Press cuttings from 1992

Manchester Guardian Weekly
December 27, 1992

SECTION: Pg. 6
HEADLINE: US names ‘guilty men’

THE US secretary of state, Lawrence Eagleburger, named the following as responsible for either personally committing or supervising crimes against humanity in Bosnia:

Slobodan Milosevic, president of Serbia;

Radovan Karadzic, self-declared president of the Serbian Bosnian republic;

General Ratko Mladic, commander of the Bosnian-Serb military forces;

“Adil” and “Arif,” members of a Croatian paramilitary force accused of killing more than 50 Serbian women and children;

Zeljko Ramjatovic, leader of the “Tigers” paramilitary forces linked to the murder of 3,000 civilians

Vojislav Seselji, of the “White Eagles,” linked to atrocities in Bosnian cities;

Drago Prcac, Omarska detention camp commander;

Adem Delic, camp commander at Celebici;

Borislav Herak, confessed killer of 230-plus civilians.

 

 

The New York Times
December 17, 1992, Thursday, Late Edition – Final

SECTION: Section A; Page 1; Column 6; Foreign Desk
HEADLINE: U.S. NAMES FIGURES IT WANTS CHARGED WITH WAR CRIMES
BYLINE: By ELAINE SCIOLINO,  Special to The New York Times
DATELINE: GENEVA, Dec. 16

The United States named President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia and other Serbian and Croatian political and military figures today as possible war criminals who should be tried someday by a “second Nuremberg” tribunal.

“We know that crimes against humanity have occurred, and we know when and where they occurred,” Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger told delegates at a conference on the fighting in the Balkans. “We know, moreover, which forces committed those crimes, and under whose command they operated. And we know, finally, who the political leaders are and to whom those military commanders were — and still are — responsible.”

Although once known for his close ties to Serbian leaders, in recent months Mr. Eagleburger has become the Bush Administration’s leading spokesman for war-crimes trials, calling for such a tribunal since August. Mr. Eagleburger is a former American Ambassador to Belgrade. This was the first time that the United States has made public a list of those who it argued should be tried for the crimes.

Danger to Peacekeepers

The call for a war-crimes tribunal to resemble the trial of major Nazi figures in Nuremberg after World War II was endorsed by Cyrus R. Vance and Lord Owen, the heads of a joint United Nations-European Community mediation effort. But the two mediators, who appealed for more time to negotiate a settlement to the war that has killed more than 17,000 and forced one million people from their homes, were clearly unenthusiastic about the American and French-backed campaign for a United Nations resolution enforcing a ban on Serbian flights over independent Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The mediators shared the British view that enforcement could endanger the lives of United Nations peacekeeping troops deployed on the ground and jeopardize the humanitarian effort. And they added their voices to the chorus of those who oppose lifting the United Nations arms embargo on all parties in the Balkan fighting.

More Forceful Responses

The Bosnian Government has sought an exemption from the embargo on the ground that it favors the Bosnian Serbs, who have continued to be well supplied by the Serbian-dominated Yugoslav Army. Mr. Eagleburger had said he favored exempting the Bosnian Government.

“It must never be forgotten that peace will only come to the former Yugoslavia through negotiations,” Lord Owen said in a speech to foreign ministers and other representatives at the 29-nation conference. In his speech, Mr. Vance noted that the absence of evidence that the Serbs have used their warplanes and helicopters in combat missions “should be taken into account” in any enforcement resolution.

The Bush Administration, mindful of its legacy after it leaves office next month, has in recent weeks sought to give the impression that it is pushing for more forceful responses to actions by Bosnian Serbian nationalists trying to carve up Bosnia and Herzegovinia. The United States expects the Security Council to approve enforcement of the flight ban, Mr. Eagleburger said, but he acknowledged that he found virtually no support for lifting the United Nations arms embargo.

As for the American move on war-crime trials, it was unclear whether it was an exercise in oratory or whether the United States genuinely would seek to bring any of the alleged culprits to trial. Most of those named by Mr. Eagleburger were Serbian or Bosnian Serbian leaders.

“In waiting for the people of Serbia, if not their leaders, to come to their senses,” he said, “we must make them understnad that their country will remain alone, friendless and condemned to economic ruin and exclusion from the family of civilized nations for as long as they pursue the suicidal dream of a Greater Serbia. They need, especially, to understand that a second Nuremberg awaits the practitioners of ethnic cleansing, and that the judgment and opprobrium of history awaits the people in whose name their crimes were committed.”

Mr. Eagleburger named some Croats as probably guilty of crimes, and also noted that in September, Bosnian Muslims in Kamenica had killed some 60 Serbian civilians and soldiers. Among those he named were Borislav Herak, a Bosnian Serb who has confessed to killing more than 230 civilians; two members of a Croatian paramilitary force known as “Adil” and “Arif” accused of attacking a bus convoy of 100 Serbian women and children in August, killing half of them, and Zeljko Raznjatovic, leader of the Tigers, a Serbian paramilitary force accused of the mass murder of up to 3,000 civilians near the Bosnian town of Brcko.

Milosevic Is on the List

He also accused Vojislav Seselj, leader of the Chetniks, a Serbian paramilitary group accused of atrocities in Brcko and other Bosnian towns; Drago Prcac, commander of the Serb-run Omarska detention camp, where mass murders and torture allegedly occurred, and Adem Delic, commander of the Croat-run Celebici camp, where at least 15 Serbs were said to have been beaten to death in August.

