Since the war spread to Bosnia-Herzegovina, there have been widespread calls for military intervention, even in letters from the anti-war movement in Sarajevo. The Bosnian government have pleaded for military intervention under the auspices of any body willing to mount such an intervention and with goals ranging from escorting relief convoys or opening Sarajevo airport to disarming the former JNA and the paramilitaries.

Those of us who live outside the situation have a limited role. Our first task is to listen and to pass on what we hear. But we are not obliged to agree and, on the question of military intervention, WRI and IFoR feel we should disagree openly. This disagreement will not distract us from our principal role -- of supporting non-military ways to open a peace process within former-Yugoslavia. Nevertheless we feel we need to spell out our position.

• Any use of military force -- no matter how limited it is intended to be -- introduces a different logic, a military logic offering a rationale for further, less limited use of additional military force.
• What is taken as a small step, apparently likely to save lives, turns out later to have been the crossing of a line. The experience of war shows the danger of escalation once a military intervention has been launched.

What begins with a small action -- eg to secure the area around Sarajevo airport -- might, if the Western troops get involved in heavy fighting, become a major military intervention with tens of thousands of soldiers and much heavier arms than those currently used in former Yugoslavia.

If military action is demanded only for Sarajevo, what about the other places in BiH? After intervening in Sarajevo, there would be no reason not to do the same for Mostar, Visegrad . . . Again the result: the escalation of the war. (And remember: as guerrilla wars show, better weapons are no guarantee for winning a war.)

• Every decision to use military force strengthens the general argument in favour of the military-based so-called "New World Order".
• Since the end of the old East-West conflict, politicians and the military from Western countries are looking for new roles for their forces. Not only the JNA, but they too are fighting for their survival as an institution.

So they introduced the term "New World Order" and wrapped their military enterprises in humanitarian arguments. They say they aren't fighting for economic interests (cheap oil supplies, for example) or for strategic interests (as in Central America), but for "protecting human rights", "not tolerating military aggression", and so on. But why has there been a war to liberate Kuwait, while the mass murder against the Kurds committed jointly by Iraq and Turkey isn't punished? The Security Council of the United Nations has became an instrument of those interests; the West European Union (the European pillar of NATO) is following the same line in order to make Europe (Western Europe) a superpower in its own right.

If those attempts at the militarisation of international politics are successful, then the world will have lost a great -- maybe unique -- chance to change international politics towards some kind of peace politics, and the number of future victims and the amount of future suffering will be very high. The world's response to the conflicts raging in Yugoslavia could be a prototype for the response to conflicts which may arise in other areas of disintegration.

Therefore we are alarmed by the proposals to establish multinational rapid deployment forces to mount military ´peacemaking' interventions.

• We realise that these arguments must seem remote to those of you sitting in shelters in Sarajevo and other towns. We recognise too that we have to address the concrete suffering happening now and not just future possibilities. We therefore give two other reasons for refusing to support military intervention.
• We are aware that there remain other, untried possibilities for delivering humanitarian aid.
• Two months after the call for such a visit from the International Peace Forum in Zagreb, where both WRI and IFoR were represented, a head of state -- President Mitterand -- has now visited Sarajevo to open the way for further humanitarian aid. From Sarajevo itself, there have come several appeals to deliver food and medicine via helicopters and parachutes. This hasn't been tried yet. Also many more convoys could be sent which simply try to buy their way through to Sarajevo.

As pacifists we believe that there is always an alternative to violence.
Of course, there are strong dynamics in favour of defending oneself with weapons if you are attacked. But it is not inevitable. As well as the possibility of not defending oneself (Rome for instance was declared an "Open City" during the Second World War), there is the alternative of nonviolent resistance (social defence). It is not our business to prescribe to Bosnians what they should do, especially when we are aware and have done our utmost to support your many efforts for peace. But we still seek to mobilise international opinion in favour of non- military and nonviolent action rather than for military intervention.

In the West, the question of military intervention has now begun to dominate the discussion of former-Yugoslavia to the exclusion of other forms of non-military action necessary to initiate a peace process and stop the war.

In our work, we remain committed to promoting action along the following lines:

1. to urge perseverance with existing diplomatic efforts while seeking to extend the process. One extension would be to bring other legitimate representatives into the ´top table' discussions, for instance recognising the legitimacy of representatives such as Ibrahim Rugova from Kosova. Another would be to open other parallel forums involving the widest possible spectrum of opinion, including citizens' groups and even paramilitary leaders. Those who have taken up arms cannot be excluded from the peace talks any more than they can be isolated from the population.
2. to address the danger of the war spreading by recognising the rights to self-determination of Macedonia and the legitimacy of the representatives elected by the people of Kosova, and sending international observer teams into those regions. This is why WRI is involved in organising a seminar in Kosova on nonviolent resistance.
3. to make the recognition of the Third Yugoslavia conditional on Belgrade declaring an amnesty for war resisters and beginning negotiations with the independently elected representatives of the people of Kosova.
4. to support the peace movements in Serbia, Vojvodina and Montenegro, in their efforts to restrain their government, and in particular to support all those resisting conscription.
5. to seek humanitarian support for all refugees as a contribution to the process, and in particular to demand that governments should offer sanctuary to all war resisters from former- Yugoslavia.
6. to bring aid and care to all those victimised by war. This includes not only supporting appeals for humanitarian aid, but working with those traumatised by their participation in the war.
7. to strengthen the peacemaking capacity within civil society, for instance
   1. by ensuring the broadcasting of reliable and non-propagandistic information to audiences in all republics
   2. by channelling humanitarian aid through civil society groups
   3. by introducing elements of conflict resolution training into resettlement work with refugees, as we are doing in cooperation with anti-war groups in Osijek.

WRI and IFoR remain united with the anti-war groups in former- Yugoslavia in our endeavours to care for those victimised by the war, to prevent the further spread of the war and its possible internationalisation beyond the borders of former-Yugoslavia, and to work constructively in support of peace processes to enhance the legitimate interests of the different populations of the former- Yugoslavia and to resolve differences without further violence.

War Resisters' International
5, Caledonian Road
London N1 9DX
Great-Britain Phone: +44 20 7278 4040
Fax: +44 20 7278 0444
email: infowri-irg.org

International Fellowship of Reconciliation,
Spoorstr 38,
1815 Alkmaar,
Netherlands
tel: +31 72 1234014; fax: +31 72 151102