When he lost to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election, Jimmy Carter was only 56 years old. Too young for traditional political retirement and still with a purpose in life, he soon set out to make the most of his years ahead of him. He dedicated himself to founding the Carter Center and pursuing a number of goals, including conflict resolution. Carter’s post-presidential life earned him praise and the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize. In fact, many considered him an exemplary former president. In the process, he reinvented himself and the position of president.
In seeking to resolve the conflict, Carter opted for private peacemaking and, in the process, rejected the established norms expected of former presidents. His private diplomacy involved meetings and negotiations with unsavory figures deemed unworthy of the former president’s imprimatur. In 1994 alone, Carter traveled to meet and negotiate with North Korea’s Kim Il Sung and Haiti’s Raoul Cedras. Negotiating with international pariahs led to criticism of Carter for giving them face time and even a degree of legitimacy. Perhaps the most controversial of his private peacemaking efforts up to and since was his meeting in 1994 with Bosnian Serb rebel leader Radovan Karadzic and his military commander Ratko Mladic.
Shortly before Christmas 1994, Carter made the more than 5,000-mile journey from the United States to the Bosnian Serb stronghold of Pale near Sarajevo. He was welcomed by the who’s who of the rebel leadership. The purpose of his trip was to broker a ceasefire between the rebels and the Bosnian government in the middle of winter. His meetings with Karadžić and Mladić caused astonishment and were harshly criticized. In 1994, the 39th American president met with persons who had been put on the list of war crimes suspects by the US State Department in 1992. So what was Carter going to do and why?
At the time of Carter’s trip, Bosnia had been at war for two and a half years, and most of the country had been overrun by Bosnian Serb forces. The internationally recognized Bosnian government, after surviving the initial attacks, offered serious resistance and undertook offensives aimed at recapturing the occupied lands. The general outlines of the international peace plan known as the Contact Group plan devised in the summer of 1994 were accepted by the Bosnian government and rejected by the Bosnian Serbs. The winter of that year was supposed to serve as a respite before the expected major military operations of the Bosnian government in the spring of the following year. It was in this context that Carter traveled to Bosnia in December 1994 to achieve a ceasefire.
Carter was approached by Bosnian Serb emissaries who visited the former president in Plains, Georgia, with a request for his engagement. The Clinton administration was ambivalent about Carter’s trip and stayed away without overt opposition. The Bosnian government was concerned that this was a PR ploy by Karadzic to get the former US president to visit, but was in no position to prevent it.
When he landed in Sarajevo, Carter experienced first-hand the Bosnian capital under siege, which he recalls in his memoirs. Bosnian government officials, convinced that Carter had embarked on this trip by deception, offered a lukewarm reception. In contrast, the next day there was a happy mood in Pale. No person of higher political rank and world fame has honored this city with a visit. The negotiations resulted in an agreement on a four-month ceasefire.
All the actors involved agreed to a ceasefire, but for different reasons. It turned out that the Serbs of Paljana were the main beneficiaries of Carter’s private diplomacy. Far more important than the temporary truce was the opportunity to host the former POTUS in their stronghold and inform him of Serbian grievances. Carter’s very presence at the Palace was a big publicity stunt. This public relations success led Karadžić to exaggerate his own expectations about Carter’s potential future involvement. In fact, in 1995, Karadžić tried again to involve Carter in Bosnia, but without success.
The Bosnian government was not happy with Carter’s trip, but did not want to disrupt his mission. In any case, trying to make the most of the development of the situation, Sarajevo requested that the ceasefire be extended to the entire country and thereby free the besieged northwestern enclave of Bihać from further attacks.
Instead of achieving peace, Carter’s ceasefire proved to be only a respite in the war. The winter break was a prelude to major fact-changing offensives launched by the Bosnian and Croatian armies in the summer of 1995, which helped pave the way for the end of the war. In November 1995, the negotiations resulted in the Dayton Peace Agreement.
Although Carter’s understanding of the Bosnian war was insufficient, his determination to play the role of peacemaker – a trait often seen in former presidents – overcame any concerns that more experienced peacemakers might have had. His initiative in Bosnia is another example of his post-presidential activism.
Yet one plagued by controversy.
The image that most vividly evoked all the controversy of Carter’s trip was a photo of the former president and leader of the Bosnian Serbs. Photographing the two men who announced a ceasefire in Pale in December 1994 was embarrassing. The former American president, who emphasized human rights on and off duty, was flanked by the “architect of the Bosnian genocide” – to borrow the description of Radovan Karadžić from the American scholar of Bosnia, Robert J Donija.
Today, following his death at the age of 100 on December 29, the world remembers former President Carter as a statesman and human rights advocate who remained committed to building peace.
But his trip to Pale and his meeting with Karadzic, immortalized in a photo taken almost exactly 30 years ago, remains a big stain on his long and influential post-presidential career.
The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.
