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Izetbegovic Calls for Reconciliation, War Criminal Arrests
‘Without the punishment of war criminals
By Samir Koric
"I am speaking about reconciliation because of Bosnia and its future but with the irrevocable condition that war criminals be hunted down and punished," he said.
"Without the punishment of war criminals there can be no peace nor reconciliation," he told a rally attended in blistering heat by thousands of people from all over Bosnia. Izetbegovic was referring to Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his army commander General Ratko Mladic, both indicted war criminals. Under the Dayton accord signed last December, both should have been handed over to the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
But the two cling to power and Karadzic has been accused of being the biggest single obstruction to the peace process. The rally was organised to commemorate the defence of Sarajevo and one of the most fierce battles in the 43-month war which started on June 8, 1992.
Zuc hill overlooks a vital Bosnian Serb supply route connecting two then Serb-held Sarajevo suburbs in the northwest. If the Serbs had taken the hill they would have split the Bosnian capital in half. Thousands are believed to have been killed in the three-year fight for the hill and today thousands of Sarajevans climbed the hill again to participate in the ceremony remembering all the military battles in defense of the city between 1992 and 1996.
Izetbegovic said he did not want a new war. "But I am calling for a new struggle which does not imply violence -- a
struggle for the proven executioners to be ousted from power and for the establishment of human rights which are so cruelly violated today," he said referring to the Bosnian Serbs Izetbegovic said Karadzic's ouster and respect for human rights and freedom of movement would pave way for the return of one million displaced people to their homes.
"In order for the Bosniaks to return to the Drina River basin, the Serbs must return to Sarajevo. For the Serbs to return to Sarajevo, Bosniaks must return to (the Serb-held towns of) Foca, Visegrad, Prijedor. Any other logic leads to a definite partition of Bosnia," he said. |
ZUC HILL, Bosnia, June 8 (Reuters) - Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic on Saturday called for reconciliation among former Bosnian foes but said indicted war criminals must face justice if there was to be peace in the country.
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