Intervention in Bosnia

I find it outrageous that Alexander Cockburn claims (“The U.S. Can’t Blame Serbia for Everything,” Column Left, Feb. 14) that the West helped kill former Yugoslavia! In reality it was (Serbian President) Slobodan Milosevic and his cronies from the Yugoslav National Army that destroyed Yugoslavia in the guise of Serbian nationalism.

It is very misleading when someone claims that Bosnia is the West’s Vietnam, when in all actuality it is Serbia’s Vietnam! Milos Vasic of the Belgrade magazine Vreme claims that today’s new partisans, or guerrilla forces, is the Bosnian army, not the Serb irregulars. These Bosnian soldiers have been holding up under the most extreme conditions. A U.N. official in the Bihac region claims that the Bosnian forces have become more organized and are gaining more territory every day.

I think it is a great tragedy that the European Community and the United Nation mediators in the peace talks are trying to ameliorate the situation in Bosnia in favor of the Serb nationalists, by dividing Bosnia into ethnic enclaves. Judging from the proposed map at the peace talks, less than 20% of the land mass would be left for Bosnian Muslims. Unfortunately, one area that has not even been addressed is the plight of the Bosnian people who do not consider themselves Muslims, Serbs or Croats. No one, so far, has asked where these people will live and who will represent them!

OMER A. SULEIMANAGICH

Los Angeles