by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Penang on Saturday, February 19. 1994:
NATO, US and UN should, launch air strikes against Serb artillery besieging Sarajevo and. in other parts of Bosnia one minute past the midnight ultimatum tomorrow to demonstrate a new ‘no-non-sense’ approach
NATO should launch air strikes against the Serb artillery besieging Sarajevo and in other parts of Bosnia one minute past the midnight ultimatum tomorrow to demonstrate a new ‘no-nonsense’ approach of the United Nations and the West.
Once the 10-day NATO deadline expires on midnight tomorrow, and the Serbs had not complied fully with the ultimatum, NATO warplanes based in Italy and on carriers in the Adriatic should not only strike immediately at the big guns, tanks and mortars within 20 km of Sarajevo, but also at the other Serb heavy artillery in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Any defiance of the NATO deadline by midnight tomorrow should be the cause not only to lift the siege in Sarajevo, but also the other six Muslim enclaves in Bosnia-Herzegovina which had been declared as ‘safe areas’ by the United Nations – including the opening up of the Tuzia Airport.
In this connection, the Serbs must not be allowed to ‘play games’ on the ultimatum, and should be made to understand that the heavy artillery surrounding Sarajevo roust be physically withdrawn or be handed over to the United Nations, Allowing UN officers to ‘register’ and make periodic check of the Serb heavy artillery surrounding Sarajevo to ensure that they had not been fired while they remain in effective Serb control is unacceptable and do not constitute full compliance with the ultimatum.
The international community should make it very clear to the United Nations and NATO that since they are not prepared to lift the arms embargo which had penalised the Bosnian people, there must be a withdrawal or surrender of all Serb heavy artilery not only around Sarajevo but throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The United Nations, NATO and the United States must be warned that if they let down the international communitv in a last-minute loss of nerve by allowing the Serbs to defy the ultimatum with impunity, the credibility of the world body and the West would be completely destroyed beyond salvage.