WINTER 93/94

BOSNIA

The mere name is almost enough to make people turn off with feelings of horror
and impotence. Yes we know that Serbia and Croatia are trying to carve the place
up with armed terror,mass rape ,ethnic cleansing, with 200000 Bosnians dead
andhalf a million refugees. The UN sit there enforcing an armsembargo on Bosnia
(Serbia having nearly all of the arms of the former Yugoslav army), stopping
Bosnian use of the airport at Tuzla and hoping to force some kind of agreed
carve-up against the wishes of the vast majority of Bosnians including ethnic
Croats Serbs as well as Muslims. 

But what do we do about it? International Workers' Aid forBosnia is at least
doing something getting in convoys of aid to the people of Tuzla an ethnicly
mixed mainly mining townholding out against agression. This isn't just aid its
solidarity its letting people in struggle know that other stake some interest.
In the 1984/5 miners strike here the Tuzla miners gave up a day's pay a month to
send to the strike fund.Solidarity is meant to be mutual. UN and other aid goes
mainly to the refugee camps to normalise their disposession not to those still
in their homes and fighting. 

IWAB also have a political programe against the arms embargo UN intervention and
control of Tuzla airport for asylum rights for refugees here and of course
against the invasion and carve-up of Bosnia. But whatever you think of the
politics (and we have some doubts especially about the positive effects of
ending the arms embargo - you can guarantee it won't be the miners of Tuzla
who'll get the guns !) or the possibility of some kind of 'victory' they're
getting aid and solidarity through. Organisation is international with stuff
going from across Europe and it is supported by trade unions and radicals in
other parts of ex-Yugoslavia. 

So send money, offers of help (collecting on a stall or maybe driving a truck
from Split to Tuzla), queries to IWAB c/o 12-14 Thornton Street London SW9 0BL 
(not to be confused with the split-off IWAB controlled by the WRP). 

aaargh! including ethnic Croat, Serbs solidarity is meant to be mutual. 

We have problems with their politics which there ain't room to go into but
they're getting aid and solidarity through from all over Europe. 

