May 22, 1996

War Crimes Prosecutor Criticizes NATO

Related Article
  • Bosnia Threatens to Withdraw From Elections
    By JANE PERLEZ
    THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The chief prosecutor at the United Nations war crimes tribunal said on Tuesday that NATO's refusal to order its troops to arrest Bosnian Serb leaders accused of atrocities threatens to undermine the fragile peace in the Balkans.

    In his first public expression of frustration, the prosecutor, Richard Goldstone, said in an interview that the arrest of Radovan Karadzic, the indicted Bosnian Serb leader, "seems to me not only in the interests of justice but in the interests of peace."

    "I can't believe that 60,000 troops would have difficulty" in carrying out Karadzic's arrest, he said.

    Goldstone returned on Tuesday morning from Washington, where his appeals for a more aggressive policy toward indicted war criminals apparently were not persuasive.

    In talks with top Clinton administration officials, including Secretary of Defense William Perry, Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Gen. John Shalikashvili, the chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, Goldstone said he received no encouragement that NATO troops would arrest either Karadzic or Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian Serb military leader, who has also been indicted by the tribunal.

    According to a tribunal official, Goldstone suggested to Perry that failing to arrest Karadzic could cause more violence as elections approach in Bosnia. But Goldstone found American officials firm in their policy of refusing to seek out accused war criminals.

    "Unless some of those indicted people become suicidal, it's not going to happen," Goldstone said.

    Goldstone, a member of South Africa's constitutional court, has until now kept clear of the public debate over Bosnia, preferring to make his case behind the scenes.

    But with the presidential election advancing in the United States and the date of his own departure for South Africa in October nearing, Goldstone appears to have concluded that the time for patient diplomacy has run out.

    The American refusal to pursue the Bosnian Serb leaders came as it appeared Karadzic has re-enforced his power base in Serbian-held Bosnia over the weekend. When the Bosnian peace accord was signed last year, Christopher said it would be inconceivable that Karadzic, the Bosnian Serb leader who masterminded much of the ethnic cleansing campaign against Muslims, would continue to hold office this year.

    Western officials say they have tried diplomatic means to maneuver Karadzic's ouster through pressure on Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian president. But last weekend Milosevic declined to intervene as Karadzic replaced moderates with extremists in his Bosnian Serb government.

    A senior State Department official said that discussions were going on "hourly" to figure out the best way to remove Karadzic, but that American policy was aimed at "marginalizing" Karadzic's influence rather than arresting him. The officials said there were fears of retaliation by former Bosnian Serb soldiers against American troops and unrest among civilians if Karadzic was captured and sent to The Hague, the official said.

    Milosevic has advised Washington officials during visits to Belgrade that Serbian-held Bosnia "could blow up" if top indicted war criminals were arrested, the officials said. "These are serious considerations," the American official said.

    But Western relief workers in Bosnia and some Serbian officials say these dangers are exaggerated.

    As a way of stepping up the pressure on Washington to arrest Karadzic and Mr. Mladic, Goldstone said he would hold public hearings next month that will lay out the evidence against the two.

    Karadzic and Mladic, who attended a funeral in Belgrade in full dress uniform, have both been indicted charges of genocide, including the killing of thousands of Muslim civilians at Srebrenica last year.

    Goldstone said if NATO soldiers cannot be called upon to arrest indicted war criminals, the international tribunal will be weakened.

    "If people in positions of authority cannot be brought to The Hague, the important deterrent value of the tribunal will be destroyed," he said.

    Of 57 war criminals indicted by the tribunal, only one, Dusan Tadic, a low-level Bosnian Serb charged with killings and beatings in a concentration camp in 1992, has been brought to trial. His case, which began earlier this month, is expected to last into the fall. The court currently has three other indicted men in custody: two Croats and a Bosnian Muslim.