Remembering the US Role in the Bosnian Struggle for Independence
By Dr Basheer Ahmed Khan
Garden Grove, CA
Bosnians gathered in their thousands at the Cemetery of Potocari on July 10, 2013 to bury the remains of about 409 victims of ethnic cleansing recovered from mass graves. The remains of about 8000 bodies that were discovered about a decade ago were identified through DNA analysis and of these about 6000 were identified and buried in the Potocoari Cemetery. Amongst the remains of 409 victims that were buried on July 10, 2013 were the bones of a new born baby, who was buried next to the grave of her father who was also a victim of the Srebrenica massacre of 1995.
The burial ceremony with mourning relatives in attendance presented a grim scene. Thousands of white tombstones interspersed at regular intervals in the backdrop of lush green vegetation presented a picture of life embracing death in pursuit of inalienable rights bestowed on them by their creator for freedom, liberty and pursuit of happiness. This solemn event was telecast by some of the major TV networks and kindled memories of the long struggle of the Bosnian people. I was also privileged to be a part of this struggle by virtue of my being in the USA which steered Bosnia through its harsh struggle to independence when Europe and NATO had almost abandoned it.
Brief history of the region
Even though Muslims had reached Spain in the early 8 th century AD through Morocco, it was after the demise of the Abbasid Dynasty in 13 th century AD that Turks made inroad into Eastern Europe. As the expanding Turkish Empire became weak, large Muslim populations in the Balkans became part of various empires and kingdoms of the region. In the post-World War II world, Muslims remained as a part of polity of various nation states of the region. They got their own state of Albania, and had a great majority in the Socialist Republic of Bosnia Herzegovina and Kosovo which formed two of the 8 constituents of the Yugoslavian Republic under General Tito who ruled over it as its iron man from 1941-1980.
Economic, educational and political conditions of Muslims in the communist USSR and Socialist Yugoslavia were much better than that of Muslims in the so-called Muslim countries. When the inherent error in the state managed economy with no incentives for personal ownership failed the Communist experiment in the USSR, Socialist experiment in Yugoslavia also felt the strain. The system of Presidency by rotation which went into effect after the death of Tito in 1980 added more to the problems of Yugoslavia.
Those who were waiting for this opportunity to advance their desire to grab power in the area of their ethnic influence became bold causing disintegration and chaos in the region. Soon after the disintegration of the USSR in 1991, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia which were parts of Yugoslavia declared independence from it. Serbia which controlled the military assets of undivided Yugoslavia could not stop this disintegration. It decided to expand the territory for Greater Serbia of Serbs by undertaking ethnic cleansing of Bosnians and Croats. While Croats had the support of their brethrens in Europe to fight back Serbians and take the war to Serbian territory, Bosnian Muslims who were helpless suffered ethnic cleansing first at the hands of the heavily armed Serbians and later the Croats.
Europe and NATO who were entrusted with the task of protecting the Bosnians by the UN were content to make some concentration camps and death traps as safe havens for Bosnians. The European forces in NATO which were responsible for protection of these hapless people would run at the first shot fired by the Serbs leaving the Bosnians as easy preys. This agony of Bosnians went on for four long years. Visit of two lady PMs, MS Ciller of Turkey and Benazir of Pakistan, to express solidarity with the suffering people of Bosnia amidst chaotic conditions in Sarajevo was the only visible sign of the empathy of Muslim Governments. Other rulers of Muslim countries might have been engaged in back channel diplomacy.
Under these difficult circumstances it was the US which stood its ground after little reluctance and lot of coaxing.
I remember with gratitude the role played by Congressman Dana Rohrabacher from Newport Beach and his staff who worked tirelessly to keep the American public informed about the ethnic cleansing that was taking place in the heart of Europe. His staffers made several trips to Bosnia to get first hand information and apprise the Congressman to present his case in the congress to act and stop the massacre. Thanks are due to Mr Safi Qureshey, then CEO of AST Computers, and Mr Saghir Aslam who used their good relations with Mr. Rohrabacher to advance the cause of Bosnian people.