“I want to make it clear that, in naming names, I am presenting the views of my Government alone,” Mr. Eagleburger said. “The information I have cited has been provided to the U.N. War Crimes Commission, whose decision it will be to prosecute or not. Second, I am not prejudging any trial proceedings that may occur. They must be impartial and conducted in accordance with due process.”

Mr. Eagleburger listed Mr. Milosevic among those leaders who have special responsibility.

“There is another category of fact which is beyond dispute,” he said, “namely the fact of political and command responsibility for the crimes against humanity which I have described. Leaders such as Slobodan Milosevic, the President of Serbia, Radovan Karadzic, the president of the self-declared Serbian Bosnian republic, and Gen. Ratko Mladic, commander of Bosnian Serb military forces, must eventually explain whether and how they sought to insure, as they must under international law, that their forces complied with international law.”

4 War-Crimes Reports

He said that the United States had concluded that Serbian authorities had flouted previous international agreements. That, he said, had not only produced “an intolerable and deteriorating situation inside the former Yugoslavia, it is also beginning to threaten the framework of stability in the new Europe.”

Mr. Karadzic, who was one of those named by Mr. Eagleburger, was seen by reporters wandering through the corridors outside the main conference hall.

Mr. Eagleburger later told reporters that although there was no plan to bring the accused to trial at the moment, “Over the long run they may be able to run but they can’t hide, that we’re going to pursue them.” But when pressed, he made clear that he was not calling for the forcible seizure of the 10 men he named for either committing or supervising war crimes.

President Bush raised expectations that President Saddam Hussein of Iraq would be tried as a war criminal after the Iraqi leader’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, but the matter was quietly dropped after the American-led coalition won the Persian Gulf war without capturing Mr. Hussein. The Pentagon has never released a long report prepared by its lawyers that documents Mr. Hussein’s war crimes for a possible trial in the future.

The United States has already submitted four war-crimes reports to the United Nations that detail specific episodes of Serbian brutality, and Mr. Eagleburger described nine incidents of Serbian “crimes against humanity,” including murders of men, women and children, mass executions, torture and the forced expulsion of civilians from their villages.

Other governments and human-rights organizations have documented other atrocities, including systematic brutality against women and children, including gang rape, the incarceration of women and girls impregnated by rape, the forcing of women into brothels and murder of rape victims and of children in front of their parents. Some soldiers who have refused to carry out orders to rape or murder their victims have themselves been shot or beaten to death.

There is universal agreement in the talks on Yugoslavia this week, which began in Stockholm and Geneva and will continue at the NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, that the Serbs have broken promises made at a similar international forum in London in August to lift the siege of Sarajevo and other Bosnian cities, dismantle detention camps and turn over heavy weapons to United Nations forces.

While delegates struggled to give the impression that they were doing something to respond to Serbian atrocities and aggression, at the same time there was also a universal disinclination to make decisions that could draw their own military forces into what is viewed as an intractable religious and ethnic war with no clear outcome.

Mr. Vance even sought to portray United Nations efforts to staunch the fighting as somewhat successful, saying in his speech, “The overall level of violence has been reduced, although not ended.”

Asked about the remarks of a man who held his job during the Carter Administration, Mr. Eagleburger praised the United Nations effort but disagreed with Mr. Vance’s basic premise, saying “The Bosnia Serbs have taken more territory, ethnic cleansing has proceeded, there are a lot of refugees who have been cleaned out of areas. There is by no means any end in view as I see it to the conflict itself.”

GRAPHIC: Photos: President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia, third from right, was, along with others, named by the United States as a possible war criminal. He campaigned on Tuesday in Krusevac for elections to be held Sunday. (Associated Press); Borislav Herak; Vojslav Seselj; Radovan Karadzic; Gen. Ratko Mladic; Slobodan Milosevic (pg. A22)

Chart: “War Crimes in Bosnia: Eagleburger’s Accusations”

In a statement yesterday, Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger named Serbs and Croats accused of war crimes in the Balkan fighting, and provided details about some of his allegations.

THE PEOPLE

Borislav Herak, a Bosnian Serb who has confessed to killing more than 230 civilians.

“Adil” and “Arif,” two members of a Croatian paramilitary force. They are accused of attacking a bus convoy carrying more than 100 Serbian women and children in August, killing half of them.

Zeljko Raznjatovic, leader of the Tigers, a Serbian paramilitary force accused of ethnic cleansing and the deaths of up to 3,000 civilians near the northeastern Bosnian town of Brcko.

Vojislav Seselij, leader of the Chetniks, a Serbian paramilitary group accused of atrocities in Brcko and other Bosnian towns.

Drago Prcac, commander of the Serbian-run Omarska detention camp, where killings and torture have been reported.

Adem Delic, commander of the Croatian-run Celebici camp where at least 15 Serbs were beaten to death in August.

Mr. Eagleburger said three political leaders could be held responsible for failing to prevent atrocities:

Slobodan Milosevic, president of the Serbian Republic.

Radovan Karadzic, leader of the self-proclaimed Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Gen. Ratko Mladic, commander of the Bosnian Serbs’ military forces.

THE EVENTS

The Aug. 21 massacre of more than 200 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb police in the Vlasica mountains in central Bosnia.

The May-June murders of 2,000 to 3,000 Muslim men, women and children by Serbian irregulars at a brick factory and pig farm near Brcko.

The May 18 mass killing of about 56 Muslims by Serb militiamen in Grbavci, central Bosnia.

