Our guys, were not "budging", and tried to con the Americans: the foreigners happened to be there by chance. Imagine, men with diplomatic passports got lost in the Bosnian sticks, probably while trying to analyze the influence of the Dayton agreement on bears. Some explosive devices in shape of children toys were also found when the center was searched.
American pressure didn't let up. They demanded that the Bosnian authorities send home all mercenaries, especially those from Iran, and the promised training and equipment for the Bosnian Army were conditioned by this. A scapegoat was found in Bakir Alispahic, the director of the newly formed Agency for Investigation and Documentation. We were told that the signal for Alispahic's dismissal came directly from the Izetbegovic's [Bosnian president] hospital bed.
There was no other way out, especially after the American ambassador in Sarajevo gave the Bosnian prime minister, Hasan Muratovic, a file which contained conclusive proof that the Bosnian government hadn't fulfilled the obligation from the Dayton Agreement regarding the departure of foreign mercenaries from Bosnia-Hercegovina.
The naivete with which our authorities tried to outsmart the American intelligence machinery is more than ridiculous. Mojahedeen will, after all, have to leave Bosnia but, after all that, it is hard to believe that Alispahic did all that stuff on his own initiative and without Izetbegovic's knowledge and approval.
Piles of rubbish lie between the apartment buildings. Numerous buses and trucks are parked in front of our concrete houses. If airplane taxis were legal they would land on our heads.
Someone would say it's the city services' fault; it's Selim' [Beslagic, Tuzla's mayor] fault; he likes to travel around the world and drives through the city; it's the refugees' fault... It's their fault as much as it is ours, since the stench under our own windows doesn't seem to bother us: we are waiting for someone else to clean up in front of our doorsteps.
IFOR members are not stupid; they are not even thinking about repeating what the Scandinavian "blue helmets" did when they drove away rubbish from our streets and sidewalks cheered on by an applause from the Tuzla balconies.
It is a pity that in Dayton they did not agree on an annex to the peace agreement which would ensure the formation of the multinational forces whose purpose would be to thoroughly disinfect our laziness.