Serbia Vows Aid in Probe of Atrocities

Secretary of State Warren Christopher won Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic’s promise Sunday that he will allow war crimes investigators to open an office in Belgrade to collect evidence and interview witnesses to possible atrocities in Bosnia.

The pledge to cooperate with the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague, which came as Christopher wrapped up a three-day tour of the Balkans, reverses a two-year refusal by Milosevic to grant investigators access. Because of Milosevic’s influence over the Bosnian Serbs, his acquiescence is crucial to any probe, yet it also poses political problems for the Serbian leader, who will not want his own alleged involvement in war crimes to be aired.

But Christopher’s meeting with Milosevic in Belgrade, the Serbian and Yugoslav capital, did not produce major progress on other critical issues, such as the hand-over of Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Gen. Ratko Mladic, who have been indicted on war crimes charges. The two Bosnian Serbs are longtime proteges of Milosevic.

And despite the peaceful passage of a big test of the Bosnian peace accord over the weekend--the withdrawal of military forces from territory that is changing hands from one side to another in Bosnia-Herzegovina--the Clinton administration still faces obstacles in securing peace in the former Yugoslav republic, senior U.S. officials conceded Sunday.

Christopher’s trip--the first here by an American secretary of state since 1991--was as notable for what it did not produce as for the few measures he announced.

Indeed, even before Christopher left the region, U.S. officials said he will have to come back--often--to oversee the yearlong implementation of the accord reached last year in Dayton, Ohio.

“American intervention remains essential,” Christopher said, to deal with the “many dangers” that lie ahead--beginning with the failure of all three former warring factions to comply fully with key provisions of the peace accord, such as the release of all prisoners.

The obstacles faced include sorting out war crimes and other human rights disputes centered on the wartime practice of “ethnic cleansing,” holding democratic elections within six to nine months, securing public safety and rebuilding a police force, sorting out the status of tens of thousands of refugees and beginning reconstruction of badly ravaged areas.

Christopher stressed that he took “every opportunity” during his weekend trip to remind the presidents of Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia of “their enormous and unequivocal responsibility to seize this moment of peace.”

In addition to the pledge to cooperate with the war crimes tribunal, Serbia also agreed to facilitate the visit of Assistant Secretary of State John Shattuck to investigate the site of a suspected mass grave near Omarska in the Republika Srpksa, the Serbian area of Bosnia.

A notorious prison camp was located in Omarska, and earlier U.S. human rights reports cited claims that up to 15 prisoners a day were killed around Omarska for a three-month period in the early stages of the 3 1/2-year war. Other reports claimed that bodies of victims of “ethnic cleansing” by Bosnian Serb forces were dumped near Omarska.

The site could turn out to be the largest mass grave yet uncovered, explaining what happened to thousands of missing people, Shattuck said Sunday.

But a top U.S. official said that the administration otherwise remains “totally dissatisfied” with Serbia’s position on turning over war criminals, who technically should have been handed over when the Dayton accord was reached, U.S. officials said.

Milosevic has instead stalled and pushed to try alleged perpetrators of ethnic killings in Belgrade. Repeating that stance, he told Christopher on Sunday that Serbia has the facilities to take its own actions and that his government has constitutional problems with extradition.

But the U.S. official said Milosevic has “done nothing” about rounding up dozens of Bosnian Serbs indicted by the tribunal.

The administration has several means to further squeeze Milosevic, who wants restoration of full diplomatic relations with the United States and access to the World Bank and other international organizations as the payoffs for full peace.

So far, the administration has opted not to use leverage over Milosevic.

Another high-level U.S. official said Christopher will serve as a “father figure” as the Bosnian peace process unfolds to gently prod or firmly push the reluctant parties in the former Yugoslav federation to take further steps to prevent a breakdown when North Atlantic Treaty Organization peacekeeping forces withdraw.

So far, the parties still need more serious pushing than prodding. The success of the military withdrawal completed at midnight Saturday is straightforward and comparatively easy in contrast to the next phase of civilian implementation.

That next phase has been complicated by the failure of the Bosnian government to fully comply with key aspects of the earlier stage, most notably expulsion of up to 400 foreign Islamic fighters and the release of all prisoners of war, both of which were due by Jan. 19.

The Bosnian government’s failure to comply with terms of the accord it deems sensitive and controversial makes it more difficult for the United States to pressure Serbia and, in turn, the Bosnian Serbs to move on problems sensitive to their interests.

In a related development Sunday, Christopher announced that the United States will open a U.S. Information Agency office in Kosovo, a once-autonomous province of Serbia.