U.N. Says NATO Didn’t Commit War Crimes

The chief U.N. war crimes prosecutor Friday rejected claims that NATO committed war crimes during last year’s bombing of Yugoslavia and said the accusations merit no further investigation.

“Although some mistakes were made by NATO, I am very satisfied that there was no deliberate targeting of civilians or unlawful military targets by NATO during the bombing campaign,” Carla del Ponte told the Security Council.

Since last year’s 78-day air campaign, lawyers for Yugoslavia and a separate Russian parliamentary commission have given prosecutors complaints and evidence that they say support their charge that North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces committed war crimes.

The allegations included the strike against a bridge as a passenger train was crossing it, the bombing of a refugee convoy near Djakovica and the targeting of a Serbian television building in Belgrade.

NATO Secretary-General George Robertson applauded the announcement by Del Ponte, saying it came as no surprise because the alliance had acted entirely in accordance with international law.

The decision, he said in a statement, “should help ensure that the world’s attention is focused exactly where it belongs--on bringing the real war criminals of the Balkans to face justice in The Hague.”

Serbian officials have said NATO bombings killed more than 300 people, but that number has not been independently confirmed.

Del Ponte told council ambassadors that the tribunal had conducted a thorough examination of all the facts and evidence presented, as well as a detailed legal analysis, and concluded that “there is no basis for opening an investigation into any of these allegations or into other incidents related to the NATO bombing.”

The decision is likely to further damage relations between the tribunal and Yugoslavia, which has accused U.N. prosecutors of bias and essentially cut off all cooperation with them.