KLEIN: SERB HARDLINERS INTENDED TO PROVOKE INCIDENTS

SARAJEVO, Sept 10 (Hina) - A deputy to the international High Representative to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Jacques Klein, said on Wednesday that events in the northwestern town of Banja Luka in the last two days showed that a majority of Bosnian Serbs were fed up with crime and corrupt politicians and that they were demanding urgent democratic changes. Speaking at a news conference in Sarajevo, Klein said that the Serb member of the Bosnian collective presidency, Momcilo Krajisnik, and his entourage, who visited Banja Luka in an attempt to provoke incidents, were probably not aware how angry people there were. Krajisnik and 72 supporters, who were all armed, managed to get out of Banja Luka thanks to the professional behaviour of police loyal to Bosnian Serb president Biljana Plavsic and the mediation of NATO-led Stabilisation Force (SFOR) troops, he added. Klein said that Krajisnik had turned down an offer on Tuesday morning to leave Banja Luka under NATO escort, so that negotiations on his departure had lasted the whole day. Eventually the hardline Serb politicians from Pale, the stronghold of Serb war-time leader and indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic, agreed to all set conditions and handed over their weapons and identification documents. Representatives of the Hague-based international war crimes tribunal checked the identity of all of them to determine whether there were any war crimes suspects among them, Klein said, adding that the search showed that there were none. Klein allowed for the possibility that Krajisnik and other members of the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) had attempted to stage a coup to remove Plavsic from power. (hina) vm 101433 MET sep 97