BOSNIA: How the war started  BY: Andy Wilcoxson On March 18, 1992, Alija Izetbegovic (Bosnian-Muslim leader), Mate Boban (Bosnian-Croat leader), and Radovan Karadzic (Bosnian-Serb Leader) all reached an agreement on the peaceful succession of Bosnia & Herzegovina from Yugoslavia. The Agreement was known as the Lisbon Agreement (it is also known as the Cutileiro Plan). The agreement called for an independent Bosnia divided into three constituent and geographically separate parts, each of which would be autonomous. Izetbegovic, Boban, and Karadzic all agreed to the plan, and signed the agreement. The agreement was all set, internal and external borders, and the administrative functions of the central and autonomous governments had all been agreed upon. The threat of civil war had been removed from Bosnia that is until, the U.S. Ambassador Warren Zimmerman showed up. On March 28, 1992, ten days after the agreement was reached that would have avoided war in Bosnia, Warren Zimmerman showed up in Sarajevo and met with the Bosnian-Muslim leader, Alija Izetbegovic. Upon finding that Izetbegovic was having second thoughts about the agreement he had signed in Lisbon, the Ambassador suggested that if he withdrew his signature, the United States would grant recognition to Bosnia as an independent state. Izetbegovic then withdrew his signature and renounced the agreement. After Izetbegovic reneged on the Lisbon Agreement, he called a referendum on separation that was constitutionally illegal. On the second day of the referendum there was a Muslim-led attack on a Serb wedding. But the real trigger was Izetbegovic announcing a full mobilization on April 4, 1992. He could not legally do that without Serb & Croat consent, but he did it anyway. That night terror reigned in Sarajevo. The war was on. The Bosnian war was ugly and extremely bloody. People were maimed and killed in bloody inner-city battles that left over half a million people dead. The United States likes to point to Bosnia as a shining example of where it helped Muslims. It is true that the United States armed the Muslims in Bosnia. But, after many thousands of deaths and massive destruction throughout Bosnia, the Muslims were afforded by the terms of the Dayton Accords, less territory than they had been guaranteed by the Lisbon Agreement, which the United States urged the Muslim leader to reject. The bottom line here is that this war didn’t have to happen at all. Nobody had to die in Bosnia. If Ambassador Zimmerman had just left Izetbegovic alone, then none of this would have happened to begin with. Its that simple. The blame for all of the death and destruction associated with the Bosnian war lies exclusively with Alija Izetbegovic for starting the war, and with the U.S. President for sending that idiot Zimmerman to Bosnia in the first place. This web site, intended for research purposes, contains copyright material included "for fair use only" |
Bosnian War
Zimmermann resigned from the diplomatic service in 1994 in protest at President Bill Clinton's reluctance to intervene in the Bosnian war. He campaigned to persuade America that it must act to end Serbian aggression of the Bosnian war, and wrote a perceptive account of his experiences in Yugoslavia, The Origins Of A Catastrophe (1996).[2][3] He went on to teach at Johns Hopkins University (1994-96) and Columbia University (1996-2000), and spoke out against human rights violations and the search for justice in the Balkans.[2]
According to the testimony of Warren Zimmerman, Franjo Tuđman claimed that Bosnia should be divided between the Croats and the Serbs in what came to be known as the Karađorđevo agreement. "Tudman admitted that he discussed these fantasies with Milošević, the Yugoslav Army leadership and the Bosnian Serbs," writes Zimmerman, "and they agreed that the only solution is to divide up Bosnia between Serbia and Croatia".[4][5]
According to Robert W. Tucker, Professor Emeritus of American Foreign Policy at Johns Hopkins University and David C. Hendrickson, a Professor at Colorado College, Zimmerman may have scuttled the Lisbon Agreement.[6] This was an agreement that would have made peace between Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats living within the bounds of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the creation of a cantons system, such as exist in Switzerland. On March 28 1992, after the agreement had been signed he met with Alija Izetbegović, leader of the Bosnian Muslims and all indications point toward that fact he made that assurances of U.S. support for a full independent nation. The later signed Dayton Accord proposed a very similar canton system, which ended a bloody four year civil war.[7]
According to Acting Undersecretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, the Clinton administration aimed to support the Muslims in Bosnia in order to repair the perception of anti-Muslim bias that they believed tarnished U.S. image in the Islamic world.
As usual for the multiculturalist elite, Clinton and his diplomats were oblivious to Muslim words and actions. Izetbegovic had issued an Islamic Declaration in 1970 and repeated it in 1990:
“The Islamic movement must, and can, take over power as soon as it is morally and numerically so strong that it can not only destroy the existing non-Islamic power, but also build up a new Islamic one.”
The U.S. Army Foreign Military Studies Office warned the Clinton Administration that although the ideal of a multiethnic society may appeal to some in Bosnia’s more secular circles, “President Izetbegovic and his cabal appear to harbor much different private intentions and goals.” But Clinton and the State Department began a propaganda campaign to demonize and slander the Serbs while portraying the Bosnian Muslims as peaceful pluralists. Through Ambassador Warren Zimmerman, Izetbegovic was encouraged to reject the Lisbon agreement and avoid any compromise. He was promised U.S support and NATO military intervention, including bombing, if necessary.
Following a Bosnian referendum on independence on March 1, 1992, which the Bosnian Serbs boycotted, Bosnia declared itself an independent nation on April 3. Military conflict between Bosnian and Serbian Republic forces erupted almost immedi...ately. Serbian forces had taken almost 70 percent of Bosnia within months, and the Croats and Bosniaks were left fighting each other for the remaining 30 percent. In March of 1994, the U.S. persuaded the Bosniaks and Croats to sign a peace accord, and NATO intervened militarily by bombing Serbian positions in 1995. They also assisted the Bosnian Muslims by facilitating the immigration of about two thousand Al-Qaeda related veterans of the USSR-Afghanistan War to Bosnia. Without the help of these foreign mujahadeen and U.S. and NATO bombing, Bosnia would have been defeated. At least 700 of these Islamist warriors stayed in Bosnia after the war and now pose a terrorist threat to Europe.