The Bosnian Serb President, Ms Biljana Plavsic, has been expelled from the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) and called on to resign, Bosnian Serb officials announced yesterday. The expulsion marks an escalation in the bitter power struggle between Ms Plavsic and the SDS hard core, which has been trying to have her replaced as president of the Serb-run part of Bosnia for the past two months.
Ms Plavsic's expulsion came after she told a German magazine she would be prepared to arrest the former Bosnian Serb leader, Dr Radovan Karadzic, who has been indicted for war crimes.
Ms Plavsic was one of the founders of the extreme-nationalist SDS, but distanced herself from its hard line element after her election in September 1996. Last month she accused the Pale leadership of involvement in smuggling, depriving the RS of tax revenue. Her attempt to remove the hard line interior minister was overturned by the Bosnian Serb assembly.
She responded on July 3rd by dissolving that assembly, which was also preparing to remove her from office. It has refused to recognise the dissolution.
Ms Plavsic's principal opponent, Mr Momcilo Krajisnik, has called on her to revoke her decision to dissolve parliament, in return for a suspension of efforts to remove her.
Mr Krajisnik, a close friend and ally of Dr Karadzic, has clashed with Ms Plavsic over her apparent willingness to co-operate on the implementation of the Dayton peace accords, which ended Bosnia's 43-month war.
Ms Plavsic has the support of the international community, whose posts in Bosnia have been the targets of a series of attacks over the past days.
Last week hundreds of posters of Dr Karadzic appeared on walls in Banja Luka.
Ms Plavsic said in an interview to be published in the German magazine Der Spiegel today that she plans to have Dr Karadzic arrested on charges of embezzlement. She will not, however, hand him over to the UN war crimes tribunal, she said.
Meanwhile, the NATO-led stabilisation force in Bosnia (SFOR) yesterday dismissed reports that it had sent troops to surround Dr Karadzic's house in Pale over the weekend in an attempt to intimidate him.