Malaysia Says It Will Send Arms to Bosnians
By Michael Richardson
Published: July 24, 1995

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."

BOSNIA REPORTED TO BE SMUGGLING HEAVY ARTILLERY
By CHRIS HEDGES
Published: November 8, 1996
European intelligence agencies have uncovered evidence that the Bosnian Government has begun a covert operation to smuggle heavy artillery weapons through the Adriatic port of Ploce, Croatia, according to a senior NATO official.

In the last week of August, the official said, 40 155-millimeter howitzers were shipped in containers into Bosnia through the southern Croatian port along the Dalmatian coast. The guns are a type that the Bosnian Serbs used to devastating effect against the Muslim-led forces during the Bosnian war.

The shipment of undeclared heavy weapons into Bosnia by any of the three ethnic factions is a violation of the Bosnian peace agreement negotiated last year in Dayton, Ohio. It also lends credence to reports that the Bosnian Muslims are attempting to build a powerful, well-equipped army outside their federation with the Bosnian Croats. The proposed federation force, which has been resisted by both the Croats and Muslims, is supposed to have an integrated army and command.

The United States is committed to providing additional heavy weapons to the federation in an effort to equalize forces with the better-armed Bosnian Serbs under agreed limits. But NATO officials said they fear that the Muslims are trying to stockpile more weapons than they are allowed under the agreement, giving them a potential battlefield advantage if war resumes in Bosnia, possibly because the Muslim-led Government decides to reunify its lands.
The NATO official said that Turkey and Malaysia had aided the smuggling operation. He did not say where the weapons originated, but noted that the Bosnian Government has recently signed secret arms agreements with Turkey, Malaysia and Iran.

Over two days in August, 20 containers, each containing two of the large, dismantled howitzers, passed from Ploce into Bosnia, then through Mostar to the Muslim-controlled town of Zenica, the official said.

The containers avoided inspection because they belonged to Turkish and Malaysian troops stationed around Zenica with the 53,000 NATO-led peacekeeping force, the official said. The containers were part of the military equipment shipped back from Turkey along with the first group of 150 Muslims who had gone to Turkey in the American-initiated program to train and equip the Bosnian Muslims, according to this intelligence information.

A United States official in the region, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said today that American officials are investigating the European report and that he believes it is true. The investigation should be finished in a few days, he said.

Reached by telephone, a Pentagon official in Washington said today that while he could not confirm the allegations, the United States had been concerned enough to ask the Turkish Government about them, and it had denied smuggling any weapons into Bosnia. American officials said that United States intelligence had not independently verified the European report of the smuggling.

Mirza Hajric, the spokesman for the Bosnian presidency, said in a telephone interview that he was unable to confirm or deny whether any bilateral arms agreements existed. But he noted that the Bosnian Government had the right to import arms as long as they were declared to the NATO-led peacekeeping force and did not exceed the quotas placed on all sides in the war. Mr. Hajric said he would be surprised if any heavy weapons had entered Bosnia clandestinely.

''Everything the federation is doing as far as arming and equipping itself is done according to the Dayton agreement, as well as within the rules set down under the Train and Equip program,'' he said, referring to the American initiative.

European intelligence agencies discovered the shipments as they were being transported through Mostar on trucks during the last week of August. The official refused to say how the shipment was identified. The discovery was reported at the end of August to most European capitals.

Any containers intended for the NATO-led force are exempted from customs inspection according to agreements reached with the Bosnian and Croatian Governments.

The 20 containers are now in the Zenica area in camps controlled by the Turks, although the Malaysians may have a few of the containers, according to the report. The weapons remain broken down inside the sealed containers and have not been assembled, apparently because the Turks fear they would be detected by satellite photos, the official said.

Although the Turks and Malaysians have been questioned about the shipments by NATO officials, they have done nothing to remove them from Bosnia or confirm their existence, the official said.

The NATO official said the 40 howitzers, described as the ''workhorse'' of NATO artillery batteries, were transported by Turkey and Malaysia. The official said the arms agreement between Bosnia and Iran also provides for eventual shipments of heavy weapons, but there is no indication that Iran has sent any arms to Bosnia since last year's peace agreement. During the war, Iran was a major supplier of weapons to the Muslim-led forces.

''The Bosnian Government is determined to take control of all of Bosnia and if it cannot do it peacefully it is prepared to do it militarily,'' said a NATO intelligence officer. ''The Americans are desperate now as they watch their leverage with the Bosnians slip away.

''The foreign power center in Sarajevo is shifting away from Europe and the United States to the Islamic nations, especially Iran, Turkey and Malaysia, who are determined to arm and equip the Muslim state.''

The American Train and Equip program, which is opposed by Washington's European allies, is intended to give the Bosnians enough heavy weapons to create a balance of power in the region. The United States originally proposed an $800 million program, but had to scale it back to $400 million because of a lack of allied support.

But because the Muslims and Croats have failed to create joint military commands and integrate their two armies, the promised equipment has remained in storage.

On Oct. 24 the ship American Condor docked at Ploce. The vessel carried some $100 million worth of equipment, including tanks, armored personnel carriers, helicopters, antitank weapons, machine guns and assault rifles and ammunition. The ship is now anchored in international waters waiting instructions from the State Department.

A planeload of weapons that arrived in Sarajevo on Aug. 29 is currently in storage in a warehouse in Bosnia, guarded by NATO troops.