The War in Bosnia - part seven

                      CHAPTER NINE
 

  The Consequences of Negotiations on the Bosnia-Herzegovina Constitution

             The Questioning of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Recognition

The question "What to do with Bosnia-Herzegovina?" has been opened again. 
That question has already been answered once with the international
recognition of Bosnia-Herzegovina, but now it was opened once more.  By
agreeing to open the discussions on the Bosnia-Herzegovina constitution,
Alija Izetbegovic practically annulled the recognition of BH.  Although it
has not been stated and admitted publicly, all of the international
participants in the BH affairs behaved as if BH no longer existed as a
sovereign state, and Izetbegovic was looked upon as the leader of the BH
Muslims, instead of Bosnia's leader (which was the case in the first
place).  Due to such conduct by the American State department, in a US
Senate foreign affairs hearing on June 30, 1994, Senator Joseph Biden
asked Secretary of State Mr. Christopher: "How is it possible that you and
the President Mr. Clinton are engaged in the partition of a sovereign and
internationally recognized state, member of the U.N., Bosnia-Herzegovina?" 
Mr. Christopher's answer was: "It is not true that the American
administration is partitioning Bosnia-Herzegovina, because neither the USA
nor the international community have a right to do that.  The
representatives of the Bosnia-Herzegovina government have accepted its
division during peace negotiations held a few months ago in Geneva."  To
that Mr. Biden answered by stating that recently he was in
Bosnia-Herzegovina and that he has reliable information that the Bosnians
are ready to fight for the liberation of the remaining 70% of occupied
territories.  Senator Biden also stated that during that trip he met with
Mr. Izetbegovic and Mr. Ganic, and that both men told him that neither the
Bosnian government nor the people have accepted Bosnia's division.  Mr. 
Christophers answer to that was that Senator Biden must have been talking
with a different group of Bosnians, because he has knows that Izetbegovic
has very close cooperation with the "Contact" group on developing the maps
of a divided Bosnia: "51% to the Muslims and the Croats and 49% to the
Serbs."  He also added: "The Bosnians are actually very cooperative in
regards the division.  It is the Serbs we are having trouble with."  After
that reply, Senator Biden did not speak any more (as quoted on the
C-SPAN2).  Senator Biden was naive enough to think that Izetbegovic was
like most of leaders of states and that he was trying hard to preserve his
country instead of doing just the opposite. Senator Biden was unaware that
Izetbeghovic has signed a document for Lord Owen in September of 1993 (in
Geneva) where he (Izetbegovic) agrees to seek the end of the war in Bosnia
by dividing it in to three separate ethnic states.  As the result of that
signing, a new plan was developed of creating a "Union" in BH (of the
three states), which fortunately the BH Parliament rejected.  You might be
asking yourself now: "How is it possible that such an important signature
and agreement by Izetbegovic was unheard-of by the American Senators who
otherwise played such an important role in the Bosnian war.  The answer is
simple: "Who Izetbegovic really is and what does he really want is still a
mystery to most of the people.  That is one of the best kept secrets in
the Western diplomatic circles. Mr. Christop her revealed only a small
portion of the truth, and even then, only when forced to do so.  A similar
thing also happened to Lord Owen, who cornered by difficult questions of
reporters once admitted the same thing that Mr. Christopher did: "it is
the Bosnians (read: Izetbegovic) who are the ones who really want the
partition of Bosnia.  And that is the only part of that story that has
leaked out so far.  Bosnia's enemies know that without Izetbegovic's
signatures there can be no division of Bosnia and the creation of the
"Greater Serbia."  That is why Izetbegovic's true goals and aspirations
are a closely guarded secret, especially by Bosnia's enemies.  By
protecting Izetbegovic, they are also protecting his stature in the
Islamic world, from which Izetbegovic is getting his financial support. 
Izetbegovic is just one in a long line of "sold out" souls by which the
West controls the Islamic world.  He (Izetbegovic) is just one of the
Muslims who placed himself in the service against his own people, just so
he could get control of his own state, in which his power would be
absolute, his own version of an emirate.

