"GLOBUS" (croatian weekly), 2 august 1995, pag. 10/11

The office of Emma Bonino, EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Issues and Fishery office, is situated on the 10th floor of Breydel, building in the heart of Brussels. Just one floor down, below the office of Hans van der Broek, between German and British representatives of the European Union, is the office of the former Secretary General of the Transnational Radical Party of Italy.

Even though all the offices at the European Union headquarters are furnished the same, with blue -and white furniture, the office of Emma Bonino is different. On her desk, by the telephone, a red bow is wrapped around a small stuffed crocodile. Her wall is full with pictures and framed posters. Among them, the central place is taken by the famous Benetton poster by Olivier Toscani picturing the bloody uniform of the killed HVO soldier Marinko Gagra. "I like Toscani, I like almost all that he's done. I probably like him because I feel close to him, always radical and controversial", explains Emma Bonino.

With her firm stands towards the problem in Croatia and B-H, Emma Bonino has always attracted the interest of the public, but also the disapproval from her colleagues at the EU. She has always publicly stated that the international community is practically not doing a thing to solve this problem and that the assistance to refugees and displaced persons is only a way of appeasing a feeling of guilt.

Some ten days ago, she once again pleasantly surprised her colleagues when she suddenly, unannounced, visited Tuzla, the day after the Serbs took control of the protected zone of Srebrenica. She then once more requested that strict measures be undertaken against Serbia and that B-H be admitted to the EU.

- While the Serbs had been conquering Srebrenica I was attending the meeting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Since the Serbs took the protected zone, and since French President Chirac threatened with a rigorous response to the Serbs, a few of us, representatives of some more radical European parties at the EU, responded to the invitation by the Bosnian Minister Muhamed Sacirbey and held talks in the Parliament in which we again called on the international community for a decisive response. As, upon return to Brussels, I hadn't received any precise information on the situation in Eastern Bosnia, but solely alarming warnings on a possible humanitarian disaster, 1, all of a sudden decided to go to Tuzla and see for myself the situation on the ground. I went to London, and there aboard a UN flight via Split to Tuzla.

- When I arrived in Tuzla, 11,000 refugees from Srebrenica had already been placed, while 5,000 were still near the airport, in the improvised tent-refugee camp, where they lived in unbearable conditions. 12,000 had still been reported missing. Even though the UN and UNHCR officials tried to provide the best possible accommodation for the displaced, I saw that none of them accepted the fact that the people from Srebrenica were not Bosnian refugees but refugees of the United Nations, people who were expelled from the territory which the UN was supposed to protect'!

Globus: Upon return from Tuzla, what did you report to the Council and the EU Parliament?

- I reiterated now for the ninth time that the humanitarian problem in B-H was not unsolvable, and that we were capable of feeding a much bigger number of refugees, but that the international community must secure the routes for food delivery. We can accommodate these people and give them food, but who is going to give them their dead sons and husbands back, who's going to take them back home? So, I said that the problem was not a humanitarian but a political one: ifs not necessary to decide how much food we would send to Bosnia but how to solve the problem of war in B-H.

Globus: What did you suggest to the European Parliament?

- I offered the alternative: we would either persist in our promise and really protest the safety areas in B-H, or at least evacuate the people from there and thus spare them from getting killed and tortured. I claim that the international community, the United Nations and the EU should admit their disgrace, their failure in Bosnia and try to at least save as many people as possible. Of course, we would need the consent of the Bosnian Government for the evacuation of the people from the safety areas.

Globus: Recently you spoke with Bosnian Foreign Minister Sacirbey. He stated clearly that the efforts of the international community to save Gorazde following the fall of Srebrenica and Zepa are senseless, and that the evacuation of the population from the remaining safety areas is out of the question...

- I understand you perfectly. Allow me to explain one thing: when I talk about the intentions of the EU to solve the problem in B-H, I'm not stressing my own opinion but the opinion of the EU. You know that the EU is still today only an economic community and that there are no joint defence forces and no joint foreign affairs. That question is left to each of the member states. As EU Commissioner for humanitarian affairs I am authorized only for resolving humanitarian problems and my proposals are thus related. Within my responsibility I try to find solutions in order to prevent a humanitarian disaster. Therefore I suggested: either protect people in the so called safety areas or evacuate them and save their lives. My personal opinion on the crisis in Bosnia, as well as in Croatia, has not changed since the beginning. I always believed that the international community needed to undertake a military intervention in Croatia and B-H, clearly define that the Serbs are aggressors and decisively punish them. Th

at was the only possible reply which is not contrary to the basic principle that borders between countries cannot be changed by force.

Globus: However, since the beginning it was clear that the EU does not intend to support A military intervention and that apart from you, in the European Parliament only a few representatives of more radical European political parties would express similar views to yours...

- That's right, and that's the greatest shame not only for the European Union but also for the entire international community. Only 50 years after the outbreak of WW II, we showed unpreparedness to identify and punish the aggressor in three young states we recognized within their borders. But, if the international community already knew it wasn't ready for military intervention in Croatia and B-H, then it could at least implement all other. measures of pressure. The UN imposed economic embargo against the so called Yugoslavia. You can see what kind of embargo this is the minute you cross the Romanian-Serbian border! So you see, this measure too was more of a declaration. On the other hand, when there once was a decision to introduce embargo against Serbia, the Milosevic regime should have been isolated completely. Why do we still today maintain contacts with Milosevic, why are embassies of a country, which in principle no one recognizes, still open and contacted? On top of that, no country has closed its

embassy in Belgrade, even though it had been declared countless times that Milosevic was the source and cause of the war in Croatia and B-H. Instead of that, in the past few months, Milosevic is introduced as a peacemaker, as a man who changed his stances towards Croatia and B-H. If Milosevic really had stopped providing fuel and weapons a year ago -as may many Westerners claim- how is it possible then for Serbs in Croatia and B-H to still wage a war, mainly successfully, moreover? Honestly, I've never heard anyone win a war with large stocks of mineral water.

