Subject: BosNet REPORT - ACSB Bosnia Watch: Events, Activities, News From: Nermin Zukic ------------------------------------------------------------------------ B o s N e t - Sept. 6, 1995 ======================================================================== Also available on Usenet as BIT.LISTSERV.BOSNET ________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe send mail to DOC.IC.AC.UK, WITHOUT the subject: UNSUB BOSNEWS. Default format is set to DIGEST, if you have problems please contact moderator(s). ________________________________________________________________________ BOSNIA WATCH American Committee to Save Bosnia A program of the Action Council for Peace in the Balkans SEPTEMBER, 1995 - The ACSB Monthly Newsletter, No. 13 LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR Dear Friends: The pace of Bosnia-related events has grown even more breathtaking. NATO's use of strategic rather than pinprick air strikes appear to have improved conditions in Sarajevo at least temporarily. Unfortunately, as of this writing, they have remained too limited in scope and duration. More disturbingly, they have been used not to achieve a military objective, but rather with the goal of forcing an ethnic partition. The air strikes, which ACSB and all of you have long called for are due, in part, to your efforts in support of Congressional action to end the U.S. arms embargo against Bosnia. While the President did, as expected, veto the Dole-Lieberman bill, the threat of a Congressional override of the veto has been one of the main factors resulting in the U.S. finally exerting leadership in Bosnia. Unfortunately, the Administration is using its new-found influence to broker a partition of Bosnia that would reward Serbia by giving it formal control over almost half of Bosnia. Members of Congress are concerned about this not only because of the moral and political consequences of rewarding war criminals, but also because the partition would need to be enforced by up to 25,000 American ground troops. Many will argue that, instead, we should lift the arms embargo so that the Bosnians can get a more just and sustainable peace that they can enforce themselves. We must redouble our efforts now to escalate the pressure on the Administration and ensure that our long-term goals are achieved. That means urging our Senators and Representatives to override the President's veto and pressure the Administration to continue the air strikes until the aggression has been stopped permanently. It also means supporting the new Helms-Dole bill to create an international fund to arm the Bosnians. And it means opposing ethnic partition and supporting Bosnia's territorial integrity and sovereignty. Steve Walker ---- CALENDAR Sep. 14 - 22 Delegation of non-Muslim civic leaders and members of the Bosnian Presidency visits Washington. Sep. 22 First anniversary of NATO airstrikes against an unmanned Serbian tank in Sarajevo in retaliation for repeated Serbian attacks on peacekeepers. Sep. 22 Third anniversary of the U.N. General Assembly's denial of the former Yugoslavia's UN seat to Serbia-Montenegro. Sep. 23 First anniversary of UN Security Council resolution lifting certain UN sanctions against Serbia in exchange for Belgrade's commitment to cut off military support for its Bosnian Serb proxies. --- ACTION ALERT - UPDATE NATO AIR STRIKES A major goal of the August 30-September 1 NATO airstrikes was to bring the Bosnians and the Bosnian Serbs to the negotiating table to accept the Clinton Administration's partition plan. Therefore, the airstrikes were very limited in scope and did not do appreciable damage to Serbian weaponry. NATO did practically nothing to impede the Serbs' ability to continue to hold Bosnian territory around Brcko and Banja Luka, which would be under Serbian control under the new map. However, it did damage Serbian positions around Sarajevo and Tuzla, where the plan's sponsors want the Serbs to give up territory. Nevertheless, ACSB supports NATO's overdue decision to launch strategic, rather than pinprick air strikes in response to Serbian attacks on Bosnian "safe areas". It is vital, however, that the Clinton Administration direct this resolve to reverse Serbian aggression, not reward it through a de facto carve-up of Bosnia. The danger remains that it will rush forward with its current initiative which would appease Serbia and only nominally preserve Bosnia's sovereignty. PARTITION PLAN The Clinton Administration's peace initiative is based upon four main elements: partition of Bosnia, with 49% going to Bosnian Serb forces and 51% to the Bosnian Federation; mutual recognition between Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia; the establishment of a framework to resolve outstanding conflicts between Croatia and Serbia; and, if all agree to the plan, termination of sanctions against Serbia and a package of economic and military aid for Bosnia. ACSB believes this plan is fundamentally misguided in its approach and damaging to U.S. interests in its consequences. It freezes Serbian gains on the ground at the very moment that the aggressor forces are beginning to weaken. It tells Serbian leaders that their genocidal aggression against non-Serbs in Bosnia will be allowed to stand, and that the brutal oppression and disenfranchisement of non-Serbs in Kosovo and elsewhere within Serbia's own borders can proceed apace. It also undermines U.S. and NATO credibility by failing to halt the worst aggression in Europe since the formation of the alliance nearly half a century ago. A two-pronged strategy of ending the arms embargo and using air power to protect "safe areas" would produce a more just and sustainable settlement by creating a balance of power on the ground. CONGRESS Representatives and Senators are still prepared to override President Clinton's veto of the Dole-Lieberman bill to terminate the U.S. arms embargo against Bosnia. In an August 30 statement, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole said that, in light of the NATO air campaign over Bosnia, he may reconsider his decision to bring the bill to an early vote. He noted, however, that a few days of airstrikes do not make up for years of policy failure. Senator Lieberman stated, "Ultimately, the only way any peace agreement can be sustained is for the people of Bosnia to have the ability to defend themselves." Senators