U.S. LABELS ATROCITIES BY SERBS VILEST SINCE NAZIS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 20, 1993                   TAG: 9301200078
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium
U.S. LABELS ATROCITIES BY SERBS VILEST SINCE NAZIS
The "ethnic cleansing" campaign pursued by Bosnian Serbs to drive Muslims and other ethnic groups from their homes in Bosnia-Herzegovina has resulted in murder, torture, rape and starvation on a scale that "dwarfs anything seen in Europe since Nazi times," the State Department said Tuesday in its annual human-rights report.
"It borders on genocide," Patricia Diaz Dennis, assistant secretary of state for human rights, said of the efforts of Serb irregular forces, aided by Serbia and the Serbian-controlled Yugoslav army.
Tuesday's report was the 17th such annual study for Congress about the human-rights situation in 189 countries. It was the final report of President Bush's four years in office and was released one day before President-elect Bill Clinton's new State Department team assumes responsibility for integrating human rights into U.S. foreign policy.
"The balance sheet of human-rights practices had many negative entries in 1992," said Dennis, noting abuses that have resulted from civil war in many areas of Europe, Africa and Asia.
But she also pointed to the U.S. military intervention in Somalia to "break the stranglehold of warlords threatening food and medical relief operations . . . as a defining moment in the role that human rights and humanitarian concerns can play in world affairs."
The State Department already has sent five reports describing atrocities in Bosnia to the United Nations in hopes that they might provide the basis for a special war-crimes commission. In summarizing these earlier efforts, the annual report said, "Limitations of space and the standardized format used in this report make it difficult to detail the true scope and horror of the atrocities committed by Serbian forces."
It said that, to a lesser extent, Bosnia's other main population groups - the Muslims and Croats - have committed violations against other ethnic groups. But, it added, "the atrocities of the Croats and Bosnian Muslims pale in comparison to the sheer scale and calculated cruelty of the killings and other abuses committed by Serbian and Bosnian Serbian forces."

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB