http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_world_5807487_19/12/2002_2 4392 Kathimerini (Greece) S/E EUROPE 'Iron Lady' finally buckles >From professor to war criminal: Biljana Plasvic's road to The Hague By Diana Seale - Kathimerini English Edition Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright spoke for ex-Bosnian-Serb President Biljana Plavsic, the most senior official from the former Yugoslavia to plead guilty to war crimes at The Hague war crimes tribunal, on Tuesday. But prosecutors yesterday demanded a 15- to 25-year term of imprisonment. Albright's support may have been a reward to the "Iron Lady of the Balkans" for her post-Dayton cooperation with Western officials struggling to implement the 1995 peace agreement, and for her guilty plea before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in October to one count of crimes against humanity: persecutions based on political, racial and religious grounds. In return, other charges against her - of genocide and complicity in genocide - were dropped. There was speculation then that the former president of Republika Srpska (RS) might have struck a deal with prosecutors to testify against Slobodan Milosevic, now on trial at The Hague. Rule 101(B) of the ICTY, mentioned in the plea agreement, states mitigating factors, "including the substantial cooperation... by the convicted person before or after conviction," would be taken into account. While chief war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte said yesterday she would have asked for life had Plavsic not pleaded guilty, she said the "accused was not willing to cooperate with the prosecutor." This fuels yet more speculation that the sentence may be cut on appeal - if Plavsic testifies against Milosevic. So far, Plavsic has been treated very leniently. Granted bail after her surrender in January 2001, she was permitted to remain outside custody pending sentencing. Plavsic was not arrested, despite being named in a sealed indictment. Sources in the RS leadership claim that then-US Ambassador to Bosnia Thomas Miller informed Plavsic of her indictment in November 2000 and urged her to give herself up. The 'honest' Nazi Born in 1930, Biljana Plavsic studied at the University of Zagreb before teaching botany in Sarajevo. She was an expert in plant diseases. A member of the collective Bosnian presidency from November 1990 to April 1992, she became a member of the collective presidency of the Bosnian-Serb wartime assembly, where she was dubbed the "Iron Lady" for espousing nationalism of an extreme kind. She became infamous for kissing the notorious paramilitary leader Arkan (Zeljko Raznatovic) in Bijeljina, northeastern Bosnia, in April 1992, before Bosnia's declaration of independence. After crushing token resistance, Arkan carried out summary executions. "When I saw what he'd done, ... I said: 'Here we have a Serb hero,'" she told the Belgrade publication On in 1996. Her views smack of Nazi notions of racial supremacy. She is on record as saying that "it was genetically deformed material that embraced Islam ... with each successive generation, this gene simply becomes concentrated... and dictates their [the Muslims'] style of thinking and behavior" (from the Novi Sad-based journal Svet, September 1993). This warped biology informed much of her thinking. Ethnic cleansing was a "natural phenomenon." Like many nationalists, she was obsessed with purity and worried that mixed marriages had led to "an exchange of genes..., and thus to a degeneration of Serb nationhood" (Sarajevo daily Oslobodjenje, May 1994). Journalist David Rieff said she was "far and away the weirdest of [the Bosnian Serbs]." Milosevic himself said she belonged in a mental institution. To UNHCR head Jose Maria Mendiluce, she complained that live Serb babies were being fed to the animals in Sarajevo Zoo. "Even Mendiluce, ..., could not keep his composure. 'Mrs Plavsic,' he said, 'if the Bosnians are feeding live Serbs to the zoo animals, then why are the zoo animals starving?'" ("Slaughterhouse: Bosnia and the Failure of the West," by David Rieff). She thought little of Serbs living on the wrong side of the River Drina. "The Serbs of Bosnia... have developed... a special ability to sense danger to the nation... It was always said that the Serbs of Bosnia were much better than the Serbs of Serbia... As a biologist, I know that the best ability to adapt and survive is possessed by those species which live next to others that are a threat to them..." One wonders why she would then want to rid Bosnia of its Muslims. She led the resistance to the 1993 Vance-Owen peace plan, and when Milosevic, with Greek Prime Minister Constantinos Mitsotakis, returned to Pale, "he extended his hand to Biljana Plavsic, who left it dangling." Milosevic never forgot her snub. During the rupture with the Bosnian-Serb leadership, she was prevented from crossing the border into Serbia. In 1996, she opposed the Dayton accords. But later, she was actively courted by the international community when she took on Radovan Karadzic and Krajisnik in 1997. Karadzic had been forced to resign the post of president to Plavsic due to international pressure. The standoff divided the Bosnian-Serb republic between Plavsic's power base in Banja Luka and her predecessor's Karadzic's stronghold in Pale, whom she accused of corruption. Struggling to maintain the 1996 Dayton accords in the war-torn country, UN officials and NATO forces gave Plavsic their full support. Plavsic was quite happy to have SFOR forces help her regain control over police stations and dismantle checkpoints set up by Karadzic supporters. Others were not impressed. Alex Ivanko, a UN official, said "The only difference between her and the others is that she's an honest Nazi." She gained a government led by the moderate Milorad Dodik, but lost her bid for re-election as RS president in 1998, and had been sidelined by 2000. It was a long way to The Hague, where she expressed remorse for her deeds in the hope of offering "some consolation to the innocent victims - Muslim, Croat and Serb - of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina." Serbian News Network - SNN [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.antic.org/
