http://calibre.mworld.com/m/m.w?lp=GetStory&id=314814761
Karadzic arrest raises debate about Bosnian Serb republic IRENA KNEZEVICAssociated Press Writer Released : Tuesday, July 22, 2008 12:32 PM BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina-The prime minister of Bosnia's Serb republic called on its people Tuesday to respond peacefully to the arrest of their long-fugitive wartime leader Radovan Karadzic, and to caustic comments from Muslim politicians in its partner mini-state. Prime Minister Milorad Dodik also told reporters in Banja Luka that Karadzic's individual responsibility for the crimes committed in Bosnia during the bitter 1992-95 war cannot be linked to the fate of the republic. Karadzic is charged with genocide and war crimes. Settlement of the war in which 100,000 were killed left the country as an uneasy union of two mini-states: Republika Srpska, run by Bosnia's Christian Orthodox Serbs, and a federation between Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats. Muslim Bosniak leaders claim Republika Srpska, a name Karadzic personally chose, is a product of genocide and therefore should cease to exist. The main Muslim Party of Democratic Action in the Bosniak-Croat federation welcomed Karadzic's arrest but said it hopes "his trial will initiate a review of the survival of his achievement, Republika Srpska." But Serb prime minister Dodik rejected the idea. "Radovan Karadzic is not Republika Srpska. It is not his creation but the creation of its people," said Dodik, adding that Republika Srpska is a "permanent category." "I'm calling on all people in Republika Srpska to pass through this peacefully because that will contribute to the strengthening of the position of Republika Srpska. We do not need any incidents," he said. In Banja Luka, the Bosnian Serb administrative center, lawmakers belonging to Karadzic's Serb Democratic Party requested an extraordinary session of the regional parliament. "We cannot pretend nothing happened, specially after certain statements made by wartime leaders from Sarajevo," the capital of the country and of the Bosniak-Croat federation. "Everything coming from Sarajevo indicates that the trial of Radovan Karadzic will turn into a trial of Republika Srpska," said the head of the Serb Democratic Party, Mladen Bosic. Bosnia has an international administrator who works with the two mini-states to find compromise over things like common army, tax, borders and police to make eventual membership in the European Union possible. Bosnia's current top international official, Slovak diplomat Miroslav Lajcak, said the Karadzic arrest offers "fresh impetus to the region's long march to postwar recovery and European integration." It "will help the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina to turn from past to the future and focus on the challenges they face today," he said. __._,_.___ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> . __,_._,___
