LEADERSHIP OF KARADZIC'S PARTY TENDER RESIGNATIONS

SARAJEVO, Feb 11 (Hina) - Members of the Presidency of Bosnia's Serb Democratic Party (SDS) have tendered their resignations in an attempt to prevent the replacement of SDS vice president Marko Sarovic, suspected of helping harbour former Bosnian Serb leader and war crimes indictee Radovan Karadzic.#L# The Presidency issued a statement after a session on Wednesday saying the request for Sarovic's dismissal constituted "the continuation of pressures aimed at breaking down the opposition to the unification of Bosnia-Herzegovina and the revision of the Dayton Agreement". Sarovic's replacement was requested on Monday by the international community's High Representative to Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown, who said that Sarovic and another nine Serbs had been part of the network protecting Karadzic. The statement says the SDS Presidency has not found an answer to the "constant pressure and force as arguments and the practice of eliminating key people from this party", and that Dragan Kalinic as party leader and the rest of the Presidency have decided to tender irrevocable resignations. Besides Kalinic and Sarovic, the SDS Presidency comprises the president of the Bosnian Serb entity, Dragan Cavic, and several members of the entity and state parliaments. It was announced the party would soon hold a convention at which a new leadership would be elected and the decision made whether the SDS would continue to be part of the entity and state executive authority. The current SDS leadership denies that it is still working under the influence of Karadzic, the party's founder. Kalinic was a close Karadzic associate for many years, while an investigation carried out by the U.S. departments of justice and finance said Sarovic was responsible for keeping in touch with Karadzic and helping harbour him. (Hina) ha sb