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Serbian President Visits Sarajevo In Bid To Improve Ties

July 06, 2011

By RFE/RL

Serbian President Boris Tadic has paid a rare official visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina in a bid to improve ties between Belgrade and Sarajevo that were damaged by the 1992-95 war.

Tadic, a native of Sarajevo, frequently visits Bosnia's Serbian entity, but this is only his second official trip to Sarajevo in his capacity as Serbia's president.

Tadic's meetings with Bosnia-Herzegovina's three-member Presidency as well as lawmakers from both chambers of parliament focused on improving bilateral ties and regional cooperation.

Bosnia is run by the Presidency made up of acting President Nebosja Radmanovic (Bosnian Serb), Bakir Izetbegovic (Muslim), and Zeljko Komsic (Bosnian Croat).

Relationships between the two former Yugoslav countries have been scarred by the Bosnian war of the 1990s, during which Belgrade provided political and military support to Bosnia's Serbs.

Tadic's visit comes nearly two months after Ratko Mladic, a fugitive Bosnian Serb wartime general, was arrested by Serbia and handed over to the UN war crimes court at The Hague to face genocide and war crime charges, among others.

Mladic is accused of being responsible for the 1992-95 siege of Sarajevo and the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, the largest massacre in Europe since World War II.

An estimated 10,000 people were killed or disappeared during the siege of Sarajevo, and some 8,000 mainly Muslim men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serb troops during the Srebrenica massacre.

Bosnia had long demanded that Serbia arrest Mladic, who was on the run for nearly 16 years.

In Sarajevo, Tadic said that Serbia "has already provided and will provide in the future any necessary assistance to the judiciary, and would assist in the extradition of all people suspected of war crimes."

He added that the adequate punishment" of those who have committed war crimes was "important not only for rebuilding confidence and reconciliation, but we also have to build a society with the rule of law. Only in that way can we build societies that have a future, and we can build credible institutions, and most importantly, we can build institutions, which are trusted by citizens in the region of the western Balkans."

Lingering Issues

Despite Mladic's arrest, a number of unresolved issues still remain between Belgrade and Sarajevo that somewhat overshadow the relationship between the two neighbors.

A Bosnian wartime army general, Jovo Divjak, was detained in Austria in March based on a Serbian arrest warrant. Belgrade accuses him of war crimes. Divjak, however, is considered a war hero by many in Bosnia.

Divjak, a Bosnian Serb, served as a Bosnian general during the Sarajevo siege.

Ilija Jurisic, a Bosnian Croat former police officer who is also viewed by many Bosnians as a war hero, was convicted last year to 12 years in prison in Belgrade after a court found him guilty of war crimes. But Jurisic was later pardoned by a higher court and his case is currently under review.

Sarajevo also accuses Belgrade of not playing its role as a unifying power in the region, as it was agreed in the 1995 Dayton accords that ended the Bosnian war. Sarajevo has criticized Belgrade for favoring and focusing on Republika Srpska, Bosnia's Serbian entity.

The war left the country split into two semi-autonomous entities, the Republika Srpska and the Muslim-Croat Federation.

Speaking in Sarajevo, Tadic said that even though Serbia signed the Dayton agreement, "it does not mean that Serbia has any right to interfere in Bosnia-Herzegovina's internal issues.

"By signing the agreement, Serbia has taken certain obligations, and one of them is to respect the integrity and sovereignty of this neighboring country," he said, adding that Dayton gave Serbia "the right to maintain close and parallel relations with the Republika Srpska. Serbia wants to build the same kind of relations with the [Muslim-Croat] Federation."

Tadic has been criticized for his support for Milorad Dodik, a hard-line Bosnian Serb leader who has called for Republika Srpska's secession from Bosnia.

But ahead of his trip, Tadic pointed out that he would not support an attempt to break up Bosnia.

"Serbia defends the [territorial] integrity of all countries, especially neighboring countries, and is against any break up of Bosnia," Tadic said.

based on RFE/RL's Balkan Service and agency reports

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/serbia_president_in_bosnia_to_improve_ties/24257472.html

Copyright (c) 2011. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.