BOSNIA: US ENVOY FOR BOSNIA ROBERT GELBARD VISIT UPDATE

(30 Aug 1997) Eng/Serbo-Croat/Nat

Robert Gelbard - U.S. envoy - crisscrossed the Bosnian territory Saturday two days after violent confrontation between Bosnian Serb hardliners and S-FOR troops.

The American envoy took a tough stance against Pale and qualified their actions as terroristic.

Gelbard's diplomatic offensive is part of a last ditch attempt to save the crumbling Dayton Peace agreement.

US envoy for Bosnia Robert Gelbard warned that S-FOR will retaliate to violence with violence.

Washington's envoy was speaking from Banja Luka where he met with Karadzic's rival, Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
" I told them further that they were obviously showing terrorists behaviour and totalitarian behaviour by what we have seen here in terms of the armaments last week, the terrorists equipment, the behaviour in Brcko, the behaviour in particular by Prime Minister
Kuskovicz which was reprehensible and that SFOR - I don't speak for SFOR - but General Shinseki and General Clark have told me very clearly that SFOR is not going to tolerate any kind of threats to its authority,"
SUPER CAPTION: Robert Gelbard, U.S envoy for Bosnia

Asked about the response of the Pale hardliners to his remarks, Gelbard said they would not be drawn on the subject.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
" Well the interesting thing is that they didn't really respond. I asked them three times, three times, about all the armaments and terrorists equipment here, he never responded."
SUPER CAPTION: Robert Gelbard, U.S envoy for Bosnia

Earlier in the day, Gelbard held talks with Momcilo Krajisnik, a top aide to indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic, in the Bosnian Serb mountain stronghold of Pale.

From Pale, Gelbard warned that it was a very critical moment for both the Dayton agreement and the future of the Republika Srpska.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
" We are clearly at the most critical moment in terms of not only the implementation of Dayton agreement but in terms of the future of the Republika Srpska that has ever happened."
SUPER CAPTION: Robert Gelbard, U.S envoy for Bosnia

The American envoy added that the behaviour of Pale's supporters was undermining any chance of lasting peace and qualified them as " terrorist tactics".

SOUNDBITE: (English)
" And what we have seen last week in Banja Luka and now in Brcko, as I told Mr. Krajisnik and his colleagues just causes me to believe that these are terrorists tactics. I warned him in the most serious terms that there is need right now to change the behaviour or the consequences will be the most serious imaginable."
SUPER CAPTION: Robert Gelbard, U.S envoy for Bosnia

Gelbard was also in Sarajevo on Saturday morning for meetings with officials of the international community's Office of the High Representative in Bosnia.

The meetings come just two days after the attacks on the U.S. soldiers when troops of the NATO-led Stabilization Force (SFOR) tried to oust hardliners from a police station in Brcko.

Krajisnik - one of the members of the three-person Bosnian presidency and considered as Karadzic's mouthpiece - said he took the words of the American envoy seriously but refuted accusations that the violence in Brcko had been orchestrated by Pale.

SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)
" We took Gelbard's message very seriously, but we don't take any threats because by threatening we do not think that anything can be solved."
SUPER CAPTION: Momcilo Krajisnik

On Friday, Krajisnik had met the Commander of NATO forces in Bosnia General Eric Shinseki to discuss the latest developments in the region.


SOUNDBITE: (Serbo-Croat)

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