Over 5,000 marched la central London in solidarity with Bosnia. There have also been demonstrations in Spain and South Africa Socialist Outlook has always argued that neither the U.N. nor N.A.T.O. was interested in defending Bosnia. The brutal crushing of Srebrenica and renewed Chetnik attacks on the 'safe havens' of Zepa, Bihac and Sarajevo has shown the complete bankruptcy of the United Nations.
When the U.N. introduced its 'safe haven' policy in Srebrenica it first disarmed the Bosnian army. Rather then let the Bosnian people defend themselves the U.N. claimed it would 'protect' them. The slaughter of thousands of people in Srebrenica is the result.
The U.N. has encouraged the Greater Serbian chauvinists by agreeing to the division of Bosnia. Every single plan produced by the U.N. and E.U. envisaged the carve up of multi-ethnic Bosnia-Hercegovina.
"Ethnic cleansing' is not just an excess on the part of the Bosnian Serb army. It is a deliberate policy designed to create the largest possible bureaucrats rule. Far from the U.N. plans producing a given the green light to General Mladic and Radovan Karadzic to step up their war against Bosnia.
The attempt by Mladic and Karadzic to create Greater Serbia, with the support, open, of Slobodan Milosevic, is the total rejection of Tito's Yugoslav ideal.
Those who defend the idea that all peoples, whatever their ethnic origins, can live together in a single state are those fighting to defend Bosnia-Hercegovina. The multi-ethnic defence forces of Bosnia are the real heirs of Karadac and his Chetnik thugs.
The war in Bosnia is not a 'civil war between warnin those who want to create ethnically "pure' states and those who desire a multi-ethnic Bosnia. Tens of thousands of Serbs and Croats continue to fight alongside Muslims to defend The unwillingness of the U.N. to defend the 'safe havens' stands in marked embargo. The Chetnik attacks on the 'safe havens' demonstrate that the arms. embargo affects only one side in the war - the side fighting to maintain a multi-ethnic Bosnia.
It is the Bosnians' lack of arms and the tacit support of western imperialism that encourages Mladic to continue his bombardments. It is the Bosnians' lack of arms and the lack of real intemational solidarity that allows mass slaughter. Far from halting the war the arms embargo has longer than the First World War.
Despite the embargo the Bosnians have been able to capability. This reflects the mass and active support of the Bosnian people for multi-ethnic Bosnia. It was this increased fighting capacity that allowed them to defeat Croat forces trying to carve out their own state and renew the Croat-Bosnian alliance. Without the arms embargo Bosnians would be able to resist effectively the Chetnik We believe there is a great danger in demanding that the U.N. intervenes. It has demonstrated time and time again it has no desire to preserve multi-ethnic Bosnia.
The U.N. is only interested in a brutal peace on Serbian terms in order to make the Balkans safe for western business. They have no concer for the oppressed and exploited. ( The only useful thing the U.N. can now do is get out of Bosnia, hand their weapons over to the Bosnian army, lift the arms embargo and let the themselves.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 88, August 1995, Page 2