Moslem leaders demand UN sanction against Serbs
JAKARTA (JP): A group of influential Moslem leaders visited the United Nations (UN) office here yesterday, demanding that it take immediate action to halt Bosnian Serbs' onslaught on eastern Bosnian town of Gorazde.
"We demand that the UN punish the Serb aggressors who have blatantly violated the truce they had previously agreed to, and who continue slaughtering innocent people in Gorazde," leaders of the Indonesian Committee for World Moslem Solidarity (KISDI) said in a statement.
Led by Ahmad Sumargono and Hussein Umar, the delegates also demanded that UN Security Council lift the arms-embargo imposed on Bosnia Herzegovina in order to give its Moslem population a fair chance to defend itself.
The group demanded that the UN provide opportunities for countries who are sympathetic to the Bosnian Moslems' plight to send their troops to join the UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) in the troubled former Yugoslavia.
However, Bosnian officials politely declined the services of the Indonesian volunteers during a recent visit to Indonesia, stressing that parties concerned about their cause should concentrate on helping to raise support and lifting the UN arms embargo.
In the past, the group had frequently organized massive Moslem rallies on Bosnian cause in Jakarta and several other major cities. In February alone it organized several rallies, one of which was joined by some 5,000 people, calling for Indonesian Moslems to register as volunteers to be sent to Bosnia.
Yesterday's protest was the first the group launched since NATO's promised to take strong action against the Serbs' forces last month.
KISDI leaders yesterday also called for members of the Non- Aligned Movement (NAM) and the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to support a U.S. quest to widen a threat of NATO air strikes to protect Gorazde and five other UN-designated "safe areas".
"If NATO fails to carry out its threat then it's has earned the name that has come to be associated with the group, No Action Talk Only," Hussein said.
The Moslem leaders, who have the ears of thousands of congregants, yesterday requested a meeting with UN Representative Jan Kamp who declined to meet with them. Instead, they were met at the door by two local officers who refused to say where Kamp was. They also would not grant the delegates' request to sit down and hold a dialog.
Despite the leaders' protest of the "rude treatment", the officers only said that "there is no room to receive you here".
After several minutes of arguments, KISDI leaders left the office angrily to hang banners and placards outside the building.
The placards read, among other things: "UN, Prove Your Salt in Bosnia" and "Stop Hypocrisy and Solve Problems In Bosnia".
The two officers also refused to reveal their names to the delegates or reporters, but security guards said they were Rahmat and Mrs. Salimin from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) representative.
Later on in the day, Hussein told The Jakarta Post that his group plans to make similar visits to the embassies of Islamic countries here and urge them to ally themselves in solving the Bosnian problem.
As has been done many times in the past, KISDI leaders also urged the NAM and OIC to push for the revamping of UN Security Council which they claimed was dominated by Western nations. NAM is currently under the chairmanship of Indonesia's President Soeharto.
Hussein said that as the fourth most populous country in the world, Indonesia should be included in the Security Council along with the other under-represented Islamic countries. This, he said, would ensure fairer treatment of Moslem communities in various parts of the globe. (swe)