I got my first information about the grimness of the situation in Bosnia through a presentation made at ISOC by the staffers of the congressman who had just returned from their trip to Bosnia. Congressman Rohrabacher was present at the meeting. He stole the hearts of the gathering through his genuine sympathy for the suffering people of Bosnia.
I got involved in many of the meetings that were conducted later by the representative of the Bosnian government in California, Mr. Mufid, at ISOC to advance the cause of the Bosnian struggle. In one such meeting a new Muslim from Spain put us to shame when he said, “Our words of sympathy for the suffering people of Bosnia are hollow till we don’t lose our sleep to pray for them and miss our meals in empathy for their hunger.” We collected about 5000 signatures to a petition at the Eid ul Adha prayer in 1992 demanding the end of arms embargo and forwarded them to President Bush and Secretary of State Mr Eagleburger. There were several well attended rallies before the Federal Building in LA addressed by leaders of several faiths to stop the genocide in heart of Europe.
During this period the Mufti of Sarajevo visited ISOC. He belied my impression that Muslims of East Europe and USSR had lost their religious moorings under the communist rule. The Mufti spoke in chaste Arabic and said, “I have not come here to seek any help from you; I have come here to seek your prayer. We don’t need anybody’s help, this is our war and we will emerge victorious from it by the grace of Allah. We need only your prayers.” What a message of hope in God in an hour of utter despair!
After handing over power to a democratically elected government conducted under his aegis and relinquishing his command of Pakistan Army Gen Aslam Baig also visited ISOC during this period. I had a chance to talk to him in the verandah on the side of the old ISOC mosque. I told him about the sufferings of the Bosnian people and requested him to go to Bosnia to lead the struggle on behalf of the helpless people. His reply was that there is no military solution to this problem. He further said the major power should put diplomatic pressure on Serbia to relent. After hearing his views I realized the problem of the Muslim world is that those who are in a position to do something are constrained by its limitation, and those who ought to be minding their business are plunging Muslims into needless confrontations. This thought which came to my mind then is more relevant today.
Taking every opportunity to address a functionary of the government I wrote several letters to them urging them to act on behalf of the people of Bosnia. Two such letters that I wrote to President Bill Clinton and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole are memorable to me not for what I wrote but for the courtesy of their considerate response outlining their thinking about the problem. While Sen. Bob Dole answered to my letter almost immediately, President Bill Clinton’s office held my letter for five months till a policy was formulated by his government to give an appropriate reply. The attitude of these two great leaders of this great country towards the concern of their citizenry amazed me and generated spontaneous and profuse admiration. We can only wish that the leaders of Muslim countries are half as responsible to their citizens as the leaders of this great country. Following is the text of my letter to President Clinton and Sen. Bob Dole and their replies to me:
My Letter to President Clinton
May 29, 1995
Honorable Bill Clinton
Respected Sir,
Sub: Suffering of people of Bosnia.
As we thought it convenient to forget or ignore the lessons of the three-year-old Balkan conflict, we are still confronted with the question: How can peace be restored to Balkan?
This reminds me of a story we had read in our primary school. An ox enters the lawn of a veterinarian and starts to vandalize it. The vet comes out with his baseball bat but is unable to charge the ox because his knowledge of the anatomy confronts him with possible injuries to the animal. The ox continues to graze and vandalize the beautiful lawn. At this juncture, the gardener enters the lawn. He is outraged at the spoiling of his effort. He takes a stick and unmindful of the anatomy beats the ox and chases it out.
The Western powers into whose hands God has entrusted the destiny of the world are behaving like the veterinarian and the garden of Bosnia is being destroyed by the Serbian bulls. Worse still, by imposing the unjustifiable arms embargo, they have taken away the stick from the hands of the Bosnian gardener who could have deterred the Serbian bulls.
