"WEAPONS FOR PEACE" - VECERNJI LIST

ZAGREB, March 14 (Hina) - The Zagreb-based daily Vecernji List on Thursday runs a commentary piece by Mirko Galic, on the politics of great powers in the control of arms in the region of former Yugoslavia. "When it asks for reducing weapons, France's - and European - politics do not take sides if they really rely on the reduction of arms where it is in excess. However, has anyone tried to touch Serbian weapons? If one side (Croat-Moslem) cannot not be given weapons, then they have to be taken away from the other side (Serbian). Then again, who will do the taking when nobody, not even NATO troops, are not able - or not ready, which comes to the same thing - to disarm Karadzic's guards and bring him before the International War Crimes Tribunal, Galic asks. The principle of balance on all warring factions is a good thing, even necessary. Does not the experience of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina (and in Croatia) show that peace could be established only if all sides had a balance of arms (by strengthening the Croatian army)? On the other hand, would the Serbs have shown aggression should they not have known that their adversary was unarmed? The principle of balance is not the only thing in question, Galic writes. The question is how it will be established, by taking away the surplus, or arming the weaker. The best way is the one which establishes balance the quickest and the fairest. A balance which protects victims from a new aggression and the aggressor from new temptation, Galic concludes. (hina) lm jn 141123 MET mar 96