Oleh/By : DATO' SERI DR. MAHATHIR BIN MOHAMAD
Tempat/Venue : THE PUTRA WORLD TRADE CENTRE,
KUALA LUMPUR
Tarikh/Date : 22/01/94
Tajuk/Title : THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF
PARLIAMENTARIANS ON
BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
I would like, first of all, to welcome all of you to
Malaysia. Although many of you will be here for only a few
days I do hope that you will have a pleasant stay in our
country.
2. I would like to congratulate the international group of
parliamentarians for their continued and sincere dedication
to the cause of human rights in Bosnia-Herzegovina. You
have made an honest gesture by coming to participate in this
conference. And for that, I commend all of you.
3. The subject matter of our common concern is a grave
one. The situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina is extremely
critical. The human tragedy is massive and continuing. The
severe winter is expected to add to the number of deaths
because people are being deprived of the basic necessities
to stay alive.
4. It would be your duty, as parliamentarians, to cause
your respective governments to help change the situation in
that unfortunate country, and save the valiant people of
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
5. Let me recount very briefly what has happened to
Bosnia-Herzegovina, which began with the first Serbian
shelling of Sarajevo in May 1992. It was the same month
that the United Nations (U.N.) accepted the new Republic of
Bosnia-Herzegovina as a member state. The significance was
clear. Serbs had served notice that they care nothing for
world opinion or the norms of human behaviour.
6. Everyone knows now that it was all part of the grand
plan of Slobodan Milosevic to bring into being a greater
Serbia. When Bosnia-Herzegovina became independent, he
turned over the Serbian army's arsenals in that country to
the Bosnian Serb soldiers resident in Bosnia-Herzegovina and
to Serb civilians. No arms were given to the Bosnian
members of the Yugoslav army who did not subscribe to
Milosevic's Greater Serbia ambitions. Thus did Milosevic
ensure that Serbian aggression against Bosnia-Herzegovina
will meet with success. The U.N. embargo on arms for the
combatants in Yugoslavia merely serve to weaken the
government of Bosnia-Herzegovina further and enable the
Karadzic's Serbs to massacre the Bosnian Muslims.
7. It is not correct to assume that the bloodbath in
Bosnia-Herzegovina is a civil war between the Muslims and
the rest. Although most of the defenders of Sarajevo are
Muslims, who call themselves Bosniacs, many Serbs and Croats
are included in their number. The mix is also reflected in
the government. They are all Bosnians and Herzegovinans.
8. The Bosnian Government desperately appealed for help
from the vaunted defenders of human rights of the world.
Bosnians were being killed and Bosnia-Herzegovina was about
to be dismembered. But neither the European Union nor the
United Nations Security Council took decisive actions.
Humanitarian aid was offered subject to permission being
granted by the Serbian aggressors. And as can be expected
the Serbs were not quite cooperative. U.N. forces
protecting food convoys may not hurt the Serbs under any
circumstances. In other words, the Bosnians by consent of
the U.N. are placed at the mercy of their Serbian
oppressors.
9. At the same time, a well-conceived and successful
strategy began to split the peoples of the newly formed
country. It resulted in the Croats in Bosnia abandoning
their Bosnian identity and discarding their traditional
alliance with the Bosnian Muslims.
10. Bosnia-Herzegovina is the victim of the evil designs of
certain people and powers who are quite happy to see the
emergence of Slovenia and Croatia but will do nothing for
Bosnia, although Bosnia-Herzegovina has as much right as the
other two to nationhood. This kind of double standard is
apparently what the new world order is about.
11. The London international conference had pledged that it
would not recognise any advantage gained by force or the
creation of facts. Yet Vance and Owen put together a
package based on ground realities which would effectively
legitimise territorial acquisition by force, ethnic
cleansing and partition of Bosnia-Herzegovina along ethnic
lines. And, in Geneva, they saw fit to place the leadership
of the legitimate and internationally recognised Bosnian
government on an equal footing with the insurgent Serbs and
the Croats. Thus are aggressors legitimised.
