Editorial: Bosnia: give peace a chance
For over two years, the war in Bosnia has dragged on, killing an estimated 200,000 people, the majority of them the victims of Bosnian Serb aggression. In this time the besieged Bosnian government has had to fight two enemies: the Bosnian Serbs loyal to Radovan Karadzic backed by Serbia, and the Western powers through the United Nations.
While the Serbs relentlessly bombed Bosnian cities, burned out whole villages, conducted a campaign of mass rape and genocide with a well-equipped army, the Bosnians have been denied access to weapons to defend themselves from this onslaught by the West.
Last year in response to calls from the Bosnians for the arms embargo against them to be lifted, British foreign minister Douglas Hurd, speaking on behalf of most European leaders, refused saying: no, we don't want to create a "level killing field". Without a doubt, that decision has prolonged the war, facilitated preventable massacres of defenceless civilians and made a peace harder to conclude.
The West underestimated the resolve of the Bosnian people to defend themselves and their homes. The Bosnians refused to stick to the UN script, which urged them to give up and take what was on offer from the Serbs.
On August 27-28 the Bosnian Serbs, a minority in Bosnia, voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to reject the latest peace plan, which would require them to return 20% of Bosnia conquered in this uneven war. Karadzic said, "I expect the [Bosnian Serb] people will reject not the peace plan but the map. Then we will ask for another map." Much of this stolen land would not have fallen to the Serbs but for the arms embargo.
Once more the US, often at odds verbally with its European allies, under pressure from the general public is threatening to lift unilaterally the arms embargo on Bosnia. But the governments of Britain, France and Spain in particular remain opposed to this course. UN troops, they say, would have to make a dangerous and embarrassing withdrawal if the embargo is lifted.
The Bosnians, freed from the UN's arms embargo, would not need UN forces to "protect" them; they would be able to protect themselves. Such a move would likely quickly bring the Serbs to the negotiating table. A worried Karadzic has threatened that UN troops would be held hostage, NATO planes shot down and foreigners arrested if the Bosnian army were legally armed, such is his fear.
After over two years of fighting and much outside political intervention, it is clear that the Bosnian people and their government can rely only on themselves. The UN must end its criminal arms embargo against the Bosnian people and allow peace a chance.