The terrorizing of 30,000 Muslims in Banja Luka, including bombings, beatings and killings.

Destruction of Vukovar, a Croatian town, in the fall of 1991, and the forced expulsion of its population.

 

 

The Washington Post
December 17, 1992, Thursday, Final Edition

SECTION: FIRST SECTION; PAGE A1
HEADLINE: Eagleburger Urges Trial of Serb Leaders;
Milosevic, Karadzic Would Be Judged on Balkan War Crimes
BYLINE: Don Oberdorfer, Washington Post Staff Writer
DATELINE: GENEVA, Dec. 16, 1992

The United States today stepped up its drive to organize military action against Serb air attacks in Bosnia and said that those responsible for “crimes against humanity” in the republic — including Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic — should be brought to trial.

Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger, speaking here to a 29-nation conference on the Balkans, declared that “more aggressive measures” must be considered to stop “an intolerable and deteriorating situation” in Bosnia. Referring to Nazi Germany’s campaign to exterminate Jews during World War II, Eagleburger said the international community has “a moral and historical obligation not to stand back a second time in this century while a people faces obliteration.”

Asserting that those with “political and command responsibility” for Balkan atrocities should be tried under international law, Eagleburger took the highly unusual step of naming a head of state, Milosevic — along with Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and Bosnian Serb militia commander Ratho Mladic — as being in this category.

Eagleburger has been saying since he met with Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel in Washington last week that it is time to name names and begin proceedings on Balkan war crimes, but he had not done so until today. Citing war crimes ranging from civilian deaths in the continuing Serb siege of Sarajevo to Serb mass executions of Slavic Muslim men, women and children, Eagleburger went on to list seven persons who he said supervised or carried out wanton killings in Bosnia’s eight-month-old factional war — all but two of them Serbs.

Those named were: Borislav Herak, a Bosnian Serb who has confessed to killing more than 230 Muslim and Croat civilians; Zeljko Raznjatovic, whose militia unit has been linked to mass murders of Muslims near the Bosnian city of Brcko; Vojislav Seselj, the leader of a band of Serb gunmen said to be responsible for atrocities in several Bosnian cities; Drago Prcac, commander of the notorious Serb-run Omarska detention camp; and Adem Delic, commander of a Serb prison camp at Celebici. The two others were Croats identified only as “Adil” and “Arif” and were said to be members of a paramilitary unit that killed more than 50 Serb women and children.

In the background of the meeting here was intense speculation about Sunday’s presidential election in Serbia, in which Milosevic — an ultranationalist, old-line Marxist — is opposed for reelection by Milan Panic, a Serbian-born U.S. businessman who is prime minister of the new Serb-dominated Yugoslav state. Milosevic is widely blamed in the West for instigating the war in neighboring Bosnia, and comments here by Eagleburger and other diplomats appeared to be directed in part at the Serbian voters. If elected, Panic has promised to end the Bosnian war and seek an amicable relationship with all of Serbia’s neighbors.

Karadzic, president of the self-proclaimed autonomous Serb republic of Bosnia, was in the former League of Nations building where the U.N.-sponsored conference was being held, and he passed Eagleburger in a hallway after the secretary’s address without speaking.

Meanwhile, former British foreign secretary David Owen, co-chairman of the Geneva conference with former U.S. secretary of state Cyrus Vance, announced that he and Vance would invite Karadzic and his senior military commander, presumably Mladic, to return here in early January for negotiations aimed at settling the Bosnian war and establishing a comprehensive peace in the region.

Vance has been at odds with Eagleburger in his analysis of the Balkan situation and his view of military actions being sought by the United States, which has now been joined in these proposals by France and other nations. Rather than a deteriorating situation as seen by Eagleburger, Vance said that “the overall level of violence has been reduced” in Bosnia, although some fighting continues. This assessment was shared by some U.N. military officials at the conference and by U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who said in a written message that “the intensity of hostilities had been reduced.”

Vance expressed strong reservations about U.N.-backed enforcement of the two-month-old U.N.-imposed “no-fly zone” over Bosnia, which Eagleburger advocated more strongly today than in the past. Only the Serbs among Bosnia’s three warring factions have military aircraft, but Vance said it appears that none of the more than 200 flights by these planes and helicopters since the ban was declared has been in an offensive role. He expressed belief that the probable consequences of military action to enforce the flight ban would be “endangerment” of U.N. peace-keeping troops on the ground in Bosnia, as well as U.N., European Community and private humanitarian workers.

Vance told the delegates that “practically speaking, there are no serious alternatives to a negotiated political settlement.” For this reason, he said, it is important that “our actions work consistently to this end.”

Asked about the conflict between his assessment and that of Vance and U.N. military officials, Eagleburger conceded that U.N. accomplishments in the Balkans are “not insignificant,” and he agreed that in some ways the U.N. peace keepers and negotiators “have moderated the conflict.” But at the same time, he said, “the Bosnian Serbs have taken more territory, ‘ethnic cleansing’ has proceeded, there are a lot of refugees,” and there is no end to the war in sight.

“I don’t accept an argument that says overall the situation is better,” Eagleburger said. “I think overall the situation is worse.”

Speaking to reporters after leaving the conference, Eagleburger said he detected a clear trend toward support in the U.N. Security Council for authorizing enforcement of the Bosnian flight ban, which could authorize U.S. and other forces to shoot down Serb military aircraft or even bomb military airfields. He denied a report that the United States is planning “preemptive strikes” in the immediate aftermath of an enforcement resolution and said he “assumes” that a warning would be issued before military action began.

