Fighting in the Balkans

In the last two weeks the American people and the majority of the world community have apathetically followed the transmogrification of the U.N. peacekeeping mission into a direct military intervention against one party in a civil war.

A variety of false reasons, used as a smoke screen for the general public (the first, the explosion at the marketplace in Sarajevo, staged by the Bosnian-Muslim government, a phony and fraudulent pretext) are pushed out of focus. The only veritable objective for NATO’s grand-scale terrorist operation--to totally destroy the military potential of the Bosnian Serbs.

To substantiate this statement, it suffices to compare the latest agreement between U.N.-NATO and the Serbian military command about the pullout of heavy weaponry from the Sarajevo exclusion zone, and the previous Serbian response (acceptance with a few emendations) to the U.N.-NATO ultimatum after the first two days of bombing--they are virtually identical!

In the meantime, the NATO warplanes resumed and escalated air raids for a full 12 days, inflicting serious damage to military communications and defense systems, and severe destruction of civilian targets and infrastructure, killing at least 800 people. As a result of this direct military intervention, a sneaky land grab by the Croats and Muslims took place in western Bosnia, under the approving and watchful eyes of their sponsors.

ALEXANDER YAHONTOV

Serbian-American Community Relations

Coalition, Los Angeles

*

The interview (Commentary, Sept. 13) with Vladimir Lukin, the former Russian ambassador to the United States, exposes the holes in the logic of those wanting the West to appease Serb war criminals in the Balkans. He says, “You can’t isolate only the Serbs as the culprit here.” It was not Bosnia that initiated the aggression and ethnic cleansing, but rather Serbia. It had done so and bragged to European leaders that it was eliminating Muslims from that continent. Slobodan Milosevic, the leader of Serbia, made previous assaults against Slovenia and Croatia. So it is false to place a moral equivalency between the Bosnian-led government, which is defending its land, and the Serbs, who want a pure Greater Serbia.

Lukin states that “the Serbs want to reach an immediate peace with the Muslims.” But the Serbs have rejected every peace proposal in the past and have violated all international agreements, like the protection of the safe havens of Srebrenica and Zepa. So what will give the Bosnians the security and confidence that they need to achieve a just and lasting settlement? Certainly not the word of those who ordered the systematic rape of Bosnian women as a means of cleansing Bosnia.

The Bosnians are the only ones who could provide the deterrence to prevent the genocide from continuing. Allowing the Bosnians to defend their own territory and lifting the arms embargo against them would be a positive step in establishing a balance of power and real security.

SALAM AL-MARAYATI, Director

Muslim Public Affairs Council

Los Angeles

*

Thank you for providing Lukin’s reasoned analysis of our war being waged against the Serbs. Yes, “double standard” is the phrase that has always characterized our foreign policy, now no less than in the past. But we didn’t sacrifice over $4 trillion to establish the world’s finest, most dangerous military-industrial complex for nothing. Just ask the Fortune 500.

A brilliant foreign policy serving that sector is now materializing in Bosnia, as we bombed Banja Luka (Sept. 11) to force back guns around Sarajevo that are required to protect the Serbian civilians on their side of the city, reigniting the Cold War in the process. Bravo. The U.S. prevails again.

MARILYN DeWITT

Seal Beach

*

From the interview with Lukin, it is clear that the Russian officials are either ignorant or out of touch with the situation in Bosnia, or both. The Serbs have no interest in reaching a peace agreement. Numerous cease-fire violations clearly show that. Only if the bombardment continues would the Serbs come to the negotiating table. The Serbs are the aggressors in this war, not the Croatians or the Muslims.

Lukin and his government should concentrate on solving the domestic problems, such as the war in Chechnya, instead of threatening world peace by supporting the Serbs.

BARBARA MATESIC

San Pedro

*

Re “Balkan Conflict Threatens U.S.-Russian Relationship,” Sept. 13:

Genocide? Amid bombastic headlines, facts and figures get distorted. But no one can call NATO’s bombing of Serbian military installations a genocide. Hitler committed genocide against the European Jews, Saddam Hussein targeted the Kurds, Stalin ordered the liquidation of 10 million Ukrainians. In the Bosnia war for the past four years the Serbs conducted ethnic cleansing, exterminated Muslim men in prison camps, and willfully killed tens of thousands of civilians in the so-called “safe zones” for Muslims, among them many children. Now that NATO is finally trying to stop them from committing further atrocities, the Serbs scream “Murder!”

TONY KISS

Los Angeles