U.S. Details Yugoslav War Atrocities in Report to U.N.

In a move that prepares the way for war-crimes trials, the Bush Administration on Tuesday gave the United Nations a report detailing more than 50 incidents of murder, torture, wanton destruction of property and other atrocities committed in the last six months in the former Yugoslav federation.

Although all sides in the complex ethnic war there were cited, the U.S. report indicated that most of the crimes were committed by Bosnian Serb militias as “part of a systematic campaign toward a single objective--the creation of an ethnically ‘pure’ state.”

Some victims were named in the document, but few of the perpetrators were identified.

The report was sent to U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali hours before the General Assembly began action to expel the rump Yugoslavia--now made up only of Serbia and its tiny ally, Montenegro--from its U.N. seat to punish Serbia for armed aggression against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The 15-nation Security Council voted last weekend to vacate the Yugoslav seat, saying Serbia and Montenegro are not the same as the six-republic nation that was a charter U.N. member. But the final decision rests with the full General Assembly.

Three former Yugoslav republics--Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia--have already been admitted to the United Nations as independent nations.

Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan Panic has fought an uphill battle against expulsion. In a letter to U.N. members, Panic said the Security Council recommendation “seriously undermines the principle of universality and the democratic nature of the world organization.” He said the expulsion would destroy his effort to bring peace to the region.

The United States and its allies generally support Panic’s efforts to end the fighting. But they say he seems to have no real power to rein in Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic and his allies among the Bosnian Serbs.

The American report on atrocities could not have come at a worse time for Panic. It is the first submitted in response to a Security Council resolution calling for all nations to collect “substantiated information” about war crimes.

Under U.N. procedures, the American information must be submitted to a commission for verification and possible identification of those who committed the wrongs. Once that is done, the United Nations could establish special tribunals to prosecute the cases.

But a senior State Department official said that trials could be conducted only if “we have somebody in custody.” That has not happened yet.

The report contained information collected by the State Department, congressional investigators and news organizations. The media accounts, officials said, were included only if the reporter claimed to be an eyewitness.

Attempts to identify a guilty party were rare, but the report did cite an Aug. 25 incident in which the bodies of 25 men, believed to have been prisoners, were discovered with their throats cut at a detention camp “operated by the Serbian army . . . under Gen. Ratho Mladic.”

In a related incident, Acting Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger said Tuesday that the Bush Administration is trying to determine whether 200 Muslim men and boys were killed by Serbian police in Bosnia-Herzegovina the day they were released from a detention camp.

Reports in the Washington Post and on National Public Radio said the Muslims apparently were shot at close range on Aug. 21 at a ravine near Travnik. A Bosnian Muslim who claims to have survived the alleged attack said Tuesday in Zagreb, Croatia, that he knows of only one other survivor.

“We’re trying to pursue the report and, obviously, we will hold a reaction until we know whether it’s true or not,” Eagleburger told reporters before starting a private meeting with Croatian President Franjo Tudjman.

Regarding the expulsion of Yugoslavia from the United Nations, Eagleburger said it is time to “make clear to Belgrade that if they don’t improve their performance, the rest of the world will have nothing to do with them.”

At the same time, he said, Washington believes that Panic, a former Southern California businessman, “has worked hard to try to change some of the worst elements of the conduct of the Serbs.”

But, Eagleburger added, Panic “hasn’t been successful.” The expulsion, he said, is based on actions, not words.

A senior British diplomat said Panic is engaged in a power struggle with Milosevic “and he deserves a bit of support.” But the diplomat noted that Panic must show results from his peace efforts before what is left of Yugoslavia is entitled to U.N. membership. “If he is successful, he should be readmitted to the United Nations as a new entity,” the diplomat said. “We’ve got to support him on that ground and salute him if he wins.”

Earlier Tuesday, Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic demanded that the international community either protect his government from attacks by Serbian militias or lift the arms embargo to permit the Muslim Slavic population to defend itself.

“You don’t have to defend us, but you can’t forbid us to defend ourselves,” he told a news conference. “You don’t have to send your troops, you don’t have to send humanitarian aid, you don’t have to establish a ‘no-fly’ zone if you lift the embargo and let us defend ourselves. But if the embargo continues, you have to defend us.”

The United Nations imposed an arms embargo last year against all the Yugoslav republics to try to dampen the violence. But Serbian forces in Bosnia are well-armed with tanks, artillery and other weapons that once belonged to the Yugoslav national army, while the Muslim-led Bosnian government forces lack heavy weapons and are running out of ammunition for their small arms.

Izetbegovic said his forces desperately need antitank weapons and ammunition.

But the Bush Administration and its allies support the embargo. President Bush argues that there are already enough weapons in region.