On another Balkan issue, Eagleburger said he has “hit a stone wall” of opposition to the suggestion that Bosnia’s Slavic Muslim-led government be exempted from a U.N. ban on arms shipments to any of the former Yugoslav republics so that it can defend itself better against the more heavily armed Serbs. Except for Turkey and some other unnamed Islamic states, there is little support for such an exemption, Eagleburger said.

The secretary also called for unspecified international action to prevent the Bosnian war from spilling over into Serbia’s restive Kosovo province, a region in which ethnic Albanians outnumber Serbs by nine to one and which is ruled by Serb authorities as a virtual police state. An upheaval there could quickly spread to Albania, as well as neighboring Macedonia, Bulgaria and Greece, turning the current conflict into a much wider European war.

Owen, in his address to the conference, advocated a U.N. Security Council resolution saying that further internal repression in Kosovo would be considered “a threat to the peace,” a declaration that is a first step toward U.N.-backed intervention. Owen said also that a negotiated autonomy for Kosovo within Serbia is “an essential and urgent priority.”

 

Agence France Presse

December 16, 1992

HEADLINE: Eagleburger issues list of alleged Yugoslav war criminals
DATELINE: GENEVA

U.S. Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger Wednesday issued a list of alleged Yugoslav war criminals and accused the Serbian president and the leader of Bosnia-Hercegovina’s Serbs of political responsibility for the crimes. Speaking at an international conference of foreign ministers on ex-Yugoslavia, Eagleburger called for the men, mostly Serbs, to be tried before a “second Nuremberg court” for crimes against humanity. The U.S. Secretary of State said Serbian head of state Slobodan Milosevic and Radovan Karadzic, the leader of Bosnia’s secessionist Serbs, bore political responsibility for the brutal murders of innocent civilians. In October the U.N. Security Council for the first time in its history called on the U.N. secretary general to set up an impartial commission of experts to study war crimes allegations. A similar commission set up before the United Nation’s creation in 1948 eventually led to the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals. Those accused of war crimes by the United States are: – Zeljko Raznjatovic, whose “Tiger” militia have been linked to brutal ethnic cleansing operations in the eastern Bosnian towns of Zvornik, Srebrenica, Bratunac and Grobnica, and the massacre of up to 3,000 civilians near the northeastern town of Brcko. – Vojislav Seselj, whose “White Eagles” have been accused of atrocities in numerous Bosnian towns, including Brcko. – Drago Prcac, head of the Omarska prisoner camp where mass executions and torture have allegedly been carried out. – Adem Bedlic, head of the Celebici prisoner camp where at least 15 Serbs were allegedly beaten to death in August. – Borislav Herak, a Bosnian Serb who has admitted having killed more than 230 civilians. – “Adil” and “Arif,” two Croatian paramilitary fighters accused of killing around 50 Serbian women and children last August.

Eagleburger, who stressed he did not want to prejudice any future charges, said a number of “irrefutable” crimes had taken place. They were:

– The siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo since April where daily shelling has left countless victims.

– The blocade of humanitarian aid which has claimed an unknown number of victims.

– The destruction of the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar at the end of 1991.

– The terrorising of 30,000 Moslems in the nationalist Serbian stronghold of Banja Luka in northern Bosnia.

– Inhuman treatment and massacres at detention camps at Banja Luka/Manjaca, Brcko/Luka, Krajina/Prnjavor in northern Bosnia, Omarska, Prijedor/Keraterm in northern Bosnia, and Trnopolje/Kozarac.

– The massacre of more than 200 Moslems by Serbian police near Varjanta in the Vlasic mountains in northern Serbia.

– The murders of 2,000 to 3,000 Moslem men, women and children by irregular Serb forces in a factory and a pig farm near Brcko, between May and June.

– The execution of around 100 Moslems at Brod in June.

– The execution of 56 Moslem civilians at Grbavci, near the eastern Bosnian town of Zvornik on May 18.

– The murder by Croats of 300 Moslems at Prozor.

– Moslems at Kamenica killed more than 60 Serbian soldiers and civilians between September 24-26.

 

 

Copyright 1992 Associated Press
December 16, 1992, Wednesday, AM cycleHEADLINE: Eagleburger Says Serb Leaders Must Answer for Atrocities
BYLINE: By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer
DATELINE: GENEVA

Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger on Wednesday said Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and the leader of Bosnian Serbs must answer – “in a court of law I would hope” – for atrocities committed by military and detention camp commanders in shattered Yugoslavia.

Eagleburger also told a 29-nation conference the Bush administration was willing to have the U.N. Security Council consider lifting its arms embargo against the Bosnian Muslims so they could defend themselves against an “increasingly desperate” Serbian onslaught.

But, flying later to a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels, Eagleburger acknowledged he had hit “a stone wall” on the issue of the embargo and had only of the support of Turkey and possibly the Netherlands and Germany.

He said he thought a new U.N. resolution on keeping Serbian military flights away from Bosnia-Herzegovina “will go forward.”

At the conference in Geneva, Eagleburger listed specific war crimes and seven local commanders he said should face charges before an international tribunal.

“The fact of the matter is that we know that crimes against humanity have occurred, and we know when and where they occurred,” he said. “We know, moreover, which forces committed those crimes, and under whose command they operated.”

As for the Serbian leaders, Eagleburger said that most of the peaceful commitments made at a meeting in London in August had not been kept and that the Serbians were largely at fault.

