Abdic and the presidency is a strange issue to say the least. From
http://www.diacritica.com/sobaka/dossier/abdic.html: "In the Bosnian federated system, the republic was ruled by a presidency of five members, and the one who received the largest number of votes would become its chair. Abdic outscored Izetbegovic rather handily (Abdic received 1,010,618, with a good share of support among Serbs and Croats, to Izetbegovic's 847,386, mostly among Muslims). For mysterious reasons which have never been adequately explained, Abdic abstained from taking the head of the presidency, granting it instead to Izetbegovic. Abdic in return had his lieutenant Alija Delimustafic named Interior Minister.
In the Spring of 1992, as the Serbs and Muslims entered into a tense stand-off in downtown Sarajevo, Abdic was drawn into the fray. Izetbegovic was held by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) from May 2nd to May 3rd, in what his party rather hysterically described as a "kidnapping". In fact, a Bosnian militia was then holding a JNA general prisoner, and a local commander planned to use Alija as bait to free his colleague. During the crisis (which was broadcast on television, as Izetbegovic called in to a live news broadcast from "captivity" and spoke on the air to his deputies), Abdic arrived in Sarajevo. Later, members of the SDA accused Abdic of attempting to take advantage of Izetbegovic's absence to stage a coup d'etat. It was a rather fanciful charge, especially as Abdic had voluntarily passed over the high office which was his due, and the very nature of the crisis would lead one to think that the members of the Bosnian presidency should be close to the seat of government."
So....why did Abdic not take is place at the head if the DSA? Any idea what his version of events are?
The SDA was Izetbegovic's party - the Bosnian constitution provided for the seven members of the collective presidency deciding amongst themselves who would be the president. After some wheeling and dealing, Izetbegovic got the nod for the top spot, and various posts within the government were handed out, as agreed, to the various parties, to include Abdic's faction of the SDA.
It's neither as complicated nor as underhanded as our Serb friends would have us believe, and it's a recurring topic in their attempt to rewrite the history of Bosnia.
Ultimately Abdic garnered more votes, and Hoplite is correct "in some wheeling and dealing" Abdic the moderate alternative to Iztbegovic was displaced.
Instead of supporting Abdic, Clinton supported Iztbegovic.
Abdic and his 10-20,000 soldiers, later on fought allied with the BSA against Iztebgovic extremism.
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As for the Lisbon Agreement, Zimmerman didn't advise that signing was a good way to prevent a destructive civil war ( as every other observer was advising )..........Zimmerman's support of breaking the (unratified) Lisbon Agreement is merely another indication of how we sided with the extreme rather than moderate voice every single time.
Every single peace plan was rejected by Clinton White House. Finally the Dayton Agreement was forced upon the unelected Iztbegovic government. At Dayton, Clinton basically screwed Iztbegovic.
Iztbegovic had to abandon every last War Aim he had. Under Dayton, Iztbegovic achieved less than under Lisbon, less even less than under Vance-Owen, less than under every other serious peace plan made.
Clinton supported Bosnian extremists, pushed them into extreme positions, and then ditched them at the end.
He did the same in Kosovo and Metohija when Clinton effectively took the KLA from a couple of dozen nutcases, promoted their cause, legitimized them, and sent them guns etc. Instead of supporting the moderates in Kosovo and Metohija, Clinton backed the KLA.
After the bombing, Clinton then screwed the KLA with UNSCR 1244 & the MTA. Bush finished the job by chucking virtually the entire KLA into prison.