Culture of impunity

Serbrenica fell to Bosnian Serb forces last week after a two- month siege, and it became clear to all that something must be done immediately to stop Bosnian Serbs from butchering their Moslem compatriots.

One of the most heart-rending aspects of the carnage is that the Bosnian government does not represent Moslems alone. Rather, it represents all the ethnic groups that have opted to live together peacefully.

Innocent and terrified civilians have been forced to cross front lines, said the UN high commissioner for refugees, Sadako Ogata. Families have been forcibly separated.

The culture of violence nowadays referred to in the UN Security Council as the culture of impunity has taken the world by storm and nowhere more so than in Africa, the former Soviet Union and the Balkans, especially Bosnia.

It was in this context that the Bosnian crisis dominated discussions between Foreign Minister Amr Moussa and UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali during the latter's two-hour stopover in Cairo on Tuesday.

-- Al-Ahram, Cairo