“It is the Serbs who continue to besiege the cities of Bosnia, Serb heavy weapons which continue to pound the civilian populations in those cities, the Bosnian Serb air forces which continue to fly in defiance of the London agreements and Serbs who impede the delivery of humanitarian assistance and continue the odious practice of ‘ethnic cleansing,”‘ he said.

In short, Eagleburger said, Milosevic and Radovan Karadzic, leader of the Bosnian Serbs, “have systematically flouted agreements to which they had solemnly, and yet cynically, given their assent.”

Eagleburger said Milosevic, Karadzic and Gen. Ratko Mladic, commander of Bosnian Serb military forces, “must eventually explain whether and how they sought to ensure, as they must under international law, that their forces complied with international law.”

He said they would have to show, “before the civilized world … in a court of law I would hope,” that they had done all the world requires of leaders to prevent atrocities or had punished those directly involved.

“On the basis of what we know at this time, I’d have to say they are going to have a hard case to make,” he said.

The Western foreign ministers and senior diplomats held the one-day meeting with Islamic and Asian officials to explore their quest for peace in the Balkans.

Eagleburger said there was time, but not too much, for the people of Serbia “to step back from the edge of the abyss,” release all prisoners, lift the siege of cities, permit humanitarian aid to reach the needy and negotiate for a peaceful settlement guaranteeing the rights of all minorities.

He was skeptical in his speech, though, that Milosevic and Karadzic would reverse their course.

Consequently, Eagleburger proposed “more aggressive measures” to shield the Muslims, including adoption by the U.N. Security Council of a resolution to enforce the no-fly zone the Council established over Bosnia-Herzegovina in October.

U.N. inspectors have detected more than 225 flights of Serbian military helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, though none were found to have been on bombing raids. The resolution would include a threat to shoot down violators.

French President Francois Mitterrand this week registered his support, and British Prime Minister John Major told the House of Commons on Tuesday his government was reviewing its opposition to military intervention.

But Major also said, “We have to weigh the desirability of enforcing the no-fly zone against the possible impact of that on the United Nations’ humanitarian effort and on the safety of our own troops.”

Major’s predecessor, Margaret Thatcher, took a harder line. In an interview with The European newspaper published Wednesday, the former prime minister called for immediate enforcement of the no-fly zone and said the United Nations should give Serbian forces a 48-hour ultimatum to withdraw from Sarajevo and other besieged Bosnian towns. If they fail to comply, she said, the West should launch air strikes on Serbian positions in Bosnia and military bases in Serbia.

France has some 4,000 peacekeeping troops and Britain about 2,700 troops in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Meanwhile Cyrus R. Vance and Lord Owen, co-chairman of the Geneva peace conference, said enforcement of a U.N. ban on Serbian military flights could expose peacekeepers and relief workers to attacks.

Eagleburger said ways to protect them must be found.

“It must never be forgotten that peace will only come to the former Yugoslavia through negotiations,” said Owen, a former British foreign secretary.

Vance, a former U.S. secretary of state, stressed that U.N. observers had not detected any use of aircraft to support combat operations since the Security Council imposed the ban.

The co-chairmen endorsed calls for a court to try people accused of committing war crimes in former Yugoslav republics. “It would surely be wrong if the practitioners of ethnic cleansing are not brought to justice,” Owen said.

The secretary general of the Islamic Conference, Hamid Algabid, meanwhile, said Muslim nations were finding it difficult to understand international “hesitation” in face of Serbian aggression and added it left them “with a bitter aftertaste.”

He repeated calls for lifting the arms embargo against the Muslims and hinted they would provide weapons if the United Nations did not act by Jan. 15.

Eagleburger also said Bosnian Serbs were not alone in committing massacres and otherwise violating human rights. For instance, he said, in late October Croatian fighters killed or wounded up to 300 Muslims in Prozor and in September Muslims from Kamenica killed more than 60 Serb civilians and soldiers. 

Copyright 1992 Associated Press
December 16, 1992, Wednesday, PM cycle

HEADLINE: Eagleburger Singles Out Serbs, Croats Accused of War Crimes
BYLINE: By ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS, Associated Press Writer
TELINE: GENEVA

U.S. Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger today singled out Serbs and Croats he said should face trial for war crimes, and said Serb leaders could also be held accountable for failing to prevent atrocities.

Eagleburger’s list of seven names included the commanders of Serb and Croat paramilitary forces and detention camps.

“We know that crimes against humanity have occurred, and we know when and where they occurred,” Eagleburger said in a speech to the Geneva peace conference. ‘We know, moreover, which forces committed those crimes and under whose command they operated.”

Eagleburger also mentioned Serb political leaders, and said they must also be held accountable if they failed to stop atrocities.

“Leaders such as Slobodan Milosevic, the president of Serbia; Radovan Karadzic, the self-declared president of the Serbian-Bosnian republic; and Gen. Ratko Mladic, commander of Bosnian Serb military forces must eventually explain whether and how they sought to ensure, as they must under international law, that their forces complied with international law,” Eagleburger said.

Eagleburger’s accusations followed a number of moves to set up a war-crimes court for the former Yugoslavia. Cyrus Vance and Lord Owen, co-chairmen of the Geneva peace conference meeting today, endorsed such a tribunal.

‘It would surely be wrong if the practitioners of ‘ethnic cleansing’ are not brought to justice,” Owen said. Ethnic cleansing involves the forceable expulsion of one ethnic group by another.

