JENNY MEES, member of the Belgian section of the Fourth International, recently returned from Tuzla as part of the International Workers Aid for Bosnia convoy. In the beseiged town she interviewed SELIM BESLAGIC, mayor of Tuzla. Jenny Mees: What do you think about the current situation in Bosnia? Selim Beslagic: The world refuses to face the truth, the world refuses to call to account the aggressors and war criminals, the world avoids saying that Radovan Karadzic (leader of the Bosnian Serbs) and Mate Boban (leader of the Bosnian Croats) are fascists who want to nail the Bosnian people to the stake.
No, public opinion puts the aggressor and the victim on the same level. The Bosnian people, and especially the Bosnian Muslims, are threatened with death. They are the victims, not one of the three warring factions which are referred to nowadays. In Bosnia all the people want to, and can, live in peace.
Tuzla is the proof of this. We have no other choice: our population has lived together for centuries and is very mixed. Because of the war life has become so hard that I fear even here extremism can gain ground.
The nationalist parties want to claim that the war, starvation and deprivation are the results of our policies and that our ideas are therefore wrong. But we know that we are acting correctly and the multi-ethnic composition of the population demands such policies. The world must know the truth about Tuzla and help us.
J.M. What is the biggest problem for the region?
S.B.:Hunger. People are hungry and, if the situation does not improve, the weak and the poor are going to die through a combination of hunger and cold.
Because of the blockade, no convoys are getting through. You started out with fifteen lorries and only three reached our city. No other civilian convoy has been able to get through.
We have no diesel and therefore no transport, which also makes the situation very difficult.
J.M. Our convoy led a campaign to open up the so-called Northem Route (the Posavina corridor). Do you think that this route is possible?
S.B. Yes, it is a logical route! But there are other possibilities, through Banja Luka or Belgrade for example.
But everything comes down to a question of political will and the relationship of military forces. The best way of saving our people now is, however, to open up our airport in Tuzla.
J.M. We tried to force a way through the Norther Route. That cost us a lot of
time, energy and money. Perhaps it was a mistake or stupid to do that?
S.B. No, it was brave! We are pleased that you gave this issue its pressing political importance, that you have exposed the facts about this route.
The Bosnian people are equally brave and if we ever decided to force a way through this passage it would not be a question of stupidity but of exceptional bravery:
J.M. Tuzla now has 70,000 refugees, particularly Muslims coming from central and eastern Bosnia. Does that not create tensions now that the ethnic composition of Tuzla has been changed? S.B.: The problem of the refugees is not on such a scale that it has changed the original ethnic composition of our region. But, of course, there is a massive shortage of housing and food for these people. A large part of the refugees are housed with families.
Only the refugees get aid from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees but for some months only 20 to 30 percent of their needs have been met. Our own population gets no aid from anyThe city administration has two bakeries and, in the past, we also had several kitchens. For the moment, however, they are all closed because we no longer have the basic necessities.
Our conception is that all the refugees must be able to return to their own region. We do not accept that frontiers can be drawn by force, we don't accept a peace which deprives people of their home! J.M.: What do you think of the way in which the peace negotiations are progressing? You are, yourself, an important participant...
S.B. Well, no war has ever been stopped because of a slip of paper. What matters is the military relationship of forces. No lasting peace is possible if it is unjust. We don't accept having to negotiate with war criminals, we don't want to find ourselves on an equal footing with war criminals because we are legally elected. We want peace, we are in favour of negotiations, but we don't want to sign a peace which will mean the death of our Bosnian population.
J.M. You mentioned the airport at Tuzla which is usable but cannot be opened. International Workers Aid led an action in several countries on 11 November to demand its opening. What are your views on this?
S.B. I am very pleased. Everyone here has been waiting for more than a year for the opening of our airport.
I hope that you can put political pressure on your MPs and governments, and that this question can reverberate throughout your media and so become a burning political issue. I also want to say this. You arrived here with three lorries. It's not much and will in no way relieve our distress here. But the quantity isn't important. What counts is moral support. We cannot tell you enough how important these three lorries are for us.
For everything you have done I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I wish you a good journey home and hope it will be easier than getting here. Goodbye until better times.