             The Destruction of the Will to Fight

The second very important consequence of negotiations to "reconstruct BH," 
that is, the discussions about the BH constitution, was the drop off in
motivation by the Bosnians and the proportionate increase by the Serbs. 
But, before the negotiations and right after Bosnia's recognition,
situation was just the opposite.  The Bosnjaks received a goal that was
worth fighting for, the independence of their country (which was even
recognized as such by the rest of the world).  That recognition was the
guarantee of the Bosnia's victory in that war.  The Bosnjaks knew that an
internationally recognized state can not just disappear and its borders
could not be changed by force and their territory could not be ceded to
the aggressors. 

On the other hand, those same reasons were moral defeat for the Serbs. 
That was best proven by a village record keeper from the Eastern Bosnian
region of Zvornik, village of Kamenica.  Kamenica was a Bosnjak's (Muslim) 
village that was surrounded by the Serbs since the very start of the war.
I met him in Tuzla in January of 1993.  He was a thirty year old who was
very interesting to the news reporters since he kept a very meticulous and
detailed dairy of the events taking place in his village, which was
surrounded by the Serbs from the very beginning of the war.  However,
through a network of other villages and roads, it was connected to other
Bosnian held villages and towns, such as Zepa and Srebrenica.  The only
thing separating the whole free region from the other free Bosnian
territory of Tuzla was the Serbian controlled road from Zvornik to Han
Pijesak.  But that road was of great importance to the Serbs, since it was
their only communication between the state of Serbia and the Serbian held
Romanija region of Bosnia.  With the liberation of that road by the
Bosnian army, the whole Serbian controlled portion of Sarajevo region
could have been in jeopardy.  So to keep the road from being cut off, and
despite the shortage of men suffered by the Serbs , one section of the
road was routed through a railroad tunnel through a mountain, five
kilometers long.  But by the Serbs "going underground," the Bosnians were
using the mountain above the tunnel to supply their villages by
transporting everything by ha nd over the mountain.  The existence of
those paths across the mountain was such a well kept secret, that only a
few people that actually used it knew about it.  Their lives and the lives
of their families depended on the secret roads.  I was glad to know that
the Serbian encirclement of many of those villages wasn't complete.  I
found out about that road from some of the people from the village of
Kamenica that I have met earlier.  With them was the "record keeper."  At
that time I was still a news repor ter fro the "War Tribune," a paper
directed to the fighters from the town of Zvornik, so my publisher invited
me to talk to the record keeper.  My conversation with him explained why
the Bosnian were winning, despite the poor weapons and the general pover
ty.  It proved beyond any doubt that motivation was a far greater cause of
victory than just the material advantages.  Motivation is the deciding
factor in a war.  The fact is that a man values his life and will not
endanger it if he really doesn't have t o and if he doesn't have a large
enough (and of course, obtainable) goal.  According to the record keeper
from Kamenice, that is how the numerically superior Serbs, who had
unlimited supplies of ammunition were running away from the defenders of
Kamenica who only were given five bullets each.  The difference is that
the people from Kamenica were defending their own families and property.
By defending their property, they were also defending the source of their
livelihood, since without their lands, they could not survive.  On the
other side, the Serbs knew that their own families were safe and that they
are dying for nothing, since Bosnia -Herzegovina was already recognized as
an independent sovereign state, while at the same time the BH Army was
getting stronger by the day.  However, when Izetbegovic signed the
Vance-Owen plan in new York (March 1993) and when the Serbs realized that
Izet begovic was recognizing as Serbian all the lands they took by force,
their morale skyrocketed.  But the same signature (of the Vance-Owen plan) 
destroyed the BH Army morale.  For example, I met some Bosnians from Banja
Luka in the BH Embassy in Zagreb who refused to fight in the BH Army any
longer, since as far as they are concerned, the war is over.  Their city
(Banja Luka) was given to the Serbs and they no longer had the motivation
or a reason to fight on.  Also, the soldiers from Doboj that I met on the
market place in Tuzla told me that they don't want to fight and die in
vain, because Doboj belongs to "Muslims" according to Vance-Owen plan and
it will be given back by negotiations.

That reversal in the motivation of the two sides soon reflected itself on
the battlefield.  As early in April of 1993, a huge swath of BH territory
fell to the newly motivated Serbs.

According to the "Contact Group" plan, Srebrenica remains surrounded.  The
defenders of Srebrenica realized that there is no future in such a
permanently surrounded place, so why fight and die for nothing?  That is
the same question that destroys the morale and the one that the Serbs
were asking themselves after BH was recognized, and it is the same "morale
baster" that Izetbegovic had sown among Bosnian defenders. 


