a few days ago signed a joint declaration with the ministries of defence and police that they would "carry out orders of the relevant administrative agencies, except those which threaten security of the Republic". In this way they made it quite clear that they would not carry our orders of the President if they were assessed to be a "threat to the safety of RS". The people who are obviously inclined towards the President, in this avalanche of mutual accusations and television propaganda, are becoming confused and are starting to follow the logic 'it is not possible that they are all crooks, and that she is the only one who is honest'.

Naively believing that she still has law and power given to her by the constitution on her side, President Plavsic entered the battle from which she can come out only as a loser. The price of her courageous undertaking will be her approaching political death. Only two things will change: resolution of the delay in implementation of the Dayton accords will be transferred into the competence of the guarantor Slobodan Milosevic, and Krajisnik will be less and less frequently seen in Sarajevo, and more and more often in Belgrade.

Branko Peric