12. The Geneva process, now presided by Owen and
Stoltenberg, is bent on forcing the Bosnians to accept
Serbian occupation as a basis for settlement. Certain
countries which have participated in the U.N. peace keeping
forces are threatening to withdraw the minimal protection
they afforded the Bosnians unless the latter agree to Owen's
surrender of Bosnian territories to the Serbs. History is
repeating itself. The spirit of Chamberlain lives and the
result is another holocaust.
13. The carnage and destruction in Bosnia-Herzegovina
continue without relent. Sarajevo remains under seige until
this day, surrounded by Serbian guns capable of delivering
800 rounds of shells each day. For the fifth time the
western nations have threatened to launch air-strikes
against the Serbs unless they stop strangling Sarajevo. And
for the fifth time the Serbs have thumbed their noses at
these so-called righteous great powers. Of course, no
air-strike is mounted.
14. Aggression, occupation and the redrawing of territorial
boundaries by force is unacceptable in this day and age.
But, when aggression is accompanied by the abominable
practice of ethnic cleansing, it is not just unacceptable
but despicable by any standard of international behaviour.
And yet the Serbs complement this with rape and murder of
young girls and women, even of little children. The
so-called civilised world is horrified but is not prepared
to stop the Serbs. Yet woe betide any little developing
country which violates even the most trivial of human
rights.
15. The Serbs know that the bark of these defenders of
human rights is worse than their bite. And so they will go
on raping and murdering, fully convinced that they will not
only go unpunished, but they will be actually rewarded. We
know that nations are usually hypocritical when conducting
foreign relations. But the attitude of the powerful nations
in the Bosnian affair must epitomise hypocrisy at its worse.
16. Today, the Bosnians are confronted with the choice --
either accept the tattered remnants of Bosnia-Herzegovina or
risk being violently wiped off the map of the world. They
are right in refusing to accept either. They are right in
continuing to fight for their country. The cost to them is
very high. The killings are real. People are dying.
People are being starved, raped and tortured. Unless the
civilised world puts a stop to what is going on in
Bosnia-Herzegovina, weak nations will know no freedom.
Might will always be right. Is this the message of Bosnia?
Where are the champions of freedom, of human rights, of
justice? Where have they gone?
17. It is immoral for all of us to hide behind the
illusion that the issue of Bosnia-Herzegovina is the story
of a simple civil war. It is not. It is nothing less than
a war of conquest by the Serbs abetted by others who have
their own hidden agendas.
18. The Americans are blaming the British and the French
for preventing the use of air strikes against the Serbs.
However, some very highly placed British and French sources
have told me that it is the United States which is against
military action against the Serbs. I frankly do not know
whom to believe. I suspect that neither the Americans nor
the Europeans care enough to act. They do not wish to risk
the lives of their boys for something that is not really
very important for their own well-being.
19. If this is the case then they should allow the Bosnians
to defend themselves. This is the right of any nation or
people - the right to self-defence. But they actively and
positively prevent the Bosnians from acquiring the means to
fight for their own self-defence. The western nations could
not have done worse if they were to hold down the Bosnians
so as to enable the Serbs to batter them. It is abetment
and no less.
20. And yet they claim that they are helping the Bosnians.
21. There is really no unity of support for the European
Union's official position regarding Bosnia-Herzegovina.
There is general dissatisfaction with the Owen peace
package. There is dissatisfaction with Owen's lack of
consultation with the European Union which appointed him and
whose creature he is supposed to be. There is
dissatisfaction with the way Owen is handling the so-called
peace process.
22. It is obvious that so far no one has really approved of
what the Serbs are doing. Indeed, everyone including the
Vatican, the Anglican Church, the various Non-Governmental
Organisations, the western media even, and the western
military commanders assigned to the United Nations
Protection Force (UNPROFOR), all have condemned Serbian
aggression. U.N. commanders regularly resigned because
they were not allowed by Boutros Boutros-Ghali and the
Security Council to take effective action to stop Serbian
brutality. But the Western Governments remain obdurate,
refusing to see anything wrong in their blatant disregard
for the wholesale violations of every item of human rights
by the Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
23. Your task, as parliamentarians, is to help shock the
people and your Governments out of their self-imposed
stupor. The Governments especially must not be allowed to
believe that they can get away with their hypocrisy and
still survive. You must do your best to force those in
power to act.
