Alija Izetbegovic's speech.

Mr. Chairman,

Excellencies,

Distinguished participants,

Ladies and Gentlemen

Moderator, Mr. George Soros

For quite a long time I have not addressed the public outside Bosnia. Even now, I must admit, I am somewhat reluctant in doing so. I wonder if it has any sense or purpose.

For quite a long I have not traveled outside Bosnia. For the same reasons.

Therefore my report from Sarajevo will be a short one.

Today it is the 1154 days since the siege has begun. For this period ten thousand five hundred men, women and children have been killed on the street, in the apartments, offices, schools, queuing for bread or water.

Allow me to make the following comparison: ten thousand and five hundred killed in Sarajevo in 1.150 days-as it is a tragedy like the one in Oklahoma City has taken place here each 17 days in these three years.

While I am writing this, the town reverberates with shelling, more casualties being reported.

Briefly: nothing new in Sarajevo. Violence and death continue.

Nothing new in the world either: the same indifference, hypocrisy and cowardice. Withdrawing before the Serb dictate and force continues.

Nothing has changed in Bosnia either, except that the contrasts between the victim and aggressor, the role of the law and the rule of force, democracy and fascism, humanness and barbarism, have become stronger and more expressed than ever.

On the scene there have remained only the dictate and the force and our people who is determined to resist.

In other words, everything continues; their violence and your withdrawal, and our resistance. Where these three curves will intersect I do not know, but I do know that our resistance will continue despite everything, becoming stronger each day.

There were only few short months of relative piece in Sarajevo last year. The Serb decided to stop the peace. In the autumn they started with shelling, at first only sporadically, then more and more intensively, and continued like that, so that more than hundred explosions were reported yesterday. Since this resulted in no punitive measures, they closed the airport, the access through land and. cut off the electricity. water and gas supply. Then they took the hostages, tied them like animals, humiliated them, and since this remained unpunished too, they began shooting down the air planes. Few days ago the RTV Sarajevo building was targeted by most destructive bombs. They want to extinguish the light over Bosnia and complete their crime in the media darkness.

The world stepped back. with "due respect", before this dictate, and a high United Nations officials wrote a letter of apology to the Serbs.

Both great and small powers in the world have come to the conclusion that defending freedom and democracy is dangerous business and, therefore, preferred to take side with force. This is what they advice us to do too. They kept repeating negotiate. They say the same time, even today, when the city is targeted by hundreds of artillery pieces.

Truly enough, it is dangerous indeed to defend principles, but it is even more dangerous to betray them.

Nevertheless, we have not lost faith in common people and their judgment. Therefore, our massage is directed to them. Through your distinguished Forum, saying that what happens in Sarajevo and its surrounding is at the moment the most important event on this planet. All that we have believed in, we, the common people- the right, freedom, justice-can disappear in the ruins of this city. By defending Bosnia and our people, we defend, both for them and for ourselves these elementary values of human life. This is why the fate of Sarajevo concerns each man and each woman in the world.

Their support makes our resistance less difficult, but, event without it, we shall continue our struggle and, God help us, bring it to a just end.