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INTERVIEW-Envoy condemns Bosnian Serb plans to support Mladic

09 Jun 2011 12:27

Source: reuters // Reuters

* Envoy calls Mladic support fund "deeply deplorable"

* Says Bosnia dissolution moves would lead to conflict

* Says was offered bribes in atmosphere of wide corruption

By Adam Tanner and Daria Sito-Sucic

SARAJEVO, June 9 (Reuters) - The top international envoy in Bosnia said plans by the Serb half of the troubled Balkan country to help fund the defence of war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic were "deeply deplorable".

Under strong international pressure, Serbia arrested the Bosnian Serb wartime commander two weeks ago after 16 years on the run. A defiant Mladic made his first court appearance at the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague last Friday.

During the 1992-95 Bosnian war, Mladic had fought to create an independent Bosnian Serb state. The 1995 peace treaty left Bosnia divided into two halves - the Serb Republic and the Bosniak-Croat federation - linked via a weak central government.

The Serb Republic government has donated 50,000 euros to a fund set up to help defend Bosnian Serb war crimes suspects in the Hague, who include Mladic and his wartime political chief Radovan Karadzic. The region's war veterans organisation is also seeking private contributions.

"I am concerned about the financial support of Republika Srpska for the defence of Mladic because this is taxpayers' money and this is also the money of the mothers of Srebrenica," International High Representative Valentin Inzko told Reuters.

Mladic is charged with genocide over the 1995 massacre of 8,000 men and boys from Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia, which now forms part of the Serb republic. Some of their relatives have since returned to the town.

"I cannot imagine that an Austrian war criminal, a Nazi war criminal, would get financial support from the Republic of Austria," the Austrian diplomat said in an interview. "This is what is going on now and is deeply deplorable."

Bosnia remains an international protectorate, with Inzko empowered to annul laws and fire officials seen as threatening the peace, but he said he could not cancel the defence funds.

Mladic, also charged with genocide over the siege of Sarajevo that killed 12,000, is admired by many Serbs as someone who fought for the Serb national interests.

THE DANGER OF DISSOLUTION

Nearly 16 years after the war, Bosnia remains deeply divided along ethnic lines, with Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik often calling for a secession of the Serb region from Bosnia.

"Dodik is really stretching the nerves of international community and also the nerves of really peaceful Bosniak community, and I think he should stop immediately with this rhetoric," Inzko said.

He said that "peaceful dissolution" of Bosnia, as outlined by Dodik, would lead to a new conflict: "If there will be an attempt for dissolution, we would have a conflict again."

"Peaceful dissolution will not be possible, and if it was possible, it could have happened in 1992 without 100,000 killed people, or it could have happened in 1995, in Dayton, but the international community and the neighbouring states wanted to have a united Bosnia," Inzko said.

Inzko, high representative in Bosnia since 2009, said he was frustrated by the slow pace of reform in the country home mostly to Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosniaks.

"Whatever in any country takes three months, takes here nine months," he said. "I am also very concerned -- very concerned -- about the state of the judiciary."

The diplomat revealed for the first time that he had twice been offered bribes during his time in office. He said he rejected the offers, but declined to give specifics.

When asked whether he might consider dismissing Dodik, Inzko said: "All options are open." (Editing by Philippa Fletcher)