U.S. Approach to War Crimes Suspects Called ‘Naive’

As Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Friday stepped up diplomatic pressure on Balkan leaders to surrender indicted war crimes suspects, the most senior official overseeing Bosnia’s civilian reconstruction dismissed such efforts as “naive.”

“To think you can get them [through diplomatic pressure] is naive,” the international community’s departing high representative for Bosnia, Carl Bildt, told a small group of reporters here. “We have to pick them up.”

Bildt said suspect Radovan Karadzic traveled from Bosnia-Herzegovina to the Serbian and Yugoslav capital, Belgrade, at least three times in the past several months and was received by Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.

American and Serbian sources confirmed the Karadzic visits, which occurred despite U.S. pressure on Milosevic to surrender the Bosnian Serb leader to an international war crimes tribunal.

“This shows the situation is deteriorating further--it’s not getting better,” Bildt said.

The disclosure came as the United States and its allies, ending a two-day summit on Bosnia, threatened punitive actions against Muslim, Serbian and Croatian leaders who defy the Bosnian peace accords.

In a 95-paragraph statement, the countries threatened sanctions and the cutoff of economic aid for those who harbor or “tolerate” war criminals.

Karadzic two years ago was indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity.

To reach Belgrade, Karadzic had to cross an international border. Most significantly, his reception by Milosevic could signal a reconciliation between the two erstwhile allies even as Albright and the Clinton administration focus pressure on Milosevic.

Albright is scheduled to meet with Milosevic in Belgrade today to once again demand his cooperation. Apart from Karadzic, at least five indicted war crimes suspects are believed to be living in Serbia.

Karadzic’s continued clout, along with the influence exerted by other Bosnian Serb hard-liners indicted for some of the worst crimes of the brutal Bosnian war, is seen as a major stumbling block to progress in executing key elements of the peace accords brokered in Dayton, Ohio.

How to deal with the war criminals is one of several issues that have cleaved an increasingly open split within the Clinton administration, with Albright pushing for tougher action as the Pentagon resists possible missions that could endanger American troops serving as part of the stabilization force in Bosnia led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

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Friday’s declaration labeled the failure to hand over those indicted “a matter of grave concern” and cited Karadzic as a figure who “continues to influence political decision-making.”

The leaders also set a deadline of Aug. 1 for the Bosnia presidency to name new ambassadors. After that date, the high representative would refuse to deal with any other representatives.

Bildt spoke to reporters on the eve of Albright’s first trip to the Balkans since she became secretary of State, and on a day when she met with Bosnia’s three-member collective presidency and with Croatian and Serbian foreign ministers.

Bildt will complete his tenure as high representative in July and return to his native Sweden. He will be replaced by Spanish diplomat Carlos Westendorp.

State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns said Albright invoked events of this week in Europe, including the signing of an agreement formalizing relations between the Atlantic alliance and Russia, and urged the Balkan leaders to choose reconciliation over isolation.

In a further attempt to turn up the diplomatic heat, Albright warned that U.S. economic assistance will be linked to progress in fulfilling the peace agreements.

“The only aid we will provide or support for Bosnia is aid that helps to build a unified country or that helps people who are helping Dayton succeed,” she said. “That is the message I will carry with me to Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia this weekend.”

Friday’s meetings did yield one minor breakthrough, when Bosnia’s three presidents--a Muslim, a Croat and a Serb--reportedly agreed to the terms of a national budget. This was said to have occurred after Albright offered her own pen and exited the meeting with an urge that the men sign the deal.

If such an agreement held, it would open the door to a $100-million loan to the government from the International Monetary Fund.

U.S. officials said this loan could, in time, release up to $1.4 billion in donor funds for Bosnia--funds that so far have been held up by the failure to create central institutions to govern a multiethnic Bosnian state.

Bildt said international mediators will attempt to increase their own leverage by looking for more effective forms of retaliation.

“If they refuse to name ambassadors, we will stop dealing with the existing ones; if they refuse to create a new flag, we’ll stop honoring the existing one; if they don’t come up with a common passport, we’ll stop honoring the existing ones,” he said. “We have to concentrate in areas where we can actually have an impact.”

Marshall reported from Sintra and Wilkinson from Belgrade.