GELBARD ACCUSES SERB HARDLINERS OF UNDERMINING PEACE PROCESS

SARAJEVO, Aug 20 (Hina) - US special envoy Robert Gelbard on Wednesday accused the Serb member of Bosnia-Herzegovina's collective presidency, Momcilo Krajisnik, of threatening the peace process, and said that Washington and the entire international community supported Bosnian Serb president Biljana Plavsic. The repeated refusal of the Serb authorities at Pale, outside Sarajevo, and particularly of Krajisnik and his companion Radovan Karadzic to allow the rule of law and democratic processes in the Serb Republic has resulted in a very dangerous situation, Gelbard told a news conference in Sarajevo on Wednesday evening. The way they manipulate the media reminds of the darkest periods of Stalinism, he added. Gelbard directly supported the takeover of police stations in the northwestern town of Banja Luka by people loyal to Plavsic, saying that it was a proper action which was prompted by the criminal behaviour of police under the control of Pale authorities. Not only did they tap the phones of the president and Constitutional Court judges but also of all international organisations. They didn't even stop at physically attacking judges, Gelbard said, citing the case of Constitutional Court judge Jovo Rosic who had been severely beaten because he did not agree with the policy of Pale authorities. The US diplomat said that Wednesday morning's raid of police stations in Banja Luka by SFOR troops and international police indicated international support for Plavsic as a legally elected president. He said that thousands of brand new assault rifles, hand grenades, rockets and even terrorist devices such as bombs that are planted under cars were found in today's search of police facilities. Gelbard said that Pale authorities had dispatched a large number of police officers from all over the Serb entity to Banja Luka in the past few days. Krajisnik, Karadzic and Interior Minister Kijac are trying to use the police as a classic instrument of repression, but we won't let them do it, he said, stressing that Kijac must be sacked and that the process of reorganising Bosnian Serb police forces should begin immediately. Gelbard said that Krajisnik had failed in his attempts to take direct control of the Bosnian Serb army, so that now he was trying to take advantage of police. Even now the Serb authorities at Pale are thinking of how to undermine the peace process, but they will not succeed in it. We will deprive them of every instrument of repression they try to get hold of, he said. Gelbard stressed that the entire international community firmly supported Plavsic's decision to call parliamentary elections for October 12, announcing that the matter would be discussed at OSCE headquarters in Vienna on Thursday. Gelbard said that the US believed that Plavsic was willing to fully implement the Dayton peace agreement, including a provision calling for cooperation with the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Asked why Plavsic, known as a hardline nationalist, was now acceptable to the West, Gelbard said that she had told him several times that she regretted her earlier actions and views and that now she was willing to cooperate, including in the matters such as the return of all refugees. Gelbard described as positive a meeting of the Forum of the Moslem-Croat Federation which took place in Sarajevo earlier in the day. He said that the conclusions of that meeting would enable completion of the process of reorganising police forces and speedier return of refugees by adopting laws that would guarantee them the right to use their apartments and real estate. (hina) vm 202329 MET aug 97