I visited Pale, Bosnia, on Saturday, June 29 and saw Radovan Karadzic’s black Mercedes parked in front of his office at the Famos truck and agricultural machinery factory, indicating that the world’s best known fugitive from international justice was present in the building. That was the day the G-7 debated Bosnia in Lyon, and two days before the expiration of the ultimatum that would have reimposed sanctions unless Karadzic removed himself from public life.

Karadzic removed himself from the presidency of Republika Srpska, but his party confirmed him as secretary general for the next year. In the Communist tradition, the post of secretary general in much more powerful that the presidency. Who can remember who was president of the U.S.S.R. under Stalin? Slobodan Milosevic was secretary general of his party and used that post to remove the president of Serbia against his will and assume the position himself.

This is not the first time that Carl Bildt allowed himself to be hoodwinked by Karadzic.

Coupled with the fact that nobody even mentions the need to remove Gen. Ratko Mladic anymore despite his continued hold on military power, it sends an unmistakable signal to the Bosnian electorate that the free and fair elections promised by the Dayton Agreement are a mere charade, legitimating the ethnic division of Bosnia.

I continue to work on setting up a pluralistic TV Network in Bosnia prior to the elections. But free speech can make a difference only when there is an electorate that can make a choice. When the electorate understands that matters have been decided for them, establishing a TV network becomes part of the charade.

The arrangement accepted by Mr. Bildt violates not only the spirit but the letter of the Dayton Agreement. According to the agreement, only parties that pledge to accept it may participate in the elections; the Dayton Agreement affirms the jurisdiction of the Hague Tribunal. By appointing an indicted war criminal as secretary general, Karadzic’s party has violated the Dayton Agreement; and so does the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe if it allows his party to participate in the elections.

The Dayton Agreement was a profoundly ambiguous document. It could have led to the reconstruction of Bosnia, but the way it is implemented confirms the ethnic division of the country. What is worse, it will legitimize those who rose to power during the fighting. This includes not only the war criminals in the Serb entity but also the various warlords in the Bosnian Federation, some of whom are also war criminals, indicted or unindicted. The international military presence freezes the present situation and prevents normal life and development.

It could have gone differently. Arresting the war criminals would have broken the rule of terror and allowed a slow process of healing and reconciliation to begin. Most people in Bosnia recoil from the horrors that have been perpetrated and acquiesce in the present state of affairs only out of fear. The U.S. had the power to break the pattern but lacked the political will.

The mission of IFOR (the NATO Implementation Force) was not to implement the Dayton Agreement but to avoid casualties and leave. The failure to protect civilians and to arrest war criminals creates a situation in which an international military presence, including the U.S., will have to be maintained indefinitely in order to prevent a renewed outbreak of fighting. But this will be acknowledged only after our presidential elections in November. The need for permanent military supervision would not have arisen had President Clinton been willing to direct the troops to ensure that the conditions for free and fair elections were fulfilled.

President Clinton may proclaim that the mission of IFOR has been accomplished, but this is true only in the narrowest sense that actual combat has been halted, at least temporarily. IFOR is unpleasantly reminiscent of the United Nations Protection Force in avoiding confrontation. The civilian part of the mission—which has been cleverly left to the Europeans—is an unmitigated failure. Its consequences will reverberate far beyond Bosnia. Allowing political terrorism to go unpunished in Bosnia will encourage it throughout the world.