24. I believe there are two things you can do. The first
is to exert pressure on the U.N. Security Council to
implement the various resolutions which the Council has
already passed. For example, despite systematic and
widespread obstruction to the delivery of international
humanitarian assistance, there has been no effort to enforce
Security Council resolution 770 which provides for the use
of all necessary means. Security Council resolution 836
created 'safe areas' but relentless military actions by the
Serbs have instead turned these safe areas into areas under
siege.
25. The Security Council must now demand, and must be
prepared to back its demand by the use of force if necessary
-- not mere threats but actual use of force, to make the
aggressors comply with certain critical requirements. Among
others:
* The seige of Sarajevo must be lifted forthwith, by
silencing or removing the Serbian big guns from
around the city;
* All concerned parties must be made to permit, by
force if necessary, the unhindered flow of
humanitarian assistance;
* Tuzla airport must be opened to enable food,
medicines and other essentials to reach the major
surrounding towns.
26. These actions are necessary especially to save innocent
lives during the harsh winter. But we must be clear about
one thing. No amount of humanitarian action is going to put
an end to the tragedy in Bosnia. What is needed is
political and diplomatic action, supported by the use of
force when necessary.
27. Therefore, the second thing you should do is to urge
the Security Council to take a hard look at the Geneva
process, and since there is wide agreement that the Geneva
talks cannot go on as before, seize the initiative to
convene a new international conference on
Bosnia-Herzegovina. Perhaps the successful international
conference on Cambodia could serve as a model. There, not
only the relevant parties but other concerned countries also
participated and helped provide the diplomatic weight.
28. There is no point in having a second or third London
conference unless the principles already adopted in the
first conference are implemented.
29. We cannot speak for the Bosnian leadership but we can
demand that they be given a chance to save their people and
their country and a fair deal in negotiations. Malaysia
feels extremely concerned, not merely because
Bosnia-Herzegovina has something to do with Islam and
Muslims. We feel strongly whenever and wherever injustice
and oppression are perpetrated. Malaysia has been equally
vehement about South Africa, about Cambodia and other
non-Muslim communities which have faced similar problems.
30. The Serbs and the Croats have not succeeded
in destroying the essence of Bosnia-Herzegovina. After
nearly two years of unceasing assault and long after the
western experts have written it off, the Republic is still
alive. We cannot, and should not forget Bosnia-Herzegovina.
If we accept aggression and violence by strong neighbours as
legitimate then many of us who are weak will suffer the same
fate.
31. Bosnia-Herzegovina used to be a cultural mix where the
people lived in peace. It has as strong a historic claim to
exist as do its neighbours.
32. The fundamental principle of the right of nation states
to exist must remain sacred and must be protected. This
includes small, multi-ethnic and multi-religious states like
Bosnia-Herzegovina.
33. If we allow the law of the jungle to apply, if we allow
the strongest to determine the fate of the weakest, if we
allow Bosnia-Herzegovina to be obliterated, then there will
be no security for anyone of us.
34. I urge you parliamentarians, therefore, to request your
respective governments to:
* Place the issue of Bosnia-Herzegovina high on your
country's international agenda;
* Commit the weight of your nations's diplomacy to
call for the restarting of meaningful talks aimed
at a lasting and just settlement; and
* Assert your rights as members of the United
Nations to insist that the Security Council act
decisively to end the sufferings of the Bosnian
people and bring back peace to that country.
35. I wish this conference success in its pursuit of a
just cause. I hope that your deliberations will be
productive. We need to do everything we can right now.
Ethnic cleansing of Bosnia-Herzegovina must be stopped or
forever must those who mouth platitudes about democracy and
human rights cease and desist from their pretense at
righteousness.
Thank you.
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