THE Tanaiste, Mr Spring, has defended the EU's position on the future of Dr Radovan Karadzic as sharp differences emerged between the EU and the US over the fate of the Bosnian Serb leader.
With the Bosnian election campaign due to start next week, the EU's representative in Bosnia, Mr Carl Bildt, conceded yesterday that there were "different approaches" on the issue.
Dr Karadzic is not a candidate in the election, planned for September 14th. But last week he was elected leader of his party, the SDS. The Dayton peace accords state that indicted war criminals, of whom Dr Karadzic is one, must not hold public office under the new arrangements.
Mr Robert Frowick the US head of the Organisation for Security and Co- operation in Europe (OSCE) mission in Bosnia, insisted this week that Dr Karadzic should step down before the election. The OSCE has suggested that if Dr Karadzic does not relinquish his post his party could be debarred from participation in the election.
The EU, however, while wanting to see Dr Karadzic step down appears willing to see the election go ahead even if he does not. Occasionally things are not black and white", Mr Spring told a press conference in Sarajevo yesterday. "We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that we want the elections to take place and be free and fair."
Mr Spring was in Sarajevo on a two day mission to the region as President of the European Council of Ministers. He will report back to the EU's foreign ministers in Brussels next Monday.
The EU fear, shared by Mr Bildt, is that the SDS would remain defiant about Dr Karadzic, be debarred from the election and thus undermine the peace process. The opposite view is that if the election takes place with Dr Karadzic effectively remaining as a political leader the peace process will be under mined anyway.
Under strong questioning from reporters who pointed to clear divisions between the US and EU, Mr Spring said. We want Karadzic removed from the political scene. We intend to do everything we can to see that effected."
He suggested that the EU was happy to see Dr Karadzic's removal from public life happen in stages".
Yesterday, Mr Spring met the Croatian Foreign Minister, Mr Mate Granic, in Zagreb, and the Serbian President, Mr Slobodan Milosevic, in Belgrade to discuss the peace process and EU relations with the region.
Meanwhile, an international conference to raise funds for the reconstruction of Bosnia's police force is likely to take place in Dublin late next month, it emerged yesterday.
The Assistant Garda Commissioner, Mr Peter FitzGerald, who is currently commissioner of the International Police Task Force (IPTF) in Bosnia told Mr Spring he was seriously short of money to fund programmes for a Bosnian police force.