Bosnian Elections and War Criminals
In your editorial of June 9, you believe that elections should take place in Bosnia in spite of statements by international monitors that the elections could not be fair at this time.
You state that nothing conclusive could be gained by arresting the two war criminals, Serb general Ratko Mladic and Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic. This is totally wrong! As long as these two monsters are free, commanding, even behind the scene, the Bosnian Serb army, police and media and through propaganda and intimidation influencing the Serb population, there cannot be any hope for fair elections.
If in the Dayton agreements the Bosnian Serbs would have been allowed to keep only 33% of Bosnia--corresponding to their population percentage--possibly the three factions could have been comfortable dividing Bosnia into ethnic entities. But instead, Bosnian Serbs were rewarded for their brutal “ethnic cleansing” and unprecedented atrocities by receiving half of Bosnia.
How can there be free elections in such towns as Srebrenica and Brcko, where the prewar population of Croats or Muslims was in the overwhelming majority, and which are now filled with Serbs only. Two guesses how they are going to vote! Elections under current circumstances would only ensure this unfair partitioning permanently.
HILDA FOLEY
Santa Ana
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