Despite Embargo, Arms Aid to Bosnia
Was Large and Complex International Operation
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Pakistan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Brunei were among countries that secretly helped arm Bosnia and Croatia despite a United Nations arms embargo, the Washington Post said, citing U.S. and Bosnian officials. Other weapons shipments came from Hungary and Argentina, the paper said. U.S. National Security Adviser Anthony Lake said that U.S. officials had learned in 1992 that Iran had opened a smuggling route to Bosnia with the help of Turkey."Arms smuggling to Bosnia and Croatia was larger and more complex than the shipments from Iran and Turkey recently acknowledged by the Clinton administration and invovled such U.S. allies as Pakistan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Argentina," the Post reported.
It cited Bosnian government officials as saying that by 1993, arms or money for arms purchases were being supplied through the Turkish pipeline by Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Brunei "and that other weapons shipments came from Hungary and Argentina."
U.S. officials knew of most of the arms shipments but took no action, despite President Clinton's public support for the embargo against Bosnia, Croatia and the other nations of the former Yugoslavia, the paper said.
The Post did not cite details of the size, makeup or date of any specific shipments or funding said to have come from counties other than Iran.
A White House official declined to confirm any details of the Washington Post report but said it was "well-known that Iran was the principal supplier of arms to Bosnia." The official said the U.N. resolution that created the embargo required the United States to "abide, not to enforce" the ban on weapon shipments to the former Yugoslavia.
In his remarks Friday at an American Jewish Committee breakfast, Lake referred to the Clinton administration's April 1994 decision not to interfere with Iranian arms shipments to Bosnian Muslims. Several congressional panels are investigating Clinton's blind-eye policy. Administration officials have said no U.S. covert action was taken to support the weapons smuggling.
"We knew that meant Iranian arms in implicit fashion. Iranian arms were already going through, in some measure. This was a time when the federation between Bosnia and Croatia had just been formed. It was a time in which Bosnia was under a terrible assault... so we believed that it was very, very important that Bosnia be able to defend itself better," Lake said.
"The president had always opposed the arms embargo, and if we had said 'no' and convinced Croatia not to let those arms go through, it would have blown the federation apart, And the federation has been the strategic basis for every U.N. conference since," he added.
"On the other hand, simply to break the arms embargo or to say we do not believe that it should be implemented... would have been to say to our European allies that we are indifferent to the fate of the UNPROFOR (United Nations) troops there. There would have been a major international blow up and that in turn would have hurt Bosnia.
"So it seems to us that it was proper, as it was allowed under our laws and international laws, that we would simply say to our ambassador 'you are uninstructed', which meant to the Croatians 'this is your decision'. And the fact is that the arms did go through, the federation was held together, we did get a peace...which our soldiers are starting to implement," Lake went on.
"With that peace, in the Dayton accords, we made sure that there were provisions under which we could get Iranians out again. And the fact is that in the last few months we have made great progress in reducing the Iranian presence, which was there before this decision, and the numbers of Iranians of which we are aware and other extremists is now. I believe, vastly reduced. So, in that case, I think there is a happy ending, as happy an ending as you can have in Bosnia," he said.
May 11 · U.S. House Names Panel to Probe Iran-Bosnia Arms Deal
May 9 · House to Spend $1 Million on Iran-Bosnia Probe
May 3 · U.S. House to Investigate Iran-Bosnia Arms Deal
Apr 25 · House to Probe Iran Arms Deal
Apr 24 · White House Defends Silence on Iran Arms Issue
Apr 16 · Republicans Challenge Clinton's Arms Nod
Apr 12 · Croatia Would Block More Iranian Arms to Bosnia
Apr 10 · Clinton: U.S. Did Nothing Wrong in Iran Arms Aid to Bosnia
Apr 9 · Iran Says it Supplied Humanitarian Aid to Bosnia
Apr 6 · Paper says Clinton Gave Nod to Covert Arms
Berserkistan is a world news service of Michael Linder Productions, Inc.
©1995-1996, All Rights Reserved
