Angry Over Bosnia, U.N. Council OKs Panel to Probe War Crimes

UNITED NATIONS — Outraged over atrocities in Bosnia’s civil war, the Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to set up an investigative commission whose findings could lead to Nuremberg-style war crimes trials.

The commission is to look into reports of massacres, “ethnic cleansing” and other crimes in all former Yugoslav republics.

Members of the 15-nation Security Council hope the existence of a “commission of experts” to be appointed by Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali will deter combatants from committing further crimes.

“I hope that it will send a very strong message that these horrific reports that are coming through will not be allowed to rest,” said the British ambassador, David Hannay.

U.N. reports say that individuals in every group involved--Serbs, Croats and Muslims--have been accused of savagery outlawed by the articles of war under the 1949 Geneva Convention on military conduct.

But the Serbs have been singled out as the chief aggressors by many, including Boutros-Ghali, the U.S. government and the U.N. Human Rights Commission’s special envoy on Yugoslavia, former Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki of Poland.

Mazowiecki is to travel to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and other areas in the region from Oct. 12-23 to investigate human rights abuses, concentrating on detention camps, reports of summary executions at Brcko in Bosnia and disappearances of civilians around Vukovar. He will report back to the new war crimes commission.

Nations, humanitarian agencies and U.N. organizations are asked to forward reports of war crimes to the commission within 30 days.

The U.S. State Department has already sent the Security Council a list of atrocities reported by witnesses and the news media. Bosnian Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey said his country has been providing more detailed information on many of those cases.

The legal experts will send their conclusions to Boutros-Ghali, who would then recommend “further appropriate steps” to the Security Council.