ASEAN wants end to Bosnian arms-ban

ASEAN wants end to Bosnian arms-ban

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Reuter): Foreign Ministers of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) called yesterday
for an end to what one described as the "unjustified and illegal"
arms embargo against Bosnia.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, in a speech
at the opening of a two-day meeting, said ASEAN should press the
United Nations to take effective measures to prevent the
"obliteration" of Bosnia.

Badawi spoke after the release of a joint statement in which
the foreign ministers of the seven ASEAN countries called for
lifting the arms embargo and the immediate withdrawal of Bosnian
Serb forces from the two U.N.-designated Moslem "safe areas" of
Srebrenica and Zepa.

"The unjustified and illegal arms embargo imposed against
Bosnia-Herzegovina cannot be supported because the international
community has a moral and legal responsibility to allow Bosnia-
Herzegovina to acquire the means to defend itself," Badawi said.

"ASEAN should also lend its weight to pressure the United
Nations, in particular the Security Council, to take effective
measures to prevent the obliteration of one of its sovereign
member states."

Badawi's Indonesian counterpart, Ali Alatas, said the UNPROFOR
(the U.N. peacekeeping force in Bosnia) should be invested with
more power.

"Indonesia endorses a more robust mandate for the UNPROFOR and
calls upon the Security Council to stop the aggression and
genocide and to grant Bosnia-Herzegovina its inherent right of
individual and collective self-defense by lifting the ill-
conceived arms embargo," he said.

"But we also deem it imperative that the search for a
political settlement be vigorously pursued -- for any attempt at
a purely military solution would inevitably lead to the
protraction and expansion of the conflict."

The ASEAN statement expressed "profound anguish at the failure
and paralysis of the U.N. mission in the Republic of Bosnia and
Herzegovina in responding and addressing the fast-deteriorating
situation in that country".