SPLIT INTO TWO

SDS Crumbling Down

AIM Banja Luka, 21 August, 1997

Splits and divisions in the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) have reached their climax after President of Republica Srpska (RS) Biljana Plavsic has spoken out about involvement of the highest leadership of the party in power in smuggling and unpermitted trade with the B&H Federation.

Almost every municipal board of the SDS in RS is divided into two factions. One is in favour of the policy of robbery and ethnic cleansing, rejection of cooperation with the international community and in favour of violation of the Dayton accords which is advocated by the still most influential man in the SDS, Radovan Karadzic, and the other faction stresses the need for rendering of accounts to the people, for a more cooperative relations with the world and for meeting all obligations which result from the Dayton accords, which is marked as the faction of the recently excommunicated member of the main board of the SDS and one of its founders - Dr Biljana Plavsic.

The entire municipal board of the SDS in Bileca has sided with President Plavsic. In cooperation with the municipal assembly of this town, the local board of this party recently organized a rally of support to decisions of the President of RS. Similar was the intention of the faction in Bijeljina inclined to Plavsic, but it was prevented by discharge of the municipal prime minister Svetozar Mihajlovic and a few other influential people, which spread fear among supporters of the policy of square accounts who have remained at prominent posts. This apparently reinforced the hard-core faction of the folk-singer Cvijetin Nikic, president of the municipal board of the SDS in Bijeljina. However, after the rally of support to decisions of the President of RS and after resignation of a few ministers in the government of RS, 23 members of the municipal board of the ruling SDS in Bijeljina left the party. Since the veterans' organization in Bijeljina also sided with Biljana Plavsic, the split in the municipal organization of the SDS will continue.

The municipal board of the SDS from Kotor Varos also expressed support to Biljana Plavsic, and the President of RS after that visited this municipality. In order to prevent her further visits to municipal boards of the party, Plavsic was them expelled from the SDS.

This move of the political leadership of the SDS introduced much confusion into relations within the party. The situation is most critical in the city boards of the SDS in Banja Luka. The president of the municipal organization Ostoja Knezevic submitted his resignation, and a few days later, another ten respectable members of the main board followed suit. Dr Branislav Lolic, Djuradj Banjac, Novak Kondic, Velo Racic, Momcilo Poparic, Lazo Tomic and Petar Crnadak are known entrepreneurs, directors and public workers whose names ensured authority to the SDS not only on the local, but even on the republican level. Their departure must have worried the headquarters in Pale, so it was decided that the situation in Banja Luka should be pacified and explained to the public by Borivoje Sendic who is completely loyal to Pale.

As any obedient pupil, Sendic accepted the task and after meetings behind closed doors in SDS Banja Luka, he gave a statement that it was normal for waverers and careerists to leave the party. "Let them go if they believe that somewhere else they can do more for the Serb nation. We are joined by more and more new members and we are becoming stronger every day", said Sendic with self-confidence.

Borivoje Sendic, along with Velibor Ostojic, is nowadays, the most disliked personalization of the policy of SDS. He is that same man who cursed and insulted because of their persistent cries for their dearest ones families of the killed and disappeared soldiers and civilians gathered at the protest gathering in front of the governor's palace. Whether for that or for certain other merits, but he was decorated by Karadjordje's (read: Karadzic's) star of the first order.

Ostoja Knezevic, as AIM learns, opposed Krajisnik and Sendic, when they explicitly forbade him to contact the President of RS. The two reproached him also for having publicly said that, had he been at the session of the Main Board of the SDS, he would have voted against "punitive repression" against Biljana Plavsic and her expulsion from the SDS.

Regardless of the instructions from the headquarters, after return from "coercive leave", Knezevic visited the President of RS, so it is assumed that he too would be one of the most influential persons in her party.

In the headquarters, like in the field, chaos and differences. Even those who had agreed for years have started to clash. Recently, for instance, at a meeting of experts from which he established a hot line with the former president of RS, Borivoje Sendic sharply criticized Karadzic. "Can you understand that she is the president, that she has been legally elected. Gather the ministers, put then in a bus and send them to Banja Luka. We must deprive her of the argument that the government does not dare come to Banja Luka; the ministers and the prime minister must enter the governor's palace with their heads high. Whatever she may suggest, the government should reject it. We must silence that damn old hag. You were the one who nominated her for president. If the government does not come to Banja Luka (it has not come), the Serb Democratic Party will not stand a chance in this city in the forthcoming elections. I, Cetojevic, Canak, Bulajic and all the most loyal members of the SDS will have to pack our things and leave straight to you, to Pale, to pitch a tent there! When the government does not dare come here, we will give the power over to the leftists and that's that", Sendic gave Karadzic a piece of his mind.

Presidency of the SDS has concluded that the SDS is in the biggest crisis since its foundation. That is why emergency, day-and-night watch has been introduced in the SDS all the way "down" to the rank of the vice-presidents of local and municipal boards. The Presidency of the SDS has also ordered everyday meetings with precisely determined agenda: evaluation of the security and political situation and information of the membership with the stance of the headquarters.

In one of the directives of the SDS committee it is stated that every member of a municipal and local board, that is, every activist of the party, is expected to develop political activities in his environment - from the family to the working environment and neighbourhood, and to explain the newly created situation and risks threatening them if the faction supporting Biljana Plavsic wins. Of course, in as many words as Radovan Karadzic, Vojislav Marksimovic, Velibor Ostojic.

The best directive for RS and the SDS has nevertheless been written by the people (which, paraphrased would be something like the following): Chase the devil all the way to the Hague, remove the worm from the eye-brow, kick Buha in the stomach, take the pouch from the SDS!

Rade Rastanin