Conferees Pledge $1.23 Billion for Bosnia but Say Serbs Don’t Qualify

Dozens of countries and financial organizations pledged $1.23 billion Saturday to help rebuild Bosnia-Herzegovina, but little of the money will go to Bosnian Serbs until their war crimes suspects surrender.

U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and others must be turned over to an international tribunal, a key requirement of the U.S.-brokered peace accord.

But officials at a two-day donors’ conference also stressed the need not to turn their backs on the Bosnian Serb people and said funding for humanitarian, mine-clearing and public works programs that encompass the whole country will proceed.

“We are constantly challenged to balance these two objectives,” Summers said of the need to help ordinary Serbs while isolating their leadership.

The World Bank said aid projects will continue to be planned for the Serb-dominated region of Bosnia, if only to show the potential peace dividend awaiting the population if they get rid of Karadzic and his military chief Gen. Ratko Mladic, who has also been indicted for war crimes by the tribunal.