by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjong, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Thursday, April 21, 1994:
DAP sent seepest condolence to family of Majar Ramli Shaari who has given his life not only in the course of duty to the nation but also to the cause of international peace and justice
DAP extends its deepest condolence to Rodziah Shariff and her six children on their bereavement on the death of her husband, Mejar Ramli Shaari, who was killed when he stepped on an anti-personnel mine in Croatia on Tuesday, becoming the first Malaysian victim of the carnage in Bosnia-Herzagovina.
All Malaysians mourn with the family of Majar Ramli Shaari for their loss, for Ramli Shaari has given his life not only in the course of duty to the nation but also to the cause of international peace and juxtice.
DAP supports the Cabinet directive yesterday to the Ministry of Defence to consider additional measures to ensure that safety of the Malaysian observers and 1,500 peacekeepers serving under the United Nations Protection Force (UNprofor) in former Yugoslavia.
Regardless of UNprofor provisions, the Malaysian government has a direct responsibility to take all precautionary measures to protect Malaysian troops in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
UN Security Council and NATO must be held directly responsible for the over 300 killed and over 1,0000 wounded at gorazde in the past fortnight because of their failure to defend it as a ‘safe haven’
The United Nations Security Council NATO must be held directly responsible for the over 300 killed and over a thousand wounded at Gorazde in the past fornight because of their failure to defend it as a ‘safe haven’.
Their credibility have plumbed even greater depths when they abandoned the Bosnians in Gorazde to the carnage by the Serbs, after giving them the false promise that Gorazde will be a’safe haven’. In fact, the UN and NATO have lost all credibility after the latest Serbian butchory of Bosnians in Gorazde.
If the United Nations and NATO countries are not prepared to half new Serb onslaughts against the Bosnians as in the carnage in Gorazde, despite its status as a UN-declared ‘safe area’, the UN ‘safe areas’ have no meaning whatsoever except the perverse meaning that they are ‘safe area’ for the Serbs to commit atrocities, ethnic cleansing and genocide!
Similarly, UN Security and NATO must be asked as to what type of ‘peace’ the UN peacekeepers are maintaining in Bosnia-Herzegovina – whether it is the ‘peace of death’ perpetrated by the Serb aggressors, or the ‘peace of life’ of the Bosnians.
The United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghall has now asked NATO for wider air strikes to protect the six UN-declared ‘safe areas’ – namely Gorazde, Sarajevo, Tuzla, Zepa, bihac and Srebrenica and NATO has still to take a decision on this request.
Why must the UN Secretary-General and NATO wait for a major massacre and carnage before they would take the necessary actions to fulfill their international commitments in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as in securing the six UN-declared ‘safe area’ from Serb onslaughts and violations?
UN Security Council should approve 80,000 ground troops in Bosnia to secure the six UN-declared ‘safe areas’
Former UN commander in Sarajevo, retired General Lewis MacKenzie, has said that the UN needed at least 80,000 troops to defend the six UN-declared ‘safe areas’ in Bosnia-Herzegovina and 300,000 to pacify Bosnia completely.
The current UN commander, General Micheal Rose, had requeated 10,000 ground troops in Boania and had been promised only 3,500.
All nations and governments in the world should put pressure on the UN Security Council to approve sufficient ground forces to giving meaning to their declaration of six areas in Bosnia as ‘safe havens’, which means approving not just the 10,000 ground troops requested by General Michael Rose, but up to 80,000 to secure the six ‘safe areas’.