U.S. Likens Serb Acts to Nazi Crimes : Balkans: Key State Department aide says that while atrocities are being committed, Washington now cannot confirm reports of systematic killings in camps.

The State Department’s top Europe expert on Tuesday accused Serbian military forces of engaging in acts reminiscent of the crimes of Nazi Germany, although he said the Bush Administration has been unable to prove allegations that the Serbs are systematically killing their ethnic foes in special detention camps.

Hours after the statements by Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Niles, the U.N. Security Council demanded that all warring factions in the former Yugoslavia open their detention facilities to inspection by the Red Cross or other neutral observers to test the accusations of large-scale torture and killing.

The council statement, issued at the urging of the United States, is not binding under international law. But U.S. officials said impartial inspections may be the only way to prove or disprove the charges that Serbian authorities have established concentration camps to exterminate Muslim Slavs and Croats.

Canadian Maj. Gen. Lewis MacKenzie, who led U.N. peacekeepers at Sarajevo airport, said at the United Nations that he had received complaints from all factions about concentration camp atrocities, wire services reported from New York. He said the complaints were first received about five months ago but that the pace of the allegations increased about two months ago as the Serbs’ “ethnic cleansing” campaign accelerated.

Niles, in testimony to a House subcommittee, said, “It is an . . . almost poignant tragedy that the Serbian people, who suffered so terribly at the hands of the Nazi occupiers of Yugoslavia during the Second (World) War, are engaging in practices which are in some respects reminiscent of some of the things that happened during the (Nazi) occupation,” he said.

Fending off congressional demands for firmer U.S. action to stop atrocities in the former republics of Yugoslavia, Niles said the Administration is pressing the Security Council to authorize the use of military force to deliver food and medicine to besieged cities in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He said the United States would contribute Navy and Air Force units to such a U.N. force.

The controversy over President Bush’s Yugoslavia policy emerged again as an issue in the election campaign when Democratic challenger Bill Clinton demanded Tuesday that the United States and the world community “discover who is responsible for these actions and take steps to bring them to justice.”

In a statement issued by his Little Rock, Ark., headquarters, Clinton said: “I am outraged by the revelations of concentration camps in Bosnia and urge immediate action to stop this slaughter. . . . The United States and the international community must take action. If the horrors of the Holocaust taught us anything, it is the high cost of remaining silent and paralyzed in the face of genocide.”

Niles insisted that economic and political sanctions already imposed on the Serb-led remnants of the Yugoslav federation may yet prove to be enough to force Serbia to end its aggression. He heatedly denied charges that the Administration’s policy was dictated by the approaching November election.

Responding to questions from angry members of the House European subcommittee, Niles said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher was misunderstood Monday when he said U.S. authorities “know from our own reports” that Muslim Slavs and Croats have been tortured and killed in Serbian-run “detention centers.”

Niles said Tuesday that the government has obtained information suggesting the operation of death camps, but he said these reports cannot be confirmed with certainty because independent observers have not been allowed to visit the facilities. Inspectors from the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross have entered some internment camps on both sides of the conflict but have been denied access to many others.

“I did not deny the existence of atrocities, totally unacceptable acts, by the Serbian authorities,” Niles said. “(But) we do not have confirming information that the reports of systematic . . . deaths in these detention facilities are true.”

He said the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, the Serbian and Yugoslav capital, reported that the Bosnian government “released a list of 105 concentration camps and prisons; 94 in Bosnia-Herzegovina, plus 11 in Serbia-Montenegro, where Serbian Defense Forces have allegedly been holding non-Serb civilians. Now, the allegation has been made . . . that in some of these facilities a large number of prisoners have in fact been killed.”

Niles said the U.S. government is disgusted by the Serbian policy of “ethnic cleansing,” a systematic campaign to drive Muslims and Croats out of vast areas of Croatia and Bosnia.

“I share entirely, and all of us do, your sense of outrage (and) disgust at the policies adopted by the Serbian authorities as they relate to Bosnia-Herzegovina,” Niles told the lawmakers.

U.S. officials said detention camps unquestionably exist and that efforts are being made to determine what is going on inside them. One official acknowledged that high-flying spy planes and satellites probably will be used to get independent confirmation of the concentration camp reports.

Another well-placed official said bluntly: “We believe there are POW/concentration camps . . . and believe civilians in them are dying.” But the official said it is difficult to determine the extent of the killing.

Officials said the public disclosure of the possibility of death camps forced the issue to a top priority at national-security agencies throughout Washington. “There has been concern all along, but the public spotlight has already had a big impact,” a senior Administration official said.

Democrats on the House committee bluntly accused the Administration of appeasing the Serbs to avoid election-year military action.

“By God, Mr. Niles, there is plenty of confirmation,” said California Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo). “There is what is called ethnic cleansing, a most sickening, despicable, disgusting term, and we are (doing no more than) talking about discussing the possibility of the need for additional United Nations resolutions.

“Well, let me tell you what the problem is,” Lantos said. “The problem is that there is an election in 90 days, and this election paralyzes the Administration.”

Niles, a career Foreign Service officer, recoiled from the suggestion that policy was dictated by politics.

“Mr. Lantos, I think there is absolutely no relationship between the fact that we happen to be in a presidential election year and the policy that we have adopted in dealing with the crisis,” Niles said.

“There isn’t a 10-year-old child who believes you,” Lantos shot back.

Niles said the most pressing problem is to get food and medicine to the besieged population of Sarajevo and other towns in Bosnia. The U.N. peacekeeping command, which has been coordinating a relief airlift to Sarajevo, called off the flights for three days Tuesday because of stepped-up attacks on the airport.

“The situation is getting worse, not better,” said MacKenzie, the U.N. commander.

Niles said the Administration is urging the Security Council to authorize the use of military force to keep the relief supply line open. When committee members demanded faster action, Niles said: “It’s not a question of reluctance by the United States, it’s a question of building a coalition in the Security Council where you have nine votes for the resolution. . . . That’s what we’re engaged in right now. Members of the Security Council . . . are understandably reluctant to commit themselves to use military force. . . . So they’re approaching this with a certain amount of care and caution.

“This does not depend solely upon the United States,” he said. “If it did, I can assure you that the action would have already been taken.”

As evidence that the Administration was taking the issue seriously, a White House official said that Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger telephoned Belgrade early Tuesday morning to demand that international inspectors be permitted access to the detention centers.

The official said there has not yet been any indication that Serbian authorities would comply with the request.

Times staff writers Douglas Jehl and Melissa Healy contributed to this report.

TALES OF EXECUTIONS: Camp survivor tells how Serb guards killed captives. A14