From: brg6080@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Branko Radosavljevic)
Subject: Re: Why is the Arab League not funding Bosnia?
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 08:17:41 GMT

viking@bnr.ca (Harold Henrikson) writes:

>There seems to be 2 aspects of the war in Bosnia:

>1. The Serbs have all the heavy weapons
>2. The UN/West has neither the mandate nor will to engage in ground fighting

Statement 1 is not true, though it is maintained by the Bosnian presidency
(and many journalists) in an effort to get outside military help.
Here are some examples, all from Western sources:

--(Larry King Live (TV), Aug. 4, 1992, interviewing Maj. Gen. Lewis
  MacKenzie, former U.N. commander in Sarajevo)
  Gen. MacKenzie: 'Well, the fact of the matter is both sides are pretty
  well armed.  Part of the deal on the withdrawal of the JNA, the Yugo-
  slavian Army, from Bosnia-Hercegovina [from their besieged barracks]
  was that they turned over weapons,
  ammunition, everything up to and including heavy artillery.  So both
  sides, unfortunately, have significant armament, and they're using it
  all around Bosnia and in Sarajevo.
    'So the idea that it's all one-sided--the fact of the matter is, the
  majority of heavy weapons in Sarajevo are under direct observation of
  the United Nations and are not being employed.  The amount of shelling
  that's going on in Sarajevo now can be done by four guns--that's all
  you have to have--that are outside of our control.  And both sides
  have a significant percentage--perhaps 20 or 25 percent of their
  weapons--that haven't been declared.  So there are significant exchanges
  of indirect fire going on.'

--(New York Times, Aug. 1, 1992)
    'United Nations officials said the radar positions had come under fire
  from Serbian forces firing at a Bosnian Government recoilless rifle
  platoon that had set up a firing position 30 yards from the radar battery
  Thursday night.' . . .
    'Mik Magnusson, spokeman at the United Nations headquarters, said a
  protest was registered with the Bosnian Government after Bosnian forces
  moved weapons close to a number of UN observation posts, in defiance
  of an agreement under which the Serbian and Bosnian forces are required
  to keep all military units at least 500 meters from UN positions.
    'Mr. Magnusson said the agreement had been broken by the Bosnians in
  a number of instances during the last 24 hours, including the postioning
  of a Bosnian [recoilless] rifle platoon near the Ukrainian radar battery
  and the use of a Bosnian tank only 100 yards away from the UN headquarters
  in the western district of the city.'

--(BBC World Report (radio), Aug. 23)
  [Said that Serb positions had come under heavy bombardment. A U.N. observer
  said one Serb position was hit with 250 shells in one hour.]

--(CNN, Aug. 26, for example)
  [Characterized fighting around Sarajevo as 'artillery duels.'  Phrase
  used on other days as well.]

This is just a partial list.


>The Muslim nations, of course, bitch that the West is willing to clobber Iraq
>but not do the same to Serbia.  Meanwhile, the Bosnians say "Give us the weapons
>or get rid of the Serb heavy weapons and we'll do the job ourselves."  So, if why
>are the wealthy Arab states not bankrolling or otherwise supporting the Bosnians
>instead of leaving it up to the West?
>--
>Harold Henriksen                    Bell-Northern Research
>email: viking@bmerh694.bnr.ca       Ottawa,Ontario,Canada 

>Pillaging and plundering were more fun than programming!
>(Opinions are not my employer's and sometimes not mine)

Muslim nations are contributing to the Bosnian government.  The Bosnian Govt's
Foreign Minister, Haris Silajdzic, a few weeks ago was reported to be
visiting several countries in the Mideast and giving an address at a
regional conference there, with the express purpose of obtaining aid.
He was well received.  The Bosnian Govt. received representatives from
Libya who were offering aid.  Several Muslim nations have rep-
resentatives in Croatia coordinating aid for Bosnian refugees.
And the first country willing to commit troops after the UN Security
Council passed a use of force resolution to deliver aid was Turkey.

The Bosnian Govt. has successfully smuggled in weapons and ammunition,
and probably some of this has come from Muslim countries.
[There was a NY Times article saying that Croatian forces had held
up part of this supply in an effort to force Bosnian Pres. Izetbegovic
to sign a confederation treaty with Croatia]

------------------------------
Branko Radosavljevic
Newsgroups: alt.war