No Peace for a Trouble Spot

Trouble reigns where trouble started in Bosnia, in the Serbian-dominated eastern sector of the country. Sparks flew this week when NATO military units moved into Banja Luka, the capital, seized police stations and bounced out officers loyal to Radovan Karadzic, an indicted war criminal and chief rival of President Biljana Plavsic. Plavsic had sought help from the Western troops and got it, diminishing the shadow of Karadzic in the bargain.

These developments, however, should not be seen as a twinkle of democracy in the Serbian sector, known as Republika Srpska. Plavsic is no less a hardheaded nationalist than her rival, though clearly not as bloodthirsty. Western officials say she demanded the NATO intervention in Banja Luka, fearing Karadzic’s operatives were plotting to seize back from her the presidency, which he relinquished under Western pressure last year.

Karadzic was up to some obvious troublemaking. His agents in the police stations had begun eavesdropping on Plavsic and her top officials through a sophisticated telephonic system.

Meanwhile, Karadzic ally Momcilo Krajisnik, who represents the Serbs in Bosnia’s three-man rotating presidency (a Muslim and a Croat hold the other seats), was railing against what he called Plavsic’s intention to weaken and divide the Bosnian Serb Republic. The political test of Plavsic may come in Oct. 12 elections for Republika Srpska’s Karadzic-controlled parliament.

The Serbian infighting has now brought the NATO forces ever closer to dangerous situations, which they seem more ready to accept. Certainly this spring there was no suggestion that they would be raiding police stations in late summer. But the NATO commitment, and the U.S. participation, is not open-ended. By this time next year the Americans will be home, President Clinton has promised.

If the Western leaders want to wrap up their military mission, their goal should be twofold: free and fair elections in the Serbian sector and justice for the transgressors in Bosnia’s bloody four-year war. That means a ticket to the U.N. war crimes tribunal at The Hague for Karadzic--if he can be brought to bay.