Biljana Plavsic - The First to Break the Rules

A Stormy Weekend in Banja Luka

AIM Sarajevo, 18 August, 1997

Yesterday's attack of the members of the special police units loyal to Biljana Plavsic on the police station in Banja Luka is just a continuation of the constitutional crisis in Republica Srpska which began on 3 July with the decision of the President of RS to dissolve the national assembly and schedule early elections. The situation in this entity has been brought to the state of white heat and in the next few days, according to expectations of international representatives, a denouement is expected.

Unrest in Banja Luka began on Thursday, when a member of the constitutional court of RS was severely beaten up. As it is known, after the judges had voted five to one, decisions of President Plavsic were nullified and the situation returned back to what it used to be like in the period before 3 July, Saymon Hayslock, spokesman of the High Representative for B&H, declared that the Office still had not received the explanation of this decision in writing, and did not wish to comment it, but stressed that the stand of the Office was still the one repeated several times - the opinion of the Venetian commission was the only one that was relevant.

After two comparatively peaceful days, member of B&H Presidency from RS, Momcilo Krajisnik, demanded approval of the SFOR headquarters in Ilidza to send special police forces to Banja Luka in order to prevent unrest. The demand was rejected, but the Office of the High Representative in Banja Luka was contacted and after that the Office from Sarajevo demanded intervention by SFOR and IPTF in Banja Luka.

President of RS Biljana Plavsic sent special police forces, a unit of 50 men loyal to her, to intervene in the main civilian police station in Banja Luka. After that, civilian policemen from the surrounding districts set out on their way to protect their colleagues. In the course of the afternoon, the SFOR and the IPTF surrounded the police station with tanks and prevented violence, and after that the members of the special unit returned to base. One of the SFOR officials declared that if a conflict had broken out, SFOR would have reacted against the members of the special unit.

The background of this incident lies in the fact that all telephone conversations of the President of RS were bugged and recorded on tape, her correspondence with international organizations and representatives was read, and reports about it regularly sent to Pale.

After IPTF had entered the building of the police station, boxes full of tapes, documents and illegal weapons were found. Alexander Ivanko stressed that investigation by the IPTF would be led in a few directions. It will be investigated who stood behind the assaults against members of the constitutional court, which was contrary to Annex One of the Dayton accords and the European Convention on Human Rights. All five floors of the police station will be searched in order to collect material evidence of illegal operations in this police station. And then, there are the tapes and documents which will carefully be studied, and findings sent to the High Representative's Office. SFOR will offer protection to IPTF inspectors. Ivanko did not wish to comment steps the IPTF would take against policemen involved in the the operation of bugging, which is contrary to their authorization.

According to the opinion of the official of the High Representative's Office, President Plavsic has made a bad move by being the first to violate new rules referring to special police forces in her attempt to get hold of the mentioned material which obviously contained something she had wished to conceal. Pale would have probably used this evidence against her when the time came, but the Office, according to the words of Saymon Hayslock will after the end of the investigation, publish the contents of the tapes and the documents. The reason for this lies in the fact that the Office does not wish to create the impression among the public that it supports one or the other side in the conflict.

Katarina Bosnjakovic