Malaysia Says It Will Send Arms to BosniansInternational Herald Tribune
July 24, 1995
Michael Richardson 

In the first public breach of the United Nations ban on supplying arms to Bosnia, Malaysia said Sunday that it would ignore the embargo and send weapons to the Muslim-led government in Sarajevo.

In a clear sign of growing resolve by Islamic countries to become directly involved in the conflict, even if it means a wider, more intense war, Malaysian officials said that other Muslim nations were also committed to providing military aid to Bosnia.

Mahathir bin Mohamad, the Malaysian prime minister, said that while the UN and NATO forbade the supply of arms to all parties in the former Yugoslavia, separatist Serbs in Bosnia were getting weapons and oil to attack and seize territory held by the Bosnian government.

The UN and NATO were "allowing the slaughtering of Bosnians by the Serbs," Mr. Mahathir said.

Analysts said that Kuala Lumpur's decision to ignore the embargo was significant because Malaysia already has a substantial military presence in Bosnia and its views reflect those of many other governments of Muslim- majority countries.

Malaysia has more than 1,500 troops in Bosnia serving as peacekeepers with the UN Protection Force. It is the third largest contingent after Britain and France.

Mr. Mahathir's statement followed a declaration by the Organization of Islamic Conference, which links nearly all the world's Muslim-controlled states, that the UN arms embargo on Bosnia was "invalid."

The declaration was issued Friday in Geneva following a meeting of the foreign ministers of Malaysia and seven other countries in the organization's "contact group" on Bosnia.

They included Turkey, a NATO member, and Pakistan - both of which have troops with the UN in Bosnia - as well as Iran, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Senegal and Egypt.

Analysts said that the declaration was intended to encourage the U.S. Congress to defy President Bill Clinton and pass a resolution that would in effect oblige the administration to lift the UN arms embargo on Bosnia. The Senate is to vote on the measure on Tuesday.

America's NATO allies say such a move would force them to withdraw their troops from the country to keep them from being caught up in intensified fighting between Bosnian and Serbian forces.

The Bosnian foreign minister, Mohammed Sacirbey, who attended the Islamic conference meeting, said afterward that he had received pledges of weaponry from a number of countries. He declined to say which ones.

There have been persistent reports for some time that Muslim countries have been channelling arms to the Muslim-led Bosnian government, but until Friday they had all formally recognized the embargo.

According to the declaration issued in Geneva, Islamic states that already have troops with the UN in Bosnia would leave them there, perhaps beefed up, if the UN Protection Force pulled out, Reuters reported.

Syed Hamid Albar, Malaysia's defense minister, said recently that Kuala Lumpur wanted to double the strength of its battalion in Bosnia and supply it with long-range heavy weapons.

Razali Ismail, Malaysia's ambassador to the United NAtions in New York, said Sunday that although Malaysia did not want the fighting in Bosnia to escalate, something decisive had to be done to enable the Bosnians to defend themselves against the Serbs, who are mainly Orthodox Christians.

The declaration by the Islamic conference sought to defuse concerns in Europe, promoted by the Serbs, that Muslim countries were intent on waging a "holy war" in defense of Islam in Bosnia.

The declaration said that Muslim states would give "all kinds of support" to strengthen the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a structure under which Bosnian Muslims and mainly Catholic Croats have joined in an uneasy alliance.

Chandra Muzaffar, a political scientist at the Science University in the Malaysian state of Penang, said Sunday that there were fears among some in the West that the emergence of a Muslim-led Bosnian state would strengthen Islam in a predominantly Christian Europe.

But he said that the sympathetic stand over Bosnia taken by individuals and aid agencies in the West, including Christian organizations, showed that the issue transcended religion.

Mr. Muzaffar said that Malaysia and other Muslim nations supporting Bosnia were responding to "a humanitarian cause involving helpless human beings trapped in a tragic situation."

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