Bosnian Serb President Ousts Indicted Leader Mladic

Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plasvic early today dismissed Gen. Ratko Mladic, the military leader accused of some of the worst atrocities of the Bosnian war.

Mladic led the Bosnian Serb army throughout the war and commanded several major offensives. The international war crimes tribunal in The Hague has twice indicted him for alleged war crimes and has issued an international arrest warrant for him.

In a statement read on national television, Plavsic said that international opposition to Mladic made it impossible for him to remain, the Associated Press reported from Pale, Bosnia, the Bosnian Serb stronghold. In dismissing him, Plavsic thanked Mladic for all he had done for Bosnian Serbs during the war.

Plavsic also replaced the entire general staff, according to the statement, including Mladic’s deputy, Gen. Milan Gvero, and chief of staff Gen. Manojlo Milovanovic. Both were believed to have very close ties with the Serb-led Yugoslav army and Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.

Plavsic’s move had been rumored for weeks and is the latest wrinkle in a long-standing conflict between the Bosnian Serb army and its government. However, the timing of Plavsic’s announcement - four days after she met with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State John Shattuck, who came to the region demanding action on the extradition of indicted war criminals to the Hague - suggests a possible connection to the war crimes issue.

Shattuck came to the region to deliver what he said was his most forceful message to date on cooperation with the war crimes tribunal. In an interview this week, Shattuck said he had told both the Serbs in Bosnia and the Serbians in Belgrade - as well as the Croatian government - that “isolation and political pariah status will go along with those who maintain their resistance to the tribunal.”

“This is not an issue that will go away,” Shattuck said, adding that even among NATO officers, who have long skirted the war crimes issue because of their fear that they may be required to arrest the men, a potentially dangerous job, there is a growing realization that indicted war criminals in Bosnia are slowing the implementation of the Dayton peace deal and having a destabilizing effect.

The key question is whether Plavsic coordinated her action with Milosevic, who also met with Shattuck and was subjected to similar demands. An important indicator of how Milosevic stands on this issue will be the reaction of state-run media in Serbia to Plavsic’s move. Just as significant will be whether Milosevic moves to halt the payment of salaries to the officers. Throughout the war, Belgrade has paid the officers of the Bosnian Serb army.

NATO officers played an important role in ensuring that the Serbs were not pressured last summer to remove Mladic from his post. Western diplomats were leaning heavily on the Serbs to remove Karadzic as president of the Bosnian Serbs and chief of the main Serb political organization, the Serb Democratic Party.

Karadzic ultimately stepped down from those posts but remains an extremely important figure behind the scenes. NATO officers argued at the time that Mladic was important to them because he was the only one who could ensure the Serbs’ continued compliance with the military terms of the Dayton peace deal.

The war crimes tribunal indicted Mladic twice - once for a series of crimes against humanity and genocide and once for a specific offense - ordering the execution of thousands of Muslim men following the Serb seizure of the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica.