Christopher Talks Up Bosnian Elections

Like a campaigning politician, U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher glad-handed his way through this city’s shell-pocked downtown Thursday. He pushed a winsome toddler on a swing, met opposition politicians and read a television speech--all to urge Bosnians to vote in next month’s national elections.

Conceding that the Sept. 14 vote will never win a universal accolade of being “free and fair,” Christopher argued that the balloting “is the only way to lasting peace and growing prosperity” after almost four years of bitter ethnic warfare.

But former Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic, leader of the party that comes closest to Washington’s ideal of ethnic diversity, told Christopher that preparations for the elections have been so flawed that he is advocating a voter boycott.

In a brief interview as he strode briskly away from the U.S. Embassy, where he and four other opposition leaders met for more than an hour with Christopher, Silajdzic said that allowing Bosnian Serbs to vote in towns they took by force during the war amounted to ratification of genocide. “It is not about Secretary Christopher, it is about genocide,” Silajdzic said of his dissent on the upcoming vote.

State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said none of the other Bosnian opposition leaders--a Muslim, a Croat and two Serbs--advocated a boycott, although all agreed with Silajdzic that the deck is stacked in favor of ethnic nationalists who now hold power both in the Muslim-Croat federation and in the Bosnian Serb entity.

Burns said Christopher told the opposition leaders, in effect, that if they don’t participate in the elections, they will concede power to others, especially those who advocate creation of three ethnically separate ministates.

There was no question that Christopher was disappointed by Silajdzic’s stand. The two men met privately after the larger meeting, but neither was able to change the other’s mind.

Christopher seemed genuinely touched by his reception in Sarajevo, where he took a scripted walk through the center of town, stopping to talk to people enjoying the summer sunshine in a row of recently reopened shops and cafes. He told one shopkeeper that “the elections are very important” and urged others to be sure to vote.

“I don’t believe I have ever seen a warmer crowd with more appreciation on their faces,” he told reporters. “I sense a determination not to go back to the bad old days.”

Christopher’s stops Thursday included a visit to the sites of two of the war’s pivotal attacks: the main market, where an attack last August killed 37 people and galvanized the North Atlantic Treaty Organization into military action against Bosnian Serb militias; and a residential neighborhood where in May 1992 a rocket-propelled grenade killed at least 20 people waiting in a bread line--an incident widely blamed on Bosnian Serbs and that first brought world notice to Bosnia-Herzegovina’s plight.

Christopher flew to the Bosnian capital, landing at the airport less than 24 hours after it reopened for commercial traffic, to underline the importance that Washington attaches to the elections. American officials are counting on a large turnout to validate the entire peace process brokered by the United States in Dayton, Ohio, last year.

“For us, democracy is a cherished ideal,” Christopher said in a speech on Bosnian television. “Now you too have an opportunity to build a democracy of your own. Your success will bring a better life to your country and greater stability to this entire region. I hope and I believe that you will choose a better future over the bitter past.”

This was Christopher’s second visit to Sarajevo. On his first trip, in February, his security detail ensured that he was either in a car or in a building for his entire stay.

In his televised speech, Christopher said: “I saw the bustle of people shopping as I walked through the Sarajevo marketplace. I understand that all around the country, you are beginning to live normal lives again. Every newspaper that is published, every factory that is back in production, every school that reopens and every bus and train that runs through your country testifies to the indomitable spirit of you, the Bosnian people.”