Install

Get the latest updates as we post them — right on your browser

Today's paper. Last Updated: 06/01/2012

Bosnian President Blasts World Leaders

BUDAPEST -- Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic slammed world leaders Monday for standing by while "Serb aggressors" dismembered his country, but warned his people would fight on for their rights.


"Against a serious illness they applied tranquilizers," he said in an emotional address to a summit of the 53-nation Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe shortly after President Bill Clinton appealed to the Bosnian Serbs to come to the negotiating table.


Izetbegovic told world leaders in sacrificing Bosnia they had allowed the public humiliation of the United Nations and NATO, but he warned that their inaction would return to haunt them.


"The result shall be a discredited United Nations, a ruined NATO ... there will be a different, worse world," he said, adding he made no apologies for telling appeasers of Serb aggression what they did not want to hear.


He singled out Britain, France and Russia for a special tongue-lashing, strongly hinting Moscow was responsible for supplying the Bosnian Serbs with 150 newly-deployed missile systems.


"Paris and London have from the very beginning taken the role of Serbia's protectors," Izetbegovic said.


He lashed out at the world's refusal to act to halt a Serb advance on the so-called "safe haven" of Bihac, an issue which has triggered violent exchanges between Washington and its European allies and came close to splitting NATO.


"NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization) cannot save one endangered city," he said, adding failure to take a stand time and again had led to the current crisis.


Earlier Monday, President Clinton called on Bosnia's warring factions to "stop spilling blood and make peace" and urged the Serbs to come to the negotiating table.


"End your aggression, agree a cease-fire, settle your differences around the negotiating table," Clinton said.


Croatian President Franjo Tudjman accused the international community of a "hesitant and lukewarm response" to the war in former Yugoslavia.


He reiterated a warning to Bosnian Serbs that Croatia was ready to intervene with "decisive measures" if their forces continued to violate Croatian borders.


The remarks by Izetbegovic, who made no mention of a peaceful settlement and said his country would continue its "liberation war," signalled a fresh blow to hopes of a negotiated settlement to the 32-month-old conflict.


Britain, France and the United States nonetheless held a hurried series of meetings to push forward negotiations.


Clinton held brief talks with Tudjman and Izetbegovic while British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd and his French counterpart Alain Jupp?, fresh from a flying visit to Belgrade on Sunday where they won Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's endorsement for the contact group plan -- which envisages a possible Serb confederation -- also met Tudjman.




This article has no comments.

Be the first to leave a comment


Discussion
The Moscow Times welcomes your comments and invites you to discuss topics with other readers. Your comment will be posted automatically to enable a live discussion. If you aren't familiar with our comments policy, you can read it here.

If you're a registered user, you can start typing your comment below. If not, take a moment to sign up. and then return to the article.

If your comment doesn't appear, contact us by using our web form.

Comments

Comments via Facebook



print


Comments

This article has no comments.

Be the first to leave a comment





Most Read
 

7 Years Ago Today a Prison Sentence Was Read

Array
The Meshchansky District Court on Tuesday convicted Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev of fraud and tax evasion and sentenced them both to nine years in a prison camp, ending the biggest trial in the country's post-Soviet history.