BOSNIA:The Problem for Peace Activities
KALDOR, MARY
The Problem for Peace Activist BY MARY KALDOR What has happened in Bosnia is a shame. There is no other word for it. It is a failure and a humiliation. We should be deeply ashamed about the...
...There has to be a political strategy linked to the idea of safe havens, or humanitarian throughways...
...The international community has underestimated the political weakness of the exclusivist nationalists, especially the Bosnian Serbs and the Bosnian Croats...
...If the international community is to retain its political legitimacy, it cannot always remain neutral, since one side is likely to be more guilty than the other, even if both sides share some responsibility for the violence...
...It involves the disintegration of state structures, the privatization of violence, the manipulation of opinion through the electronic media, and widespread violations of international humanitarian law including civilian massacres, mass rape, systematic starvation, hostage-taking, and the destruction of historic and cultural sites...
...Artillery in the hills around Gorazde had to be removed with the assistance of tactical air power...
...That legitimacy was decisively lost in Srebrenica...
...forces and, probably also, Russian supplies to the Bosnian Serbs, the net outcome will be a long war and a victory for the more extreme nationalists on all sides who depend on a permanent war mentality...
...Does the so-called civilized world really require 150 sophisticated combat aircraft with an array of expensive infrastructure to deal with a group of primitive bandits...
...For more information, contact HCA, Milady Horakove 103, CZ-16000 Prague...
...It is archetypal of our age...
...We can expect a new plan, which all sides will never agree to, for dividing Bosnia...
...The U.N...
...Military intervention was judged appropriate in the case of international aggression, as in the Korean War or the Persian Gulf War...
...It means that ground troops have to be used and that air power has to be used tactically, to support the ground troops, for defense rather than for deterrence...
...e-mail hca@hca.cz...
...The position of the Republicans and many people on the American left is, in fact, much on the same line...
...Such an approach implies a difference between "neutrality" and "impartiality...
...Rather, what is important is the consent of the victims on all sides...
...The Americans are unwilling to lend the British and French helicopters to send reinforcements to Gorazde for fear the pilots will get killed...
...We have to show concern for everyone and not just "our boys...
...Once the tide begins to turn, then it is possible to start considering retaking the lost safe havens and/or adopting a new negotiating strategy based on the reintegration of Bosnia-Herzegovina and on specific issues on the ground...
...The clumsy compromise at the London Summit on July 20 is a victory for the Bosnian Serbs...
...If we are to put this moment of shame behind us, we can only do so by placing massive public pressure on politicians to defend safe havens effectively, by demanding that they keep their promises, and by offering all kinds of practical support for and solidarity with the victims of this war and with those who still hope for a unified, non-nationalist Bosnia-Herze-govina.M Mary Kaldor is a member of the Sussex European Institute at the University of Sussex in Brighton, England...
...fax 42-2-32-35-38...
...The so-called international community has given the green light to the Pale Serbs to occupy all the safe havens except Gorazde and Sarajevo...
...Once a divided Bosnia is back on the negotiating table, the Croats in Bosnia will want to join Croatia...
...Up to now, in Bosnia, the political strategy has been totally at variance with the strategy of safe havens...
...Meanwhile, the repeated failure of the international community to fulfill its promises to demilitarize and defend safe areas, to enforce the no-fly zone, or to keep open humanitarian throughways greatly undermines the credibility of international institutions as well as those local political constituencies for internationalist values...
...Now, NATO members think it is sufficient for Europeans to drive around in tanks in central Bosnia and to threaten air strikes...
...The war in Bosnia is not simply a local Bosnian occurrence...
...diaspora nationalists...
...In Somalia, the U.N...
...Governments must view peacekeeping as a form of international policBRAD HOLLAND ing...
...Secretary General in Zagreb...
...The decision to defend Sarajevo and Gorazde, which should, of course, have been taken three years ago, is a welcome relief...
