Frontier Post
7 May 1994
PROF. KHURSHID AHMAD
Condemning the United Nations for its failure to protect Bosnian people from genocide, the conference of international parliamentarians has called upon the UN secretary general, Boutros Ghali to resign for failing to give leadership to the world body.
The conference of “international parliamentarians against genocide in Bosnia, held last week in Brussels (Belgium) in a resolution expressed the view that the UN secretary general had lost the confidence of the world to save the Bosnians from Serbian aggression.
Jama’at Islami (JT’s) naib ameer Senator Prof. Khurshid Ahmed who attended the conference told PPI on his arrival here on Friday that the conference took strong exception to the dismal failure of the UN in fulfilling its obligation to protect Bosnia-Herzegovina, a Sovereign member state from Serbian aggression.
Prof. Khurshid said more than 150 parliamentarians from 53 countries participated in the two-day conference.
The Jama’at leader said the conference noted with concern that the so-called great powers, especially, the US. Britain. France and Russia had totally failed to fulfil their responsibility, both under the UN as well as NATO.
“The conference called for the elimination of the veto power vested in the so-called five permanent members because such veto power being responsible for blocking it from taking effective actions to protect the independence and sovereignty of Bosnia-Herzegovina,” maintained Prof. Khurshid.
He said it was a very important international conference because for the first time members of the parliament and religious leaders representing four major communities of the world-Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism met at the invitation of the president of the European Parliament Congress at the premises of the European Parliament in Brussels. The purpose, he said was to express viewpoint of the world parliamentarians on the current phase of Bosnian crisis and to suggest an effective response at the popular level to resolve this crisis.
Prof. Khurshid maintained the conference also came to the conclusion that Western powers were by and large following a policy of appeasement towards Serbian aggression and this was a reply of what happened before the World War 2 in the form of Nazi aggression. World could be saved from a new world war only by effectively containing the Serb aggression and forcing it to vacate land and power acquired by aggression.
The Jamaat senator said the conference also emphasised that UN embargo on arms to Bosnia lacked legitimacy, both legal as well as moral. Experts of international law, who participated in the conference, emphasised that the so-called sanctions were imposed on the former state of Yugoslavia even before Bosnia-Herzegovina came into existence and was recognised by the UN in May 1992.
The sanctions were extended to Bosnia only through a memorandum of Lord Karington, which was never ratified or endorsed by the UN Security Council.
In fact, UN and NATO have failed to effectively impose any economic or arms embargo on the Serbs and have also failed to provide the protection to the unarmed Bosnians who have been denied the opportunity of self-defence because of the arms embargo.
He said the conference declared that Bosnia-Herzegovina had the legal and constitutional right to defend and recover its rightful territory from the aggressors and in accordance with Article 51 of the UN charter.
Prof. Khurshid said the conference also called upon all members of the parliament and political groups to mobilise world opinion and to demand from their own governments to extend massive support to Bosnia for defence and rehabilitation.
The conference issued two documents—a declaration and communique—and has also established a permanent group to follow up mobilisation of international support, particularly of world parliaments, against genocide in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