I can understand that lives of the people in America and Europe are too precious to be lost to save the lives, property and honor of Bosnians who are not strategically important to them. As fair people at the helm of affairs it is the duty of America and Europe that they instantly arm the Bosnians and support them against the Serbians by air power till a political settlement is reached with the recalcitrant Serbian leadership.
If Bosnia is lost to the aggressive designs of the Serbian warlords due to the inaction of America and Europe, the secular and multi-religious societies in the entire world will have their share of trouble and the subsequent polarization of the world on religious line will spell unimaginable disaster to this beautiful world.
Sincerely,
Basheer Ahmed Khan
President Bill Clinton’s Reply
Seal of the Office of President
The White House
Washington
October 25, 1995
Basheer A. Khan
10492 Fredrick Drive
Villa Park, California 92667
Dear Basheer:
I appreciate hearing your views regarding the situation in the former Yugoslavia.
This past summer, I decided that the time had come to launch an all out effort to achieve a peaceful solution to the conflict. I was convinced that the dramatic changes on the ground, along with NATO’s renewed commitment to use air power to protect the safe areas in Bosnia, provided a window of opportunity to achieve a comprehensive settlement that could finally end the conflict. Since mid-August, an American negotiating team has been conducting virtually nonstop shuttle diplomacy with the parties to the conflict. Thanks to the US leadership, important results have been achieved.
NATO air power has been instrumental in helping to end the siege of Sarajevo. In September, our negotiating team secured the agreement of the parties to basic principles of a peace settlement in Bosnia. These principles confirm that Bosnia will remain as a single, internationally recognized state with its present borders. Earlier this month, our negotiators gained the parties’ agreement to a nationwide cease-fire and to the commencement of peace talks beginning on October 31 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.
Many difficult issues remain to be solved in the coming weeks, but I believe we may be closer than at any time in the past four years to a lasting peace in the former Yugoslavia. I have instructed my negotiators to spare no effort in clearing away the remaining obstacles to a settlement.
Thank you for your interest in this critical issue.
Sincerely,
Seal of Bill Clinton Signature.
My Letter to Senate Majority Leader
Sen. (R) Bob Dole (Kansas)
Bob Dole
Senate Majority Leader
Washington D C
Dear Sir,
I was delighted to hear about your plan of action in Bosnia and the dangers of a policy of appeasement with a force that has nothing but contempt for international law, UNO and human sufferings. Right of self-defense of a nation conceded by UN Charter and ignored by powerful members of United Nations has received support from a powerful leader like you for the first time in this three-year conflict. May God give the conviction of your soul to the word of your mouth and may God help you to getting the support of your colleagues in the cause of suffering people.
God will solve the problems of America because of its resolve to solve the problems of mankind and not by running away from it. America is a great nation today because of the sacrifices of its people in the past. America can’t retain this greatness by abandoning the spirit to fight injustice and by making allies with forces of injustice.
Let me caution you that forces of reaction to the collapse of Soviet Union after having received the life blood from American economic system are mustering their strength for a showdown with America again. Balkan is their test shot. Building a rift between America and Islamic world is another ploy towards this showdown. America needs to understand its friends and its competitors and deal appropriately with each of them if it has to retain its status as the sole Super Power.
American national interest is remaining great. America can’t remain be great by acting small before renegade leaders like Karadzic. Warren Christopher and his friends who are duping the American people to buy European thinking in the name of national interest should open their eyes to this reality.
Wishing you wisdom and strength to lead the world into a Just World Order.
Sincerely,
Basheer A. Khan
(Note: Warren Christopher referred to in the above letter was the Secretary of State in the first Clinton Administration)
Reply of Sen. Bob Dole
United States Senate
Washington DC 205-10-1601
January 10, 1995
Mr. Basheer A. Khan
10492 Fredrick Drive
Villa Park, California 92667
Dear Mr. Khan:
Thank you for taking the time to share with me your comments regarding the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I appreciate hearing from you.
