CIA ‘Incident’ With Serb Raises Concern

Bosnian Serbs recently confronted members of a Central Intelligence Agency surveillance team monitoring war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic, prompting fresh concern within the U.S. government about whether the heavily guarded Karadzic can be arrested peacefully, according to U.S. sources.

Apparently no one was hurt in the confrontation in Pale, the town where Karadzic lives, and sources said the Serbs may not have realized that those monitoring Karadzic were from the CIA.

A White House official confirmed that there was an “incident” in the Pale area in recent days but indicated that it was not prompted by an attempt by U.S. or other NATO forces to apprehend Karadzic. Additional details of the event were not available.

U.S. intelligence sources said undercover surveillance of Karadzic, often from long range, has been underway for an extended period. But they added that Pale is such a small village that it is difficult for surveillance teams to go undetected.

The incident occurred just as the U.S. intelligence community was said by sources to have been under mounting pressure from Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and other senior Clinton administration officials to apprehend Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb president who remains highly influential in Serb-controlled territory in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

U.S. intelligence sources complained that Albright and Robert Gelbard, the administration’s chief envoy to the Balkans, seem increasingly impatient that North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces have been reluctant to try to bring Karadzic to justice.

U.S. Special Forces and the CIA have been secretly planning to capture Karadzic since at least early this year, according to U.S. intelligence officials.

Once arrested, Karadzic would stand trial before the international tribunal in The Hague that is investigating and prosecuting war crimes committed during the civil war in the former Yugoslav federation.

While British special forces in July went after two lesser-known Bosnian Serbs indicted on suspicion of war crimes--killing one former Serbian warlord and arresting the second--the Pentagon and CIA have been reluctant to mount an operation to capture such a well-protected target as Karadzic, who can count on the support of Bosnian Serb police and armed forces in case of an arrest attempt.

Sources said U.S. commanders and intelligence officials believe that there is no way to apprehend Karadzic, who has been indicted by the international tribunal on genocide charges, without casualties on both sides.

But with U.S. troops scheduled to be withdrawn from Bosnia next June, the drumbeat has grown louder within the U.S. government to remove Karadzic from his Bosnian Serb stronghold while there is still a large U.S. military presence in the region.

With Congress reluctant to extend the deadline for the departure of U.S. troops, U.S. policymakers seem fearful of leaving Karadzic in a position to undermine the regional peace accords signed in Dayton, Ohio, in late 1995.

Under provisions of the peace agreement, Bosnian Serb authorities were supposed to turn over Karadzic and other Bosnian Serbs indicted for war crimes. But the continuing freedom of Karadzic and his former military commander, Ratko Mladic, is considered by the Clinton administration to be a major obstacle to peace.

Officially out of office since last year, Karadzic’s high-stakes power struggle with Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic this year has served to underscore the degree to which he remains a force in the Serb-held portion of Bosnia.

The political battle between Karadzic and Plavsic appears to have had a direct impact on the Clinton administration’s desire to nab Karadzic. Plavsic has supported some cooperation with the Dayton accords in hopes of Western economic aid; Karadzic has refused to lend support to the peace process at all.

A Karadzic triumph over Plavsic could make it more difficult for NATO troops to withdraw next year without fear of a new round of fighting. As a result, U.S. policy now seems geared to protecting Plavsic against Karadzic and his supporters.

Such policy concerns have resulted in greater pressure on the Pentagon and the CIA to take action, sources said. “Albright and Gelbard are getting impatient” with the failure to apprehend Karadzic, one U.S. source said.

The CIA has felt pressured to continue surveillance of Karadzic, even though it is difficult for intelligence teams to remain hidden in Pale, nine miles southeast of Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital.

Pentagon officials have made it clear since U.S. troops were sent to Bosnia that they are wary of mounting any operation that might prompt Bosnian Serb reprisals.