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http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/25/international/europe/25BOSN.html THE NEW YORK TIMES, Wednesday, December 26, 2001 Hoping to Change Its Image, Bosnian Serb Party Expels Karadzic By REUTERS BANJA LUKA, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dec. 24 - The Bosnian Serb Democratic Party expelled its founder, Dr. Radovan Karadzic, and all other war crimes suspects today and called for ethnic harmony in a drive to reform its arch-nationalist image. But Muslims and Croats in Bosnia's sometimes clumsy joint government dismissed the move as a superficial bid to placate the West, which is pressing the Serbian Republic in Bosnia to hand over war crimes fugitives and cooperate with its former wartime enemies. Hard-liners at a party convention surprised many with conciliatory oratory that they had until now reserved for impressing Western envoys who are striving to douse the ethnic hatred that is still smoldering six years after the end of Bosnia's war. The party chairman, Dragan Kalinic, said in a speech that the Serbian Republic had to shake off its "burden as an apartheid state" and strive to offer other groups and national minorities "as much freedom as we demand for ourselves." The party then banned from membership all who stand accused by the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague, including Dr. Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb wartime leader who founded the the party in 1990 and is one of The Hague court's most wanted fugitives. The Serb Democratic Party is the biggest party in the Serbian Republic and commands the support of about one in three voters there, according to a poll by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe this month. Analysts in Sarajevo, the capital, expressed doubt that the party's new face would translate into practical changes. "They cannot get rid of their wartime past," said Senad Avdic, editor of the weekly Slobodna Bosna. "They only want to cement the Karadzic inheritance, but with a new image and new symbols." Dr. Karadzic and his military commander, Gen. Ratko Mladic, have been indicted for genocide against Muslims and Croats during the Bosnia war. Both remain at large. Dr. Karadzic was excluded from politics after the Dayton peace accords that ended the war, but has not yet been formally replaced as the party's president. That will now happen next year. The chairman, Mr. Kalinic, said the party must reidentify the Serbian Republic as a state that respected democracy and international conventions. The senior international administrator in Bosnia, Wolfgang Petritsch, welcomed the party's exclusion of war crimes suspects, but called on the Serbs to cooperate with The Hague and deliver real support for Bosnia's central institutions, which are hobbled by intercommunal feuding. A spokesman for Mr. Petritsch said that the devotion of the party to the Dayton peace agreement "must be demonstrated through deeds and results and not through rhetoric." The Serbian Republic has yet to hand over any of the 20 or so people indicted for war crimes who are believed to be hiding there. The West also wants it to support constitutional changes declaring Bosnia's Muslims, Serbs and Croats equal. Mr. Petritsch has warned the party twice in the past month that it would face unspecified consequences unless it reformed. He has the power to dismiss politicians and ban parties. "This new rhetoric is a direct reply to Petritsch that they are serious this time," Mr. Avdic said. But he added, "I don't think that we shall feel any change of politics." [EMAIL PROTECTED] ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
