IZETBEGOVIC STEPS ASIDE, CONVINCED BOSNIA HAS TAKEN RIGHT COURSE

SARAJEVO, Oct 14 (Hina) - After ten years which he spent in Bosnia- Herzegovina's political leadership, Alija Izetbegovic on October 14 is to step down from the office of the chairman of Bosnia- Herzegovina's three-man Presidency, while the chairmanship will be taken over by the Serb member, Zivko Radisic. Izetbegovic's withdrawal from duties of a statesman does not mean that he is definitely leaving the active political life. Announcing his resignation in June this year, Izetbegovic, who in the meantime celebrated his 75th birthday, said he would direct all his energy he still possessed, to the work of the (Moslem-led) Party of Democratic Action (SDA) at whose helm he would remain. Izetbegovic's withdrawal from the Bosnian Presidency, however, marks definitely the end of the most important segment of Izetbegovic's political career which he commenced in 1990 with the landslide victory of three national parties in Bosnia (Besides the SDA, those were the Croatian Democratic Union or HDZ BiH and the Serb Democratic Party or SDS). Izetbegovic's withdrawal of his own free will from the political stage shows that he has learned lessons - some of them from the further history and some from recent events. Although many believe that he should have left politics two years ago, it will go down in history that Izetbegovic has been among few political leaders in this region not to wait for biological laws or forces of historical developments to sweep him from the presidential office. The question poses itself what, apart form that fact, will remain recorded about Izetbegovic's role in the period between 1990 and 2000 and whether there is anything which will be labelled as his political heritage. For some, he is definitely the founding father of (Bosniak, i.e. Bosnian Moslem) nation, and for others he is one of guilty persons for "the most difficult ten years together" what was a clumsy slogan of the SDA party prior to the April municipal elections in Bosnia. Serb and Croatian chauvinists still regard him as a symbol of the Islamic fundamentalism. On the other hand, many of his former aides have accused him of betraying, through his political activities, the idea of Bosnia- Herzegovina as a united, integrated state, in which he has been supported by the entourage of incompetent, but suitable for the current politics, hangers-on. No influential international official has ever said any bad word about Izetbegovic. In addition, prior to his withdrawal, U.S. President Bill Clinton forwarded him a message with best wishes and thanks for his support during the implementation of the peace process in Bosnia. People will certainly remember a statement of the Dayton Accords architect, Richard Holbrooke, who asserted that there would be no Bosnia without Izetbegovic. How has Izetbegovic appeared in politics? "I began to deal with the politics which was not at all politics for me. This was a struggle against a police, and for me unacceptable regime," Izetbegovic said during his recent address to students who receive the scholarship from the SDA party. Or, in a simple explanation, Izetbegovic spent seven years in prison owing to his religious views, and he became involved in the politics because of his resistance to the regime which treated his faith as his crime. If he had not been jailed in the notorious prison Foca, Izetbegovic would probably have been today only a retired jurist, who earned a pension as a clerk office of the Sarajevo railway transport company. Has Alija Izetbegovic been a statesman? He still today holds that he made no strategic mistake in his ten- year-long job of a head of state. Giving an interview ahead of his departure, to the Sarajevo weekly "Dani", Izetbegovic said he had had to take at least four such (strategic) decision and none of them was wrong. It was worth trying to reform (the former) Yugoslavia. It was logical not to accept that Bosnia remain in a greater Serbia after Croatia and Slovenia left the then Yugoslavia. It was natural to defend Bosnia-Herzegovina when the country was attacked. And, finally, it was correct to sign the 1995 peace deal (Dayton agreements) as Bosnia would likely have ceased to exist without such, although bad, agreement. Is Alija Izetbegovic a religious fanatic -Islamist? No genuine Moslem (believer) who knows the soul and heart of Bosnia - and Izetbegovic certainly is one of them - cannot be it. Izetbegovic is only certain of his belief: "Islam, either in the neighbourhood or in society, can bring only good. This is what I believe." What does Alija Izetbegovic think about the power and politics? "The power has mostly the pernicious influence on the human soul," Izetbegovic told a reporter in one interview, and he gave a clear message to young scholarship holders saying: "Keep your distance from politics, because it has so many lies, hypocrisy and insincere smiles." Izetbegovic has never concealed the fact that he has been tormented by the same doubts which would rack any man in case they were faced with the decisions which he had to make during the war. "To tell you the truth, in the morning it seems to me that I should sign (a cease-fire), and it the afternoon that I shoal not sign," Izetbegovic answered sincerely a reporter's question about one of peace plans suggested to the warring parties in 1993. Going into the retirement, Izetbegovic, of course, cannot be quite happy. Bosnia-Herzegovina is still a cripple, being maintained on its feet thanks to the strong assistance from the international community; over one million and 200,000 Bosnians are still living outside their pre-war homes, the political party he is leading, is faced with a possibility of a serious defeat at the forthcoming election. It is not worth mentioning the economic issues in the war-stricken country with the corrupt and inept administration. "Although all of our dreams have not come true" as Izetbegovic told Moslem officers from the Bosnian Federation's Army, he is convinced that his country has taken the right path, despite all difficulties. His predictions proved correct about a democratic Croatia that will support the integrated Bosnia-Herzegovina and about a weak Serbia that will not want or will not be able to interfere in the Bosnian internal matter. Although he did not say so, Izetbegovic is certainly leaving the Presidency's building, a house built by the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in the downtown Sarajevo, with the feeling of contentment as the most important dividers of Bosnia finished their role before him. (Izetbegovic will be replaced by Halid Genjac of the SDA in the Bosnian presidency). (hina) rm/jn ms