Indictments Issued for War Crimes Against Serbs

The U.N.’s International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia on Friday charged three Bosnian Muslims and a Croat with war crimes, its first indictment for crimes against Serb victims.

The tribunal said that three of the four men, two of whom were arrested in Germany and Austria earlier this week, were responsible for running the Celebici camp at Konjic in central Bosnia in 1992.

The charges against the four for crimes against Serbs marks an important step for the tribunal, which has repeatedly rejected accusations of bias against Serbs.

“These are the first individuals indicted for crimes allegedly committed against Bosnian Serb victims. This [indictment] is the first of its kind. It will not be the last,” tribunal spokesman Christian Chartier told reporters.

The tribunal said that Bosnian Muslim and Croat forces attacked the predominantly Muslim town of Konjic in May 1992, rounding up Serbs and holding them at the Celebici camp. Previous reports said that 250 detainees were held there.

“Detainees were killed, tortured, sexually assaulted . . . and beaten,” the tribunal said in its indictment.

Indicted were Zejnil Delalic, a former commander in the Bosnian Muslim forces, and Zdravko Mucic, Hazim Delic and Esad Landzo, all staff at the Celebici camp.

Chartier said Delic and Landzo were still at large.

Also Friday, Madeleine Albright, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, viewed human remains at a suspected mass grave sight in northeast Bosnia, then urged action to ensure that war crimes investigations are not impeded.

“It’s the most disgusting and horrifying sight for another human being to see,” Albright said after walking through the field site at Branjevo collective farm, south of the village of Janja.

Accompanied by a forensic expert and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization peacekeeping commander in Bosnia, U.S. Adm. Leighton Smith, Albright was shown leg bones, a hand and a spine poking through the soil and a body so badly decomposed that its sex was not identifiable.

Investigators believe that the remains belonged to people missing since Bosnian Serbs captured the nearby Muslim town of Srebrenica last year.