Westendorp and Milosevic: hardliners must not stop elections

Bosnian Serb Elections Must Go Ahead

The mediators, Carlos Westendorp, and his deputy, Jacques Klein, were speaking in Belgrade after discussing the boycott threat with the Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic.

Mr Milosevic then had a separate meeting with leaders of the Bosnian Serb hardliners and urged them to take part in the elections.

The international community made clear, to Mr Milosevic in particular, their desire to see no more delays in bringing the hardliners to heel.

The mediators' demands were underlined in a statement from the British and American governments.

The Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and the Defence Secretary George Robertson met with the US special ambassador to Bosnia, Robert Geldard, for high-level talks in London.

Mr Cook told reporters after the meeting that there was no difference in the attitude of the British and American governments of the former Yugoslavia.

He said, "Our commitment is that senior politicians in the Republic of Serbia and elsewhere in Bosnia Herzegovina must understand that the international community has a common, firm purpose to make sure that the Dayton peace process is carried out and we achieve our objective of establishing a democratic, mulit-ethnic society throughout the whole of Bosnia Herzegovina."

Elisabeth Rehn - war trials must go ahead

UN Presses for Action Against War Crimes Suspects

In a separate move the UN Human Rights Representative in Bosnia, Elisabeth Rehn, met Bosnian Serb leaders in Pale. Ms Rehn urged them to take action to ensure that those Bosnian Serbs who have been indicted for war crimes will be sent for trial at the Hague.

The same call for handover of war criminals to the UN was made on Tuesday by the Supreme Commander of NATO in Europe General Wesley Clarke.

Ms Rehn said, "I am suffering all the time from the fact that as the indictated war criminals are not brought to the Hague to a fair trail . . . that means that the people of the Republic of Serbia are in some suffering from a collective guilt."

The American Diplomat who brokered the Dayton Peace Agreement, Richard Holbrooke also had some strong words for Bosnian Serb hardliners. Mr Holbrooke said if "supporters of Radovan Karadzic challenge SFOR troops, SFOR troops will shoot first and ask question later."

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