More on Sanctions

If the international community can found various courts for judging war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, so can we. Just ahead of the New Year, an association of families whose closest members have become victims of the unjust sanctions, was founded in Vlasotinci (South-East Serbia), and is prepared to start proceedings for "genocide through sanctions against the Serbian people". The charges will include a list with over a hundred names of victims of sanctions, including those of the "babies from Banja Luka", and that of a boy who died from a snake bite, since the out patient's clinic did not have any anti-snake serum. The charges will be sent to the International Court in the Hague and the following will find themselves on the list of those accused: Helmut Kohl, Van den Bruck, Kouchner, George Bush, Eagleburger, Morillon, Boutros Boutros Ghali and others who encouraged or participated in the enforcing of sanctions.

Asked by the Belgrade daily "Ekspres" if the list of those accused would contain the names of "Serbs who had greeted and demanded sanctions", the answer was: "God will punish them."

Unprofor Go Home

Eleven "Leopard" tanks belonging to UNPROFOR's Scandinavian contingent will leave their barracks in Pancevo (Belgrade suburb) and return home soon. The Serb Republic in Bosnia-Herzegovina authorities refused to allow these tanks, the latest word in Western military technology, to pass through its territory and reach their destination in Tuzla. In a recent interview to the Belgrade daily "Vecernje Novosti" General Ratko Mladic, Bosnian Serb Army Commander said that the quantity and type of weapons which UNPROFOR would be allowed to bring into the Serb Republic in B-H would be limited. This is not the end of UNPROFOR's worries. The Yugoslav Army demands a large sum of money as payment for the renting of the barracks in Pancevo, and is annulling the previous agreement under which UNPROFOR was supposed to pay the rent owing by carrying out work on the local water works.

Along with problems encountered by UNPROFOR in the former Yugoslavia (occasional sniper fire and mortar attacks, the frequent kidnapping and mistreatment of its soldiers, astronomical toll fees, etc.) it is not difficult to conclude that someone is trying to ease the reaching of a decision by those countries which have lately been thinking of withdrawing their troops from Yugoslavia.