...not to mention journalists and humanitarian agencies...
...The war rages on in the name of exclusivist labels—nations, peoples, clans, gangs, tribes...
...This must be done for Gorazde, Tuzla, and Sarajevo...
...In Bosnia, as in Somalia, the aim of the intervention is humanitarian: to deliver aid and protect safe havens...
...The attempt to achieve a political solution through talks with the warring sides has failed...
...The Russians are totally against any kind of fighting in Bosnia...
...She has traveled to Bosnia with the Helsinki Citizens Assembly, which is planning to hold an assembly of all non-nationalist groups in Bosnia and abroad October 20-25 in Tuzla...
...In Bosnia, equally disastrously, the U.N...
...It is this internationalist political commitment that has been missing from the debate about Bosnia so far...
...operation is something to be proud of...
...Sometimes, as in Bosnia, this means being closer to one side than another simply because one side is more responsible for violations of international principles...
...We are here to deter not to protect," says Yasushi Akashi, the representative of the U.N...
...This means a change in the rules of engagement, reinforcements, and very clear guidelines about the behavior of U.N...
...If we look at the war from this point of view, it is clear that the U.N...
...In Srebrenica, the Dutch had antitank weapons and could have knocked out the Serbian tanks...
...Generals always fight the last war, in this case, the Cold War...
...How can the moral myopia of the key actors in the so-called international community be cured...
...Rebuilding legitimacy has to be done from the bottom up...
...The fundamental problem is the unwillingness to commit sufficient ground troops and to risk casualties...
...foreign mercenaries set loose by post-Cold War defense cuts...
...The aim is to create spaces in which alternatives to ex-clusivism can flourish...
...If, for once, one of the politicians would say "sorry" to the people of Srebrenica, that could be a starting point for a different approach...
...The Americans are wedded to the concept of deterrence...
...Under this scenario, Tuzla, the town that has managed to preserve a non-nationalist politics throughout the war, will become vulnerable because it lies between the two halves of Serb-occupied territories and the Bosnian Serbs will want to improve their position on the ground...
...They did not do so because their commander had been instructed to avoid casualties at all costs...
...Impartiality means upholding international principles in an impartial way...
...The embargo will be lifted by the Islamic countries and perhaps also the United States, and we can expect a long war with a lot of casualties and the growth of Muslim nationalism on the Bosnian side...
...They have not resulted in a cease-fire and they have stimulated fighting for territory...
...In such a case the U.N...
...Through effective protection, demilitarization, assistance to economic and civic reconstruction, these spaces can become models that radiate outwards and undermine the spread of violence from the war zones...
...The latest plan, the contact-group plan, which was at least supposed to hold Bosnia together, is finished...
...Neutrality means not taking sides...
...Public opinion is equally culpable because it has failed to put effective pressure on governments...
...Although the American and Russian positions appear to be sharply polarized, in fact, they both end up hand-in-glove with the Bosnian Serbs...
...In Bi-hac, air strikes should be used in order to make it possible to send reinforcements...
...Their continued rule depends on domestic terror and a continued war mentality...
...But they are willing to threaten massive air strikes even if many people get killed on the ground and the British and French soldiers are taken hostage...
...has to rearrange military tactics around the goals of the new peacekeeping...
...They insist that all sides are equally guilty and that only a political solution negotiated between the parties can end the war—a position that sits rather oddly with their role in Chechnya...
...Because there was no war in Europe, NATO members believe deterrence works...
...The international community has to represent a new kind of politics, which is totally and clearly opposed to exclusivism of any kind, and which acts in ways that can be widely regarded as legitimate...
...In contrast, peacekeeping was based on consent of the warring sides...
...should tolerate the terrorization of other safe havens—Zepa, Bihac, and perhaps Tuzla as well...
...has tried to keep to the traditional concept of peacekeeping...
...There has to be an international response to these wars...