Since the war began nearly three years ago, I have been watching events in Bosnia-Herzegovina with great concern and have discussed the tragic developments there with US, European, and Bosnian officials. The United Nations and the European Union have advocated a number of different policies in response to the war in Bosnia, none of which has succeeded in ending the war. Despite periodic cease-fires, the fighting continues, while the suffering of the innocent civilians increases.
While it is clear that the policies of the European Union and the United Nations have failed, there are other options - options which would support the sovereignty of the Bosnian State, promote its survival, and may prove to be less costly. I have consistently supported lifting the US arms embargo on Bosnia. The illegal arms embargo against Bosnia violates its inherent right to self-defense - a right which is recognized in Article 51 of the UN Charter. On several occasions throughout the past two years, I have offered legislation along with Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) that would lift the arms embargo. Both the House and the Senate have voted to terminate the arms embargo on Bosnia and Herzegovina unilaterally if a multilateral termination is not forthcoming.
Recent developments in Bihac have forced both our NATO allies and the UN to reevaluate their Bosnia policy. In my view, planning for the withdrawal of UN Protection Forces (UNPROFOR) is the appropriate course of action. Clearly, as the developments throughout Bosnia demonstrate, these forces are in danger and are unable to protect themselves, let alone fulfill their mandate - - despite their continuing courage under difficult circumstances.
Once the UN forces are withdrawn, the way would be cleared for NATO to carry out effective air strikes, and for the arms embargo to be lifted against the Bosnians so that they may, at long last, defend themselves. Realistically, without UNPROFOR’s withdrawal, the lifting of the arms embargo and robust air strikes against Bosnian Serb military targets, such as ammunition dumps, fuel depots and air fields, cannot occur. However, the President has decided to provide US forces, including up to 25,000 ground troops, if necessary, to assist in the withdrawal of UNPROFOR. Congress will need to discuss these plans in detail with the administration. Essential to congressional support for any operation potentially involving US ground forces, will be a firm commitment from the administration that the US and not the UN will be in command of any such operation. Right now, NATO air crews are at risk because UN commander refuse to allow NATO to take normal defensive measures to address the threat posed by Bosnian Serb air defenses. Under no circumstances should the ability of American forces to take measures in self- defense be subject to such UN restriction.
Again, thank you for writing. You may be certain that I will continue to monitor events in Bosnia and Herzegovina closely and that I will continue to encourage action to bring about an end to the hostilities in the region.
Sincerely yours,
Signature of Bob Dole
BOB DOLE
United States Senate
Thanks to President Bill Clinton, Senator Bob Dole and their teams for keeping up to the plan of action detailed in their letters to me. Thanks to General Wesley Clark and the brave men and women of US Armed Forces under his command who after a brief operation forced the Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic to the negotiating table. A marathon meeting at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton Ohio took place under the auspices of the US from Nov 1-25 of 1995. This meeting was attended by Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, Croatian President Franjo Tudman and Bosnian President Alija Izatbegovic. The accord which was concluded at this meeting was signed in Paris on 14 December 1995. As per the accord the three major ethnic groups of Balkan are all living in peace however uneasy and challenging it may be. Thanks to Richard Holbrooke, the Chief Negotiator on behalf of the US, who successfully organized and conducted the deliberations at Dayton. I have not seen a more vigorous diplomat than him both in appearance and in content. His untimely death is a great loss to mankind. May his soul rest in peace and his family prosper. May God bless all of those who helped the Bosnians and all the other people of the region to live in peace. Let us pray for lasting peace not just in the Balkans but all over the world. For this we must be conscious of mischief-makers on both sides of the divide and take care of them before they become a menace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bih_dayton_en.png
The map depicting the delineation of Serb-controlled and Bosnian-controlled areas in Bosnia Herzegovina accepted at Dayton Accord.
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