U.N. Security Council Approves Panel to Investigate War Crimes in Balkans
The Security Council adopted a resolution Tuesday establishing its first war crimes commission to investigate atrocities in the Balkans, mainly in the former Yugoslav states of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia.
The vote was a unanimous 15-0 for the resolution, which sets in motion machinery that could lead to an international tribunal on the lines of the 1945-46 Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals for crimes against humanity.
The council also adopted a second resolution providing for an enhanced U.N. presence in Croatia and condemning lawlessness in mainly ethnic Serbian areas there.
The war crimes resolution orders Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to set up a “commission of experts,” who would analyze data, conduct investigations and report to the Security Council.
The document does not recommend prosecuting those accused of crimes, but that might come later.
“If more teeth will be needed, they will be added,” Russian Ambassador Yuli Vorontsov said.
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