16 Dec 1994 01:27:03 GMT California Institute of Technology, Pasadena 

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                 IZETBEGOVIC SPEECH AT BUDAPEST

Dec. 7 --AN ARMY OF 150,000 COMMITTED SOLDIERS WILL MAKE SURE 
THAT THE BOSNIAN CAUSE IS NOT LOST, the Bosnian President Alia 
Izetbegovic declared in his statement at the Budapest CSCE summit 
two days ago. The following is the full text of his statement, as 
obtained in the English-language translation by Bosnia's TWRA news 
agency: 

     ``Mr. Chairman, Presidents of States and Governments, Ladies
and Gentlemen, allow me to thank the Hungarian government and its
people as the hosts of this gathering for the hospitality they
have shown to us. 
     ``The recent developments in our country have filled me with
bitterness, and so here I will be short and forthright. 
     ``There is more than a touch of irony in the fact that in
front of this high forum of an organization created twenty years
ago, with the aim of Security and Cooperation, such as it is
encompassed in its title, I have to speak about something
completely opposite--insecurity and non-cooperation. For it is
mild to just say that this, what is happening in Bosnia, is the
weakness of the West. Unfortunately, this is something more
substantial than that. 
     ``A month ago, the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina
took a new turn. The rebel Serbs in Croatia, from the so-called
UNPA zone, had attacked from the rear the 5th Corps of the Army
of Bosnia and Herzegovina, triggering the so-called . From a 
U.N.-protected area in one country, a U.N. safe
area of another country was attacked. Nothing is being undertaken
indeed, it is proclaimed that nothing could be undertaken. The
whole of the international community, embodied in the United
Nations and the mighty NATO; cannot save one endangered city! Is
it possible that all this could be true? Here are some facts: 
     ``In the six months prior to the attack on the Bihac region,
the population therein was being deliberately starved,
humanitarian convoys had ceased going through (of 143 convoys,
only 12 succeeded in getting through, whilst 131 convoys were
returned). Prior to the attack the French battalion was withdrawn
from the Bihac region. It was replaced by a Bangladeshi unit
which is both small in size and inadequately armed. 
     ``A media blockade created for the whole of the region which
was left without a single foreign journalist, whilst UNPROFOR had
continually in its reports, considerably reduced the significance
as well as the substance of attacks. Could this entire series of
events have been a pure coincidence? 
     ``One gentleman, a high-ranking official, with cynical
indifference proclaims to the world and to the people threatened
by slaughter and destruction, that the Serbs are the victors. As
if we were a football match, he whistles the end. But because
this is a battle for survival, this is not the end, the battle
shall continue, so Bihac, Kladusa, Cazin, and Krupa are all after
a whole month of offensives against them still fighting back. I
could list, to the gentleman whom I just have mentioned, numerous
times of when the prognoses of his esteemed colleagues had been
seriously wrong. In fact the opposite is coming true of all which
they had predicted. 
     `` These are not my words, but a recent quote of
the Society for the Threatened People from Goettingen. And what
do I say about the Russian behaviour? Russia vetoes the
resolutions of the Security Council and votes that petroleum be
delivered to the Croatian Serbs, whilst at the same time they
prohibit the passage of food and medicines to the starving people
of the Bihac region. And, of course, the inescapable question:
Karadzic's Serbs have deployed over one hundred and fifty rocket
systems throughout Bosnia. Where did they get them from? What
shall be the result of the Bosnian war which is now being
prolonged due to a mixture of hesitation, incapability and
sometimes even ill will of the West? 
     ``The result shall be: a discredited UN, a ruined NATO,
demoralized Europeans with a feeling of incapability to react to
the first crisis after the Cold War. There will be a different,
worse world in which the relations between Eurpe and the USA, the
West and Russia and the West and the Muslim world shall never
again be the same. I agree with those who predict (I quote):
. 
     ``Clearly, many have underrated the events in Bosnia. At the
beginning that was a regional crisis then it became a European
crisis, and today, no doubts, it is a world crisis. Therefore,
defense or the fall of Bihac is of global significance and that
question is of concern to all of us here. Against brutal
aggression, genocide of recently unwitnessed proportions, and
concentration camps, the West had reacted with the so-called
. Against a serious illness they applied
tranquilizers till the illness in accordance with the
expectations, perhaps even according with the plan, inflames even
further. And now the  has been turned into
blackmail, and lately into double blackmail for our people. We
deserved to be helped as we had not been sitting by idly with
crossed arms. We have shown resistance, which, for many of you,
was unexpected and unexplainable. 
     ``From only about a hundred small groups made up of 20 to
150 armed people with only light guns, at the beginning of the
aggression, we have made an army of 150,000 soldiers, which has
neutralized tens of thousands of aggressor soldiers and has
destroyed more than 1,000 of their armored vehicles and tanks. As
our defense grew stronger, your readiness to help us grew less
and less. Why? Is there an answer? 
     ``Mr. President, this war in Bosnia was, and still is, a
conflict of democracy and the darkest form of nationalism or
racism. Our enemies recognize only one ethnicity: their
ethnicity; only one religion: their religion; only one political
party: their party. All that is is not theirs is condemned to be
exterminated. Even the cemeteries have been ploughed up. Please,
read the last report of the UN Special Envoy Mr. Mazowiecki about
all that is happening in the areas under the control of the
aggressor. 
     ``I would like to ask some of the gentlemen who are so
devotedly helping to make a state out of this monstrosity which
has proclaimed itself a --some of whom are
sitting in this very room--will they tomorrow ask for the
recognition of this , so as that their creators can
join us in this room next time? I would like to ask these
gentlemen whether they will, or whether they are preparing to
invite what would be a creation conceived on tyranny and
genocide, into the family of the civilized countries? 
     ``Tomorrow, I will be going from here to Geneva, to the
meeting of the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation)
ministers. As I have told you, I will tell them the truth about
what is occurring and about the reasons of these occurrences in
Bosnia and Herzegovina. I will tell that to the governments and
to the people of the Muslim countries. 
     ``In the liberation wars there is some undefinable
dimension, which resists all analysis. As a consequence of this
factor, certain military and political analysts are continually
giving a wrong prognosis. Our people are fighting for their
freedom, and more than that--for their survival. Such a battle is
usually difficult to carry out, but it is very difficult to lose.
No liberation war has been lost in the past fifty years. I do not
know why ours would be lost. No one can force our 150,000
soldiers to hand over their weapons. I would suggest everyone to
take account of this fact, as much as for us as for themselves. 
     ``I hope that the friends of Bosnia shall not take an
offense in these words, and for those others, after all that has
occurred, I do not care. Thank you!'' 
                                                   

end.