Administrator fires 60 Bosnian Serb leaders

The head of the Bosnian Serb Parliament said today he was fired by the country’s international administrator for not co-operating enough in the hunt for top war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic.

Dragan Kalinic was one of 60 Bosnian Serb officials – including the interior minister – dismissed by international administrator Lord Ashdown, who told reporters that the officials were obstructing the peace process in postwar Bosnia.

News of the mass dismissal came a day after the chief UN war crimes prosecutor for former Yugoslavia said she expected Karadzic’s arrest “very soon.”

Among the other top officials fired was Bosnian Serb Interior Minister Zoran Djeric, who is in charge of police.

Kalinic also lost his position as head of the Serb Democratic Party, which was founded by Karadzic and governs the Serb half of Bosnia. The party is widely blamed for helping the wartime leader of Bosnia’s Serbs evade capture over the past eight years.

Kalinic was defiant in remarks today to the Bosnian Serb Parliament in Banja Luka.

“Many are helpless because of the fact that Karadzic is most likely protected by God and angels,” he said.

Karadzic was the leader of Bosnia’s Serbs during the 1992-95 ethnic war that took 260,000 lives and left 1.8 million people homeless.

He and fellow fugitive Ratko Mladic, his top general, have been indicted by the UN war crimes court at The Hague for their alleged roles in atrocities that included the Serb massacre of up to 8,000 Muslims at Srebrenica.

While Mladic is believed to spending much of his time in neighbouring Serbia, Karadzic is thought to be hiding in Bosnia. Nato-led peacekeepers have standing orders to arrest him, but dozens of raids have been unsuccessful – Karadzic has a network of supporters and is believed to change his location several times a day.

The chief UN war crimes prosecutor for former Yugoslavia said yesterday she expected Karadzic to be arrested “very soon.” Carla del Ponte refused to disclose the basis for her optimism.

Kalinic threatened to take Lord Ashdown to the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg for firing him, saying that as of tomorrow he is forbidden to enter his office, receive his salary and exercise any public or political post.

Any legal action against Lord Ashdown is unlikely to succeed, however. Under the peace accord that ended the 1992-1995 war, he has the power to impose laws and fire any official deemed an obstacle to the peace process.