...Tuzla, which is the only municipality in Bosnia with a non-nationalist local government, is one such space...
...We should be deeply ashamed about the atrocities we have witnessed in Srebrenica and Zepa, the utter inability of the international community to keep its promises, and the unwillingness of our politicians to admit their guilt...
...Above all, we must rebuild the support and trust of the people of Bosnia...
...The federation between the Croats and Muslims is unlikely to hold together...
...Its purpose is to create the conditions in which international principles based on human values can survive...
...How can they continue to insist that the U.N...
...It is simply not possible to insulate a country, or even a continent, from the increased criminal activity, the refugees, the xenophobic ideologies generated by these new wars...
...It has been based on trying to reach an unholy compromise between the warring sides...
...But how can you deter effectively without protection...
...Luckily, the Russians never invaded...
...A series of failed plans have proposed to carve up Bosnia into exclusivist nationalist chunks...
...approved the use of force under Chapter VII of the Charter, and U.N...
...adopted the war-fighting approach, and it was a disaster...
...troops: respect for local populations, punishment for those who engage in black-market activities, and scrupulous adherence to the laws of war...
...They have made a start in Sarajevo...
...The forces in the safe havens must be instructed in the future to develop a strategy for effective defense...
...At this point, probably the best way forward is for the British and French to go it alone under a U.N...
...Had they done so, the story might have been very different...
...The United Nations has coasted along on the legitimacy established after World War II, when the world was filled with moral fervor and optimism...
...The very scale of the proposed air strikes transforms the image of the Bosnian Serbs, turning them into an apparently formidable opponent...
...They drove around in tanks in Germany and threatened "deep strikes" into Warsaw Pact territory...
...Gorazde could also be reinforced either by air using U.S...
...helicopters or by road if the convoy is properly protected...
...The actors are global as well as local transnational criminal networks, especially arms dealers...
...It has to rally around a local internationalist or cosmopolitan constituency...
...And the war is likely to spread because of the way that the international community has condoned ethnic nationalism...
...observed a sharp distinction between military intervention and peacekeeping...
...foes took sides...
...In a war in which one side regularly resorts to blackmail, it is not possible to operate on the basis of consent of the warring sides...
...The aim is to minimize all casualties, especially of noncombatants, and not just casualties to "our side...
...There is no room in this scheme for anything between traditional peacekeeping based on neutrality and consent, and war-fighting on the Persian Gulf War model—that is, the use of massive air strikes on one side...
...While it draws on local and particular histories, it is characteristic of spreading patterns of violence to be found in large parts of Africa, South Asia, and the former Soviet Union, and it has echoes on the streets of Western Europe and the United States...
...The consent of the warring parties, though desirable, is very difficult in such conditions...
...Their demands are irreconcilable...
...Any international intervention has to be able to mobilize local support...
...In the past, the U.N...
...This requires, among other things, a change in our own discourse...
...Gorazde will be traded for a Berlin situation in Sarajevo and the safe havens will be abandoned...
...It is a loss not just for Bosnia but for the future of European and international institutions...
...But that does not mean that the U.N...
...What we need is a new approach to peacekeeping that matches the new nature of these wars, an approach that breaks with the national mindset about the nature of war...
...It simply expresses what Czech President Vaclav Havel has called the "crisis of cowardice...
...The main purpose of peacekeeping was to police cease-fires...
...cannot withdraw, that all safe havens have to be defended, including the Eastern enclaves, that the siege of Sarajevo must be lifted, and that artillery positions around Tuzla must be removed...
...mandate and to use the very substantial ground forces now in Central Bosnia for effective protection of safe havens...
...Precisely because the war in Bosnia is archetypal, this is a moment that could determine the ability of international institutions to manage this form of transnational disintegrative violence in the future...
...While it is undoubtedly true that the Bosnians need heavy weapons, if this means withdrawal of U.N...
Vol. 59 • September 1995 • No. 9