D'Amato, Gramm, McCain, and Moynihan are also urging swift action. ---- ACTIVISM NOTES July 26 (Ann Arbor, MI): The Ann Arbor Committee for Bosnia held a protest at the city's Art Fair. Aug. 10 (New York, NY): A coalition of New York City groups demonstrated in mid-town Manhattan. Speakers included Omar Sacirbey, First Secretary of the Bosnian Mission to the United Nations; Christopher Hitchens, author, journalist and columnist for The Nation; David Rieff, author of Slaughterhouse: The West and the Abandonment of Bosnia; Susan Sontag, author and Action Council Steering Committee member; and ACSB Director Steve Walker. AUG. 14 (SEATTLE, WA): Author and Professor Sabrina P. Ramet was featured at a presentation, "Apartheid in Serb-Occupied Kosovo," at the University of Washington. AUG. 29 (BOSTON, MA): A demonstration by Bosnian refugees and members of the New England Bosnian Relief Committee was held in front of City Hall to protest the August 28 marketplace killings in Sarajevo. SEP. 8 (BALTIMORE, MD): The Walters Film Series will sponsor the showing of "BOSNA!" and "Traces of Sarajevo: The Planet Sarajevo", the first of a four-part film series from Eastern Europe entitled "A Cinema Unseen: Films from Eastern Europe." - The 1994 documentary "BOSNA!", directed by Bernard-Henri Levy, was the first film on the war in the former Yugoslavia to be released in the U.S. "Using previously unseen footage, archival material, interviews, and news broadcast, this film is a passionate history of the war and eloquent plea to the international community to see, to acknowledge, and to act." - "Traces of Sarajevo: The Planet Sarajevo", a 1994 film directed by Sahin Sisic is a "wordless poem which traces the lives, deaths, and the dreams of the filmmaker's friends and acquaintances in Sarajevo." The above citations are courtesy of the Walters Film House. For more information, contact Gina Freeman Caruso at 410-547-9000. SEP. 16 (NEW YORK, NY): The Bosnia Task Force, USA will sponsor a march on the United Nations. It hopes it will be the largest Muslim rally ever in America. For more information on the above events, contact ACSB. --- MEDIA HITS An op-ed entitled "The U.S. Abandonment of Bosnia", by ACSB Director Steve Walker and Action Council Executive Director Marshall Freeman Harris, was published in the New York Times on Wednesday, August 23, and in the August 26-27 edition of the International Herald Tribune. It was also mentioned in an August 24 Washington Times article. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke was asked to comment on it on ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Meet the Press. Steve Walker appeared as a guest on PBS' MacNeil / Lehrer News Hour on Tuesday, August 22. --- MARKETPLACE "SAVE BOSNIA" Stickers are now available at the new price of 500 for $10 postage paid. To order, or to receive a free sample by enclosing a SASE, write to New Hampshire Committee for Peace in Bosnia, P.O. Box 454, Peterborough, NH 03458. --- USING THE INTERNET World Wide Web House of Representatives Home Page: http://www.house.gov Offers access to a variety of Congressional documents as well as individual members' home pages. (Note: the Senate home page is expected to be accessible by early fall.) InterAction Home Page: http://www.vita.org/iaction/iaction.html InterAction is a coalition of 156 private U.S. volunteer agencies. It contains information on how concerned individuals can help victims of war in Bosnia. The site also lists: - accredited agencies accepting cash contributions for Bosnia - the proper methods involved in sending donations To reach InterAction call 202-667-8227, or send an e-mail message to ia@interaction.org. As a reminder, many ACSB, Action Council, and Balkan Institute publications are distributed over the Internet through BOSNET. To subscribe to BOSNET, please send a message to: LISTPROC@DOC.IC.AC.UK, with empty subject line, containing: SUBSCRIBE BOSNEWS Your_First_Name Your_Last_Name --- BOSNIA INFO... The ACSB Bosnia Hotline is now being updated daily. ACSB encourages and welcomes any feedback you have to offer regarding how we can improve our services, such as the Hotline and Bosnia Watch. Please relay any comments to us via mail, fax or e-mail. Volunteer Work: to find out what volunteer skills U.S. relief agencies seek, contact VITA (Volunteers in Technical Assistance) in Arlington, VA via phone at 703-276-1800, or e-mail at sbrooks@vita.org Messages to Bosnia: for more information on sending e-mail messages of encouragement to Bosnian civilians, contact the Bosnia Action Coalition via e-mail at: nebosnia-list-approval@world.std.com Medical Assistance: For updated lists of "six-months' medicine needs" for the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, contact Ajisa Dervisevic at the Bosnian Mission to the UN, 212-751-9015. Student Conference: The Bosnian Ministry of Education will hold a Students Congress for Bosnian citizens studying outside of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Gratz, Austria, September 25-26, 1995. The purpose of the conference will be to connect students with legal authorities in Bosnia and discuss employing them with Bosnian companies according to their professions. For more information, contact Ajisa Dervisevic at the Bosnian Mission to the UN, 212-751-9015. --- BOOKSTOP Genocide in Bosnia: The Policy of Ethnic Cleansing by Norman Cigar. (Texas A&M University Press, 1995). ACSB recommends this new book by Norman Cigar, a professor of national security studies at the U.S. Marine Corps School of Advanced Warfighting in Quantico, VA, and former senior analyst for the Army staff at the Pentagon. Genocide in Bosnia provides a detailed account of the historical events, actions, and practices that led to and legitimated genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It focuses attention not only on the horror of 'ethnic cleansing' but on the calculated strategy behind it. --- P.O. BOX 28265 - WASHINGTON, DC 20038-0265 TEL: (202) 737-2027 FAX: (202) 737-1940 E-MAIL: AmComSaBos@aol.com ________________________________________________________________________ Opinions expressed/published on BosNews/BosNet-B do NOT necessarily always reflect the views of (all of the members of) Editorial Board, and/or moderators, nor any of their host institutions. Zeljko Bodulovic Dzevat Omeragic Davor Wagner Nermin Zukic