Washington, 22 July 1997 (RFE/RL) - The State Department says the United States is not surprised by the ouster of Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic from the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) Sunday.
She was thrown out of the party in a power struggle with former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, whom Plavsic has accused of corruption and war profiteering.
U.S. spokesman Nicholas Burns said yesterday that the U.S. is not surprised by the action of what he called the dinosaurs among the Bosnian Serb leadership. Burns says the U.S. hopes that something good will emerge from the political struggle. He says Bosnian Serbs need good leadership but are not getting it.
Burns noted that Plavsic is still the elected president of the Bosnian Serb republic and that Washington and the international community will continue to work with her.
The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, was scheduled to go to Banja Luka to meet Plavsic yesterday.