            "THE DEMILITARIZATION OF SARAJEVO -The betrayal of Gorazde"

Just as he did it to President Bush, Izetbegovic had succeeded in changing
Clintons BH policy.  Clinton had also started enthusiastically to help
Bosnia-Herzegovina.  We should remember the anger of Lord Owen, France,
England and the Russians because his administration had refused to
pressure BH to accept the "Union" plan, which Izetbegovic accepted but the
Bosnian Assembly rejected.  During that time (late 1993 and early 1994)
Christopher had often repeated that pressure can be exerted against
Serbia, the aggressor, but not against Bosnia, the victim. 

We should also remember the frustration of the Serbian friends, the
British, the French and the Russians, who unsuccessfully tried to pressure
Mr. Clinton in to not dropping food from the air to the surrounded BH
enclaves.  If those enclaves were supplied from the air, that meant that
the Serbs could no longer threaten and blackmail them.  Clinton decided
anyway to supply them from the air. Later, Izetbegovic agreed with the
Serbs and the U.N. to supply those areas over land instead from by the air
drops, so the air drop operation ended.  The Serbs could once again start
blackmailing the people of the surrounded enclaves. Clintons support for
BH was felt all the way to the ultimatum issued after the February 1994
massacre at market place in Sarajevo. The massacre of the 69 people in
that Sarajevo served as the opportunity for Clinton to give the Serbs an
ultimatum.  But instead of letting the Serbs be pressured by NATO and
America, Izetbegovic again jumped to their (Serb) rescue.  His restart of
negotiations with the Serbs at that time gave the Serbian supporters the
argument that no foreign power should attack Serbs militarily if the
negotiation are going on, and the "peace process" is continuing. 
According to the agreement signed by Izetbegovic, Bosn ia-Herzegovina,
which was not under any threats or ultimatums by the U.N. or NATO, also
gave up their weapons, just as the Serbs (who were under the NATO threat) 
did.  By that agreement, lines of demarcation were defined between the
"combatants" and the U.N. soldiers would take up positions in Sarajevo
according to those lines.  With that treasonous agreement signed by
Izetbegovic, it was in fact agreed that the U.N. would protect the areas
conquered by the Serbs.  That also gave the Serbs the opportunity to free
up troops they sorely needed on other fronts. For example, Gorazde was
endangered and attacked immediately, attacked by the same Serbian troops
that Izetbegovic helped to "free up" from Sarajevo.  The citizens of
Sarajevo defined the agreement on "demilitarizing" Sarajevo as "changing
the death sentence to a life in prison."  As a party to the agreement of
dividing Sarajevo, the Army of BH could no longer undertake any actions to
liberate their own territory.  Characteristic of other Izetbegovic's
agreements that favored the Serbs, Michael Rose, the U.N. commandeer in
Bosnia in August of 1994, threatened the BH Army with bombing if it does
not withdraw heavy weapons from within 20 kilometers from Sarayevo, and he
also forced the BH Army to withdraw from some of the most strategic
points surrounding the city.  So instead the Serbs being threatened by the
NATO and the U.N., they actually have gotten a better deal than the
Bosnians. 

75

After seeing what Izetbegovic has done with the ultimatum issued by the
American President, Clinton finally realized that Izetbegovic does not
want a unified BH.  Similarly to Bush, Clinton changed his policy towards
Bosnia after that failed ultimatum and gave up on any further efforts to
keep BH unified.  Before the 1996 (U.S.) Presidential elections, Clinton
must resolve the BH crisis.  If it wasn't for Izetbegovic's betrayal and
agreement that BH will be divided, the only option would have been the
protection of the unified state of BH, victim of the Serbian aggression. 
However, this way Izetbegovic gave Clinton the idea that the quickest and
simplest way to end the BH crisis is the partitioning of Bosnia.  That is
why his (Clintion's) administration is now pushing in that direction. 
Division of BH will not ruin Clinton's image with the American voters
because he isn't doing anything illegal.  The reason he isn't doing
anything wrong is that a country can be divided only if its government
agrees to it, and Izetbegovic has not only agreed to the division of BH,
he encouraged it and made it possible.  As Gorazde was encircled the
troops from Sarajevo couldn't help in Gorazde. 

The end of the 7th part.

[END OF PART SEVEN]

[PART EIGHT]