The two co-chairmen also said using military force to enforce a U.N. ban on Serbian military flights over Bosnia-Herzegovina could expose peacekeepers and relief workers to attacks.

“It must never be forgotten that peace will only come to the former Yugoslavia through negotiations,” Owen said in a speech to foreign ministers and other representatives from the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa, Asia and Islamic countries.

Vance conceded there had been violations of the ban, imposed by the Security Council two months ago, but he noted the United Nations had not detected cases where the aircraft were being used to support combat operations.

A meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in Stockholm this week endorsed using international warplanes to enforce the no-fly zone, as well as a special war-crimes tribunal.

More than 17,000 people have been killed since civil war broke out in Bosnia after majority Muslims and Croats voted for independence in February. The Serb minority wants to remain part of a greater Serbia. More than 1 million people have been forced from their homes by the fighting and ethnic cleansing.

Owen, Vance and U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali are to meet with leaders from the region during the last week of December and early next year, Owen said.

He said they planned to follow “a determined and persistent path” in negotiations, and would try in January to work out agreements on halting the fighting, demilitarizing Sarajevo, establishing free movement in and out of towns under siege, and freer movement of humanitarian aid.

He said that only after this round of meetings would it be possible to assess the chances for a negotiated peace settlement.

Owen and Vance said sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro should be tightened, but they rejected Islamic calls to lift the arms embargo on the Bosnian government, which has been outgunned by better-equipped Serbian forces.

“Such action would be unwise,” said Vance, a former U.S. secretary of state. “It would widen and deepen the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It would encourage the delivery of more sophisticated and more destructive weapons to all the warring parties, and could also lead to the spread of the conflict throughout the Balkan region.”

Islamic countries have threatened to break the embargo if the United Nations fails to take more action by Jan. 15.

Sadako Ogata, U.N. high commissioner for refugees, told the delegates from 29 countries that they should keep in mind that unarmed relief workers and the region’s civilian populations could be exposed to greater danger if force is used to enforce the ban.

British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd urged studying ways to seal the land borders of Serbia and Montenegro, and monitoring barge traffic on the Danube River to enforce the embargo, an aide told reporters.

United Press International
December 16, 1992, Wednesday, BC cycle

HEADLINE: Eagleburger calls for ”aggressive measures” to halt fighting in Bosnia
BYLINE: BY JOHN A. CALLCOTT
DATELINE: GENEVA

U.S. Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger said Wednesday Washington will pursue ”more aggressive measures” to force Serbia and ethnic Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina to halt the bloodshed in the former Yugoslavia.

Eagleburger specifically cited enforcement of the U.N. Security Council’s ‘no-fly zone’ in Bosnia-Herzegovina and a re-examination of the unilateral arms embargo that many say keeps Bosnia’s government from resisting the Serbs.

The Bush administration also wants Serbian leaders to answer for crimes against humanity allegedly committed by forces under their control, he said.

Eagleburger gave his tough speech, which included a list of alleged war criminals from around the splintered federation, to a foreign minister-level meeting of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia.

Eagleburger said the Serbs have repeatedly broken promises given at London peace talks on the free movement of humanitarian aid, ending the ”barbaric” siege of cities, halting military flights over Bosnia- Herzegovina and closing detention camps.

The situation in the former Yugoslavia ”has become increasingly desperate,” he said, with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and Bosnia Serb leader Radovan Karadzic ”systematically” and ”cynically” flouting agreements.

”It is clear that the international community must begin now to think about moving beyond the London agreements and contemplate more aggressive measures,” Eagleburger said.

”That is why my government is now recommending that the United Nations Security Council authorize enforcement of the no-fly zone in Bosnia, and why we are also willing to have the council re-examine the arms embargo as it applies to the government of Bosnia-Herzegovina,” he said.

”It is because we have concluded that the deliberate flaunting of Security Council resolutions and the London agreements by Serb authorities is not only producing an intolerable and deteriorating situation inside the former Yugoslavia, it is also beginning to threaten the framework of stability in the new Europe,” Eagleburger said.

”My government also believes it is time for the international community to begin identifying individuals who may have to answer for having committed crimes against humanity.”

He then listed seven Serbian, Croatian and Bosnia Muslim commanders but above all Milosevic, Karadzic and Gen. Ratho Mladic, commander of Bosnian Serb military forces.

Eagleburger said Milosevic, Karadzic and Mladic ”must eventually explain whether and how they sought to ensure — as they must under international law — that their forces complied with international law.”

”They ought, if charged, to have the opportunity of defending themselves by demonstrating whether and how they took responsible action to prevent and punish the atrocities….undertaken by their subordinates,” he said.

Other field commanders charged by Eagleburger with atrocities included Borislav Herak, a Bosnian Serb who has confessed to killing over 230 civilians, two Croatians named ”Adil” and ”Arif” who belonged to a paramilitary force that killed more than 50 Serbian women and children, and Zeljko Raznjatovic, whose Serb ”Tigers” are linked to brutal ethnic cleansing and mass murders of up to 3,000 children near Brcko.

Others were Vojislav Seselj, the Bosnian Serb commander of the ”White Eagles” paramilitary force also linked to the Brcko killings, Drago Prcac, commander of the Omarska detention camp where mass murder and torture occurred, and Adem Delic, camp commander at Celebici where at least 15 Serbs were beaten to death in August.

Eagleburger after his statement to the meeting canceled a news conference so he could fly straight to Brussels for a NATO foreign ministers meeting Thursday and Friday.

