Washington, 1 September 1997 (RFE/RL) - The U.S. special envoy for the former Yugoslavia, Robert Gelbard, held two and a half hours of talks Friday with Yugoslav President Slobodon Milosevic about the political crisis in the Bosnian Serb enclave in Bosnia.
State Department Spokesman James Rubin says Gelbard urged Milosevic to support Republika Srpska president Biljana Plavsic, who has the backing of the U.S. in her struggle for power with indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic.
Rubin says Gelbard also called on Milosevic to do what he can to stop what the U.S. and others call the hostile broadcasts originating from a Republka Srpska station in Pale against NATO alliance peacekeepers who were attacked by demonstrators in the town of Brcko. Rubin says there was a coordinated use of the media to incite violence against the NATO forces.
Gelbard met Milosevic after leaving talks in Moscow with Russian diplomats on the situation in Bosnia. Rubin says those Moscow meetings went extremely well and that the U.S. expects to work closely with Russia -- a traditional Serb ally -- in the weeks ahead.