by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Penang on Wednesday, 9th February 1994:
The international community must not be deceived once again by the Serbs who are putting up a ‘soft and reasonable front’ after world revulsion of the massacre of 68 civilians at a Sarajevo marketplace by Serb mortar attack on Saturday
The world community must not be deceived once again by the Serbs who are putting up a ‘soft and reasonable front’ after world revulsion of the massacre of 68 civilians and wounding of nearly 200 at a Sarajevo market, place by Serb mortar attack on Saturday has put the greatest pressure to date on the UN, NATO and United States to launch air strikes to relieve the Bosnian capital.
It has been reported that Bosnian Serbs, apparently seeking to pre-empt the air strike threat, agreed to negotiate a peace deal for Sarajevo that would be separate from an overall settlement for ending fighting throughout Bosnia and that Serbian President, Slobodan Milosevic favoured demilitarising Sarajevo.
The Serbs in Bosnia had been employing the ‘jaw-jaw, war-war’ tactics in the last 22 months to pursue its masterplan of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnia – retreating to a ‘soft and reasonable front’ at peace talks when unspeakable atrocities compelled the UN, NATO and United States governments to consider the air-strike option.
However, when the UN, NATO and United States had been ‘softened up’ by the Serbian ‘jaw-jaw’ tactics at the negotiations table, and have lost, the will to seriously consider the air-strike option, they would revert to their ‘war-war’ tactics to continue with their interrupted masterplan of genocide and ethnic cleansing.
The UN, NATO and United States should not again fall victims to such ‘jaw-jaw, war-war’ tactics of the Bosnian Serbs, and must implement the UN resolution to relieve Sarajevo from the 22-month Serbian siege.
If the UN, NATO and United States again allow the Serbs to ‘soften’ their will to launch air-strikes to relieve Sarajevo by protracted but meaningless negotiations, then there would have to be another bigger bloodbath involving the massacre of more than 68 civilians before the West and the United States could be stirred to reconsider the air-strike option.
The spectacle of the United Nations Security Council, NATO and United States being repeatedly fooled by the ‘jaw-jaw, war-war’ tactics of the Serbs in Bosnia is not only a tragedy for the Bosnian Muslims and for humanity, but testifies to political bankruptcy and moral abdication of the world leaders.