"Peacemaker"

Globus: If the EU has no joint united foreign policy, why were then Lord Owen, and later Carl Bildt appointed as co-chairmen of the Peace Conference for former Yugoslavia?

- I'm not really familiar with the mandate for Lord Owen and Carl Bildt. I'm afraid that their role is in negotiating on peace at any price. I was against such a policy from the beginning. Negotiate at any price, offer peace plans which legalize aggression, that's simply ridiculous. The principle should be: justice at any price! To punish the aggressor and not allow him to keep the territories he gained by force. Instead of that, we even at the very beginning refused to declare who's the aggressor and who the victim. Once we've done it, we lost a sense of justice, of just peace, and so now peace negotiators are trying to make a peace agreement by all means. And it is considered normal to negotiate with Milosevic and present him as a peacemaker. On the other hand, if the international community is not ready to intervene, what else can Carl Bildt do but try to make peace respecting before all the Serb interests? The role of the international community is really disgraceful: you can see that even Tadeusz Maz

owiecky resigned after the fall of Zepa and Srebrenica!

Globus: You have recently asked from the Council of Europe to admit BosniaHerzegovina as full member in the European Union. What did you actually want to achieve knowing that the normal procedure of admission of new members starts with their request, and followed by discussions whether they satisfy all the conditions...

- I wanted once again to initiate a serious discussion on the problem of Bosnia and initiate at the EU to finally bring one of the decisions on Bosnia, it could be too late soon. Of course there are no grounds to admit B-H in European Union, because the Bosnian Government has not made an request on it. I wanted once again to point out that it is a very last time to resolve the problem of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The international community has to acknowledge that an urgent military intervention is needed in Bosnia, and afterwards a political agreement on the future constitution of the state has to be reached as well as the proposal for the economic resolution of the country devastated with war.

Hypocrisy

Globus: But it is obvious that the international community does not want the military intervention in Bosnia-Herzegovina and that the arrival of the Rapid Reaction Force (REF) is only another of the slack threats to the Bosnian Serbs which have never been carried out. On the other hand, the US Congress reached a Decision on Lifting of the Arms Embargo on BosniaHerzegovina, which will, if carried out, lead to the departure of UNPROFOR from Bosnia-Herzegovina and consequently to the military outcome of the crisis in B-H. What is your comment on the US Congress Decision?

- It seems to me that the Decision on Lifting of the Arms Embargo on Bosnia-Herzegovina, reached on Senator Bob Dole's initiative, is rather the matter of the American Election Campaign than a real attempt of the solution of the war crisis in Bosnia-Herzegovina. I am not sure that Senator Dole would plead for the lifting of the arms embargo if he was in President Clinton's place. I am absolutely aware of the logic of such an act: we prevented the Bosnians from providing themselves with arms and then we did not manage to defend them against Serbs. But I cannot think of the extreme consequences of the unilateral lifting of the arms embargo: UNPROFOR will in that case withdraw which will take at least four months and I do not know whether the Americans will meanwhile implement their decision. I still maintain that the much better, more rightful and more moral solution is an international community military intervention. I do not know if this decision will ever be implemented. Maybe Senator Dole is just letti

ng us know: in your place, the USA will do what they promised, they will protect the Bosnians and punish the aggressor. The solution Senator Dole proposes is, however, hypocritical as much as the UN peace plans: Americans wish to lift the arms embargo on Bosnia-Herzegovina but, at the same time, they are not ready to send their troops to protect the Bosnians.

Globus: Some time ago, a Declaration on Military Cooperation between the Republic of Croatia and the Republic of Bosnia Herzegovina was signed. On its basis, just few days after, the Croatian Army intervened in BosniaHerzegovina regions and with the seizure of Grahovo and Glamoc supported the B-H Army efforts to confront the Serb attacks in the Bihac area. What is the European Union's attitude towards the Split Declaration and the military

cooperation between Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina?

- Croatian Foreign Minister Granic sent before the Croatian intervention started an open letter to the United Nations announcing the Croatian military intervention if the Serb attacks against Bihac continue due to the immediate danger to the Croatian strategic interests. As UNPROFOR did not succeed to prevent Serb attacks against Bihac the existence of this Safe Area was at stake, so it was logical to expect the Croatian intervention. The European Union, not being able to provide military support to B-H Muslims, cannot blame Croatia for its intervention. Only if the European Union were ready to intervene it could request from Croatia to withdraw from B-H.

Globus: You mentioned several times that you consider the military intervention of the international community as the best solution. Not being realistic to expect that your opinions would suddenly be accepted, and bearing in mind that at the same time the Conference of the Islamic Countries and the American Congress decided to lift unilaterally the arms embargo on B-H, what will happen in Bosnia in the months to follow?

- The present policy of the EU and the UN proved to be inefficient. I thinkthat all have realized that never-ending negotiations, countless plans and peaceconferences had no result. Therefore, the UN should start to act decisively in Bosnia-Herzegovina and to use the Rapid Reaction Force to protect the remaining Safe Areas and to regain the occupied ones. It should respond to any Serb attack with massive air raids against all Bosnian Serb strategic points, and even against those in Serbia, in order to fight for the just peace. Otherwise, as the American Congress' and the Conference of Islamic Countries' decisions prove,, there could be a total war in Bosnia without any control of the International Community and with an uncertain result.