NATO agreed on Wednesday to a request from U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to ready plans for eventual military action against the Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina. That could include enforcement of the no-fly ban and helping U.N. protection forces aid humanitarian agencies.

Earlier Wednesday, the foreign ministers and delegates endorsed a four-point plan to end fighting in the former Yugoslav republics proposed by U.N. special envoy Cyrus Vance and Lord David Owen of the European Community.

The diplomats, co-chairmen of ongoing Yugoslav peace talks, urged enforcement of the no-fly ban if Serbian infringements continue, the establishment of a war crimes tribunal, tougher sanctions against Belgrade and warning Serbia against continuing repression of Muslims in Kosovo.

Vance and Owen also outlined plans Wednesday to speed negotiations toward a peaceful settlement.

Their proposals included a meeting between U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Presidents Franjo Tudjman of Croatia and Dobrica Cosic of the truncated Yugoslav republic when Boutros-Ghali visits Geneva later this month.

Vance and Owen said they s;dp intend to bring together in Geneva the leaders of the three warring parties in Bosnia-Herzegovina — President Alija Izetbegovic, Bosnian Croat Mate Boban and Bosnian Serb Radovan Karadzic — in early January.

The co-chairmen, who so far have been unable to get the three sides to sit together, said they will ask the leaders to bring with them military commanders to discuss a cessation of hostilities, demilitarization of Sarajevo, ending the siege of cities and towns and free movement of humanitarian aid.

 

 

The Independent (London) 

December 15, 1992, Tuesday 

SECTION: EUROPEAN NEWS PAGE; Page 8
HEADLINE: US calls for trial of Balkan war criminals
BYLINE: By MARCUS TANNER in Belgrade and TONY BARBER in London

THE US Secretary of State, Lawrence Eagleburger, yesterday demanded the prosecution of war criminals in the former Yugoslavia. Such people should be brought to justice ”exactly as were Hitler’s associates at Nuremberg”, he told a meeting in Stockholm of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE).

He also said the US wanted a substantial and urgent increase in a CSCE mission in the Serbian-ruled province of Kosovo to prevent war breaking out between Serbs and Albanians there. The US was ready to contribute to the effort, he said. Other Western nations made clear they were also toughening their Yugoslav policies. France will introduce a motion at the UN Security Council this week to authorise military force to back up a ”no-fly zone” in Bosnia. The Dutch Defence Ministry offered to send 18 F-16 aircraft to enforce the zone once the Security Council gives the go-ahead.

A UN-brokered ceasefire failed to take effect in Sarajevo yesterday as shelling and artillery exchanges rocked hills in the northern suburbs. UN chiefs held talks with the rival sides aimed at setting up three land corridors out of the city. The idea is to help evacuate civilians who want to leave, but critics fear it is a Serbian-sponsored plan intended to move people out of the way before Serbian forces launch a final offensive.

The reopening last week of the airport has not relieved the threat of starvation facing Sarajevo’s nearly 400,000 inhabitants, according to the deputy UN chief in the former Yugoslavia, Cedric Thornberry. Most countries that supply the planes used for humanitarian flights are unwilling to place their crews at risk by restarting flights, he added.

Faced with the mounting threat of Western military intervention, Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader, announced that he would urge his ethnic group’s parliament to declare a unilateral end to hostilities on 17 December. Mr Karadzic said it was clear that the Serbs had won. The proposal is likely to have minimal effect on the fighting in Bosnia, for there are doubts over the extent of Mr Karadzic’s authority over Bosnian Serbs.

In Belgrade, Milan Panic, the main challenger to Slobodan Milosevic in next Sunday’s presidential elections, said that he must win if peace were to be ensured in the Balkans. Accusing the state-run media of disseminating ”terrible accusations and monstrous lies” against him, he claimed that the latest opinion polls still gave him a 20 per cent lead over Mr Milosevic. ”If the election was held today, I would certainly win,” he said.

Mr Panic, a Serbian-born Californian businessman, said the election might not meet Western standards. ”If you expect an English election, it won’t be,” he said. ”It is a step on the long road to a democratic Yugoslavia. The election will not be fair but I will work on that. We must guard every box, which you do not need to do in other parts of the world.”

 

The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec) 

December 15, 1992, Tuesday, FINAL EDITION 

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. D9
HEADLINE: Put Serbs on trial as war criminals, Eagleburger urges
BYLINE: AP; REUTER; CP
DATELINE: STOCKHOLM

U.S. Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger urged Europe and the former Soviet republics yesterday to identify Serb “perpetrators of crimes against humanity” and make sure they are tried as war criminals.

Eagleburger said Serbs responsible for ethnic atrocities against Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina should be treated “exactly as were Hitler’s associates” at the war-crimes trials in Nuremberg.

Eagleburger, speaking at a foreign ministers’ meeting of the 52- nation Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, also sought increased economic pressure on “those who continue to prosecute the war.” The United States is gathering information to use against Serbs suspected of organizing the expulsion and killing of hundreds of thousands of Muslims. The CSCE will endorse the idea of war-crimes trials in a declaration at the end of its meeting today, a State Department official said.

As Eagleburger called for a war-crimes trial, the leader of Bosnia’s Serbs said yesterday in Belgrade that his self-styled parliament will meet this week to declare an end to the war in Bosnia.

Radovan Karadzic appeared to be seeking to ease pressure on Bosnian Serbs.

Karadzic said the assembly of his self-proclaimed Serb republic would meet Thursday “to adopt a declaration on ending the war.”

