by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Penang on Monday, 14th February 1994:
February 21 deadline is the last chance for the UN and the West to prove that they are serious about wanting to impose peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina
The February 21 deadline for the Serbs to withdraw and surrender the heavy artillery surrounding Sarajevo is the last chance for the United Nations, NATO and the United States to prove that they are serious about wanting to impose peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The Serbs will be resorting to their delaying tactics which had been successful for 22 months so far – to undermine the resolve of the United Nations and the West to use the air-strike option, and this is confirmed by latest reports that the Serbs are demanding that Bosnian troops withdraw from their positions defending Sarajevo.
The Serb rebels had refused to turn over their heavy weapons to UN control unless Bosnian troops pulled back from their posts guarding Sarajevo.
The UN, NATO and the United States must reject the latest Serbs demands as another ploy to defeat the NATO ultimatum to use air strike if the heavy Serb guns are not withdrawn by midnight on February 20, and confirm their resolve to launch air strikes not only against the Serb guns surrounding Sarajevo, but also the Serb guns besieging the six other Muslim enclaves which the UN had declared as ‘safe areas’.
Governments of the world should demand the resig¬nation of Boutros Boutros-Ghali as UN Secretary-General if he compromises on the February 21 ultimatum and backs clown from the air-strikes
All Governments in the world must send urgent messages to the UN Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, NATO and the United States President, Bill Clinton, impressing on them that there can be no compromise of the February 21 ultimatum.
The Governments, of the world should demand the resig¬nation of Boutros Boutros-Ghali as UN Secretary-General if he again fails the international community by compromising on the February 21 ultimatum and backing down from the air-strikes.
The least the UN, NATO and the United States can do after the 22-month Bosnian Holocaust is to lift the siege of the Bosnian capital, where 65,000 residents had been killed or wound¬ed.