GOD WILL DAMN THE SERBS
Hibatur Rahman Ahmad
The New York Times Editorials Sunday, December 20
WHAT HAS THE WORLD DONE FOR BOSNIA?
A DIARY OF DISGRACE
February 1992 -- Serbian forces opened a campaign of aggression against
the former region of Yugoslavia called Bosnia and Herzegovina. In short order
they launched a relentless bombardment of Sarajevo, the historic city that
gave living proof that many faiths can coexist. This assault was only the most
visible part of the Serbs' barbaric campaign of ethnic cleansing against
the Muslim Slavs - 44 percent of Bosnia's 4.4 million people. What did the
world do?
April 7 -- The U.S. recognized Bosnia. Five days later the United
Nations disclosed plans to send 100 observers to Bosnia, and the
Security Council discussed dispatching 10,000 peacekeeping troops.
None of the troops were sent.
April 14 -- After a major Yugoslav Army offensive, Bosnia reported "mass
massacres" by Serb irregulars. No reliable counts were available but estimates
reached the thousands. Hundreds of thousands of refugees fled in terror.
What did the world do?
April 14 -- Secretary of State Baker condemned the use of force and
urged the European Community to issue a joint protest, threatening
economic and political isolation of Serbia. Nothing was done to
tighten the economic sanctions against Serbia.
Mid-spring -- The U.S. Government received the first unconfirmed reports from
Bosnia that Serbs were setting up concentration camps in which Muslim were
being tortured and killed. By U.N. estimates, some 30,000 Bosnians were
becoming refugees every day. What did the world do?
Washington did not press for immediate investigation of the camps.
Instead, it tried to keep the reports from being public. If other
countries received similar reports, they gave no public sign.
May 4 -- With Serbs in control of half the country, the Bosnian Government
appealed to the world, with poignant logic, to lift the arms embargo on
Bosnia and give it means to defend itself. What did the world do?
The arms embargo remains, to this day.
May 7 -- Serb and Croat nationalists in Bosnia agreed to carve up the republic,
a process the European Community blandly called cantonment. Five days later
the U.N. reported a concerted effort by the Serbs to create "ethnically pure"
regions in Bosnia "in the context of" the E.C. negotiations on cantonment.
What did the world do?
May 14 -- The State Department expressed concern about "allegations
of ethnic cleansing". A day later the Security Council backed sending
humanitarian aid to Bosnia, but not the armed force needed to deliver
it. And the following day the U.N. evacuated its staff of 200 from
Sarajevo.
Late May -- The siege of Sarajevo tightened. Serb gunners took deliberate aim
at civilians, blasting away at the bread lines. The Serb commander, Gen. Ratko
Mladic, was overheard ordering his gunners to "drive them crazy" and "burn it
all". What did the world do?
May 30 -- The U.N. finally imposed am economic embargo on Serbia but
stopped short of enforcing it. Secretary of State baker said that
"Before we consider force, we ought to exhaust all the political,
diplomatic and economic remedies that might be at hand". An unnamed
U.S. official said, "We are really talking about the need -- maybe --
to do something next time. Everyone in the loop concedes that Yugo -
slavia is a past case already."
Early June -- Outside Sarajevo, the carnage of ethnic cleansing continued.
Serbs had by now overrun two-thirds of the country, displacing 700,000
people. What did the world do?
June 6 -- President Bush said, "We're concerned about the situation
in Yugoslavia, but there's no commitment on that." Ten days later
the U.S. agreed to help airlift food and medicine to Sarajevo, but
only after a U.N. force of 1,100 took control of the airport. The U.N.
said it could not send such a force until a cease-fire took hold.
Throughout June -- Relentless Serb shelling continued to reduce beautiful old
Sarajevo to rubble. What did the world do?
June 26 -- The Security Council gave the Serbs an ultimatum : Stop
shelling Sarajevo and put all heavy guns ander U.N. control or face
military action. A senior American official said, meanwhile, "No action
is imminent."
July 3 -- The Serbs temporarily withdrew from the airport but without
relinquishing their heavy guns. The airlift began, but only fitfully under
intermittent Serb shelling. Three weeks later Roy Gutman of Newsweek visited
Serb-run camps and heard eyewitness accounts of murders and atrocities.
Other reporters uncovered rape camps where Muslim women were violated by the
thousands. What did the world do?
The U.S. expressed concern and insisted that the Red Cross be allowed
into the camps. It said nothing about freeing those imprisoned or
punishing the perpetrators.
Summer and fall -- Serbs conducted hundreds of bombing and strafing raids on
Bosnian towns. What did the world do?
Oct. 9 -- The U.N. Security Council banned military flights over
Bosnian territory. But it ducked a vote to enforce this ban.
Late autumn -- The Serbian air raids slowed, but reconnaissance and troop
flights continued. The shelling continued. So did the ethnic cleansing. And
many camps still operated, unvisited. By now more than 100,000 Bosnians,
mostly Muslim Slavs, were dead or missing. And what has the world done?
Washington, finally, is prodding the U.N. to enforce a no-fly zone over
Bosnia -- four months too late. The U.S. is prepared to lift the arms
embargo that effectively keeps Bosnia from defending itself -- six
months too late. Secretary of State Eagleburger now denounces Serbian
war crimes, doubtless hoping that will help defeat the strong-man
Slobodan Milosevic in today's Serbian election.
But even now Washington, and London, and the European Community, and
NATO and the U.N. shrink from forceful actions to counter the Serbs'
aggression and slaughter in Bosnia:
-Attack their big guns and suply lines.
-Send in enough U.N. troops to secure safe havens in areas now
menaced by Serb-sponsored ethnic cleansing;
-Threaten to attack military installations in Serbia unless it
stops its brutal aggression in Bosnia and the rest of Yugo-
slavia.
After a year of savage slaughter, mass rapes, ethnic cleansing and
undoubted genocide, the world has responded with all the right words.
But the question remains, What will the world do?