The declaration would embody Serbs’ “unilateral rejection of all military solutions of this crisis,” he said.

Also yesterday, more than 1,000 prisoners were freed from the Serb- controlled Manjaca detention camp in western Bosnia and handed over to Red Cross officials near the Croatian town of Novska.

It was the first step in a plan by the international committee of the Red Cross to evacuate 3,000 prisoners from Manjaca and close the camp by the end of the week.

Several hundred Serbs were scheduled to be released from Croatian and Muslim camps in Bosnia later this week.

In Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital’s 400,000 residents were still without water or electricity. Hospital officials said patients were dying because there was no fuel for generators.

Shelling and gunfire rocked the Sarajevo area early yesterday despite a ceasefire agreement reached a day earlier. Fighting also continued in parts of northern and central Bosnia.

At least 17,000 people have been killed since Serb rebels, backed by Serb-dominated Yugoslavia, took up arms to crush Muslims and Croats who declared an independent Bosnian republic in February.

The United States and European members of the UN Security Council worked yesterday on a resolution to use military force against Serbian aircraft violating a no-fly zone over Bosnia.

But envoys said they did not expect any adoption until after the Dec. 20 Serbian presidential elections. Prime Minister Milan Panic, a moderate, is running against President Slobodan Milosevic, whose policies are widely blamed for the bloodshed in Bosnia.

The diplomats said Washington wanted a “rather more broad-brush approach” than France, which drew up a text under study by the United States, Russia, Britain and Belgium following a meeting among the five late yesterday. The proposal included the right to bomb airports.

 

 

 

Copyright 1992 Associated Press
December 14, 1992, Monday, AM cycle

HEADLINE: Bosnian Serb Leader Says His Parliament Will Declare War Over
BYLINE: By TONY SMITH, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: BELGRADE, Yugoslavia

The leader of rebel Serbs said Monday that his self-styled parliament would meet this week to declare an end to the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He said he hoped fighting would end before the New Year.

Radovan Karadzic appeared to be seeking to ease pressure on Bosnian Serbs.

Top Western officials meeting in several European venues this week are again considering possible military intervention in Bosnia. And Serbia’s nationalist president, Slobodan Milosevic, faces a electoral challenge Sunday from a moderate who seeks peace.

U.S. Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger on Monday urged Europe and the former Soviet republics to identify Serb “perpetrators of crimes against humanity” and make sure they are tried as war criminals.

In Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital’s 400,000 residents still were without water or electricity. Hospital officials said patients were dying because they had no fuel for generators.

Shelling and gunfire rocked the Sarajevo area early Monday despite a cease-fire agreement reached a day earlier. Fighting also continued in parts of northern and central Bosnia.

At least 17,000 people have been killed since Serb rebels, backed by Serb-dominated Yugoslavia, took up arms to crush Muslims and Croats who declared an independent Bosnian republic in February.

The Dutch government has offered to send air force planes to Bosnia, becoming the strongest European backer of military intervention there.

“We’ve made it clear that, if asked by our international partners, we’re prepared to send 18 F-16s to enforce a no-fly zone” over Bosnia once a U.N. resolution authorizing force is approved, Defense Ministry spokesman Hendrik Schoenau said Monday in The Hague.

Bosnian Serbs have flown more than 225 military missions since an air cap was imposed by the U.N. Security Council in October to protect the Muslims.

At the United Nations in New York, Ambassador Jean-Bernard Merimee of France said Monday his government was drafting a resolution for enforcing the no-fly zone and that it would be presented to the Security Council.

In Bonn, German Cabinet member Christian Schwarz-Schilling, the post and telecommunications minister, expressed shame Monday over his government’s failure to intercede in the conflict and announced his resignation.

Karadzic told reporters in Belgrade, the Serb and Yugoslav capital, that the assembly of his self-proclaimed Serb republic would meet Thursday “to adopt a declaration on ending the war.”

The declaration would embody Serbs’ “unilateral rejection of all military solutions of this crisis” and he hoped “this was a good opportunity to end this war before the New Year,” he said.

It would be “like a boxer pulling off his gloves and telling the referee ‘No More!’ ” Karadzic said.

“If the other boxer then attacks, then he is the aggressor,” he said.

The Bosnian Serb leadership at the same time issued a pugnacious statement accusing the United States, Russia and the European Community of “nailing Serbs to the cross” by singling them out as culprits in Bosnia.

Karadzic’s announcement came as international pressure grew for a tougher stance against Karadzic’s troops and Serbia.

European Community leaders meeting in Scotland over the weekend accused the Serbs of savage aggression and persecution in Bosnia.

In Stockholm, Eagleburger said Serbs responsible for ethnic atrocities against Muslims should be treated “exactly as were Hitler’s associates” at the war crimes trials in Nuremberg.

Later this week, a special conference on Yugoslavia is to reconvene in Geneva and NATO ministers also are scheduled to discuss the conflict.

In Sunday’s Serbian elections, Milosevic is being challenged for the presidency by the Yugoslav premier, Milan Panic, a U.S. businessman who has accused Milosevic of turning Yugoslavia into an international pariah.

In Sarajevo, a senior Bosnian military commander denounced as a sham the latest truce accord and an agreement to open safe corridors for civilians in and around the capital.

Gen. Stjepan Siber told reporters Serbs were “continuing to devastate the city without mercy.”

Aid convoys have not been able to get through the fighting and no supplies have arrived at the Sarajevo airport since an aid plane was hit by small arms fire Dec. 1