ONE COUNTRY - TWO SETS OF DIPLOMACY

SARAJEVO, April 6 (Hina) - The Kosovo crisis and NATO air strikes on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia have once again pointed to the vulnerable position of Bosnia-Herzegovina as a country whose politicians are unable to reach an agreement among themselves on any relevant issue. Harsh accusations were exchanged over the recent days between Sarajevo and Banja Luka, primarily because of the NATO bombing of targets in Yugoslavia. Describing the NATO air campaign, almost all political parties in the Bosnian Serb entity of Republika Srpska use the terminology set by the Belgrade regime. The replaced president of Republika Srpska and leader of the Radical Party, Nikola Poplasen, sent Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic a letter calling the NATO action "the savagery of modern barbarians". Still rejecting a decision by the High Representative to Bosnia- Herzegovina which replaced him as the president of the Serb entity, Poplasen offered Milosevic help so that Serbia could defend itself. He also accused the current government in Republika Srpska, lead by Milorad Dodik, for failing to demonstrate the same kind of solidarity, and described it as "the associates of those who are ravaging the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia". Poplasen and the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) are using the current crisis as an additional argument in promoting the establishment of a government of "all-Serbian unity". Should something like that happen, it would mark the end of the political isolation of hard- liners and practically negate everything that has been done in the past two years with the aim to marginalise them. The usually cautious Zivko Radisic, who froze his mandate as the President of the Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina a month ago, is sparing no words in his condemnation of NATO. In his capacity as the first BH official, Radisic even tried to request an extraordinary session of the U.N. Security Council and of the Steering Committee of the BH Council for Peace Implementation. Radisic's request came about only several days after a similar initiative was announced by BH Ambassador to the United Nations, Muhamed Sacirbegovic, though with completely different motives - the violation of BH air space by Yugoslav fighter planes. Neither Radisic's nor Sacirbegovic's initiative have met a concrete response, and the only thing left to do for BH Foreign Minister Jadranko Prlic was to notify BH diplomatic offices that the country does not have a united stand as regards the Kosovo crisis and to advise them to exercise restraint. Prlic was forced to react in this way because messages of support for Belgrade started coming from some BH embassies which are headed by Serbs, like those in Geneva and Beijing. Furthermore, Radisic decided to pay an official visit to Greece without previous consultations. He has been invited by the Greek Ambassador to BH and the visit should take place on Monday next week. Radisic and the Greek official agreed "in the condemnation of all war activities and the bombing of Serbia by NATO". Extremely partial reactions by Bosnian Serb officials have gone so far that any statement opposing their stand is proclaimed treacherous. Haris Silajdzic has earned the title of "a well-known Serb-hater" for his support for NATO air strikes and the sending of ground troops. Officials in Banja Luka announced they would request that Silajdzic be replaced as a co-chairman of the country's Council of Ministers because of this. The only thing which is plaguing both entities in the same way is the growing number of refugees arriving from Yugoslavia. Almost 20,000 Muslims from the Serbian region of Sandzak and Kosovo Albanians have found refuge in the Croat-Muslim Federation entity. A large number of Serbs have arrived in Republika Srpska, with rough estimates saying there might be some 2,000 - 8,000 Serb refugees. For a country which has almost 630,000 internally displaced people, this is a too heavy burden. (hina) jn rml