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".