Welcome to this first issue of Bosnia Report, the monthly newsletter of the Alliance to Defend Bosnia-Hercegovina (ADBH). The Alliance was formed on 23 July 1993, with the aim of establishing a high-profile, cross-party and interdenomi national campaign in defence of the Republic of Bosnia-Hercegovina and its legitimate government.

At its founding meeting, ADBH adopted the "Save Bosnia!" Appeal (an abbreviated version of which appears here) as its basic document. To date its endorsers include Profs Norman Stone, Michael Dummett, Nigel Osborne, and Adrian Hastings; Col Edward Cowan, Rt Rev Roger Sainsbury (the Bishop of Barking), Bojan Bujic, Branka Magas, Quintin Hoare, Saba Risaluddin, Noel Malcolm, Calum McDonald MP, Patrick Cormack MP, Clare Short MP, Michael Meacher MP, David Alton MP, Michael Foot and many others.

ADBH opposes the UN arms embargo which has so cruelly denied Bosnia the means to defend itself and its population from well-armed aggressors. It also advocates appropriate military intervention under UN auspices in support of Bosnia's sovereignty and integrity.

The Alliance seeks to bring together the many groups active on Bosnia under one umbrella, and draws on the support of Action for Bosnia, BH Heritage Rescue, the Bosnian Information Centre, the BH Coordination Centre, UK Friends of Bosnia, and Justice for Bosnia.

Since the launch of our Appeal, the Geneva partition plan for Bosnia-Hercegovina has become the sole basis of international efforts to end the war. ADBH is categorically opposed to the West's efforts to force a solution based on ethnic seg- regation, and dismemberment of an internationally-recognised sovereign state. Any such deal sets an ominous precedent both by rewarding genocide and aggression, and by endorsing the repugnant, racist ideology of ethnically-based states þ in effect establishing an internationally-backed system of apartheid in the centre of Europe. The consequences would reverberate throughout Europe and the world.

The proposed "Union" of three ethnic republics is envisaged as a transitional arrangement. It is, however, an inherently violent and unstable one. This is why ADBH's campaign for a democratic, independent, unitary Bosnian state within its established borders will not end even if a partition deal is signed.

The proposed rump Muslim statelet þ disarmed, landlocked, geographically dispersed and fragmented þ would be a mockery of sovereignty, unviable both economically and in terms of its own security.

After an interim period, it is hard to imagine what could stop Serbia and Croatia from finishing off the job they've started with a two-way carve-up of Bosnia between them, if this remains their goal. If the Geneva Plan is adopted, ADBH will continue to insist that as a transitional arrangement, it must lead only to the restoration of Bosnian statehood and not to UN-brokered obliteration.

Partition is a recipe for protracted bloodshed, warfare, and economic ruin in the Balkans. It would be against every principle of democracy and international law, and would encourage fascism and nationalist aggression throughout much of Europe and beyond.

We ÌÌÌÌÌÌÌÌTwill continue to oppose the British Government's (and the West's) policy of ending the war by enforcing only the peace of the grave.