Serbs may empty camps

WASHINGTON - The United States has received word that Serbs may be willing to empty detention centres in Bosnia-Herzegovina if the international community takes responsibility for people held there.

A US official said yesterday the information came to Washington through diplomatic channels. 'There are indications the Serbs may offer to empty the camps if the Red Cross and the international community take responsibility for them,' said the official.

The official said the offer would present the international community with the same kind of dilemma posed when the Serbs permitted the UN to escort besieged Croat and Muslim civilians out of the country. 'If the international community doesn't assist them and bad things happen, you feel responsible. If you do help, you are assisting in ethnic cleansing,' he said.

US intelligence estimates that there are about 170,000 people in the camps, which are mostly run by Serbs, although some are run by Croats and Muslims.

Former detention centre prisoners told reporters over the past week that they were released only after they signed away all their property and pledged to emigrate. This is all part of the Serb policy of 'ethnic cleansing', which means non-Serbs are either killed or driven from their homes and villages and forced to become refugees.

The official said the US estimates that upwards of 10,000 people have been killed in Bosnia to date, but he predicted the true number would not be known for years. He said that while 'we have absolutelyno doubt that horrible atrocities were committed' in the detention centres, 'the heart of human rights atrocities in Bosnia is not the camps per se but . . . the efforts by the Serbs to create ethnically pure areas. We believe the largest casualties are not in the camps or in pitched battles but in isolated villages where people have disappeared . . . We may in a few cases find mass graves,' he said.

BONN - Germany is putting pressure on Britain, ahead of a Yugoslavia conference next week in London, to adopt tougher measures against embargo-breaking, writes John Eisenhammer.

Complaining about resistance from Paris, London and Rome, German officials expressed 'concern' at the inadequacy of efforts by the conference's British hosts to strengthen the UN embargo against Serbia and Montenegro.

Bonn wants to make this 'one of the key points of the meeting', said a Foreign Ministry spokesman. His remark reflects deep bitterness behind the scenes at what is regarded as foot-dragging by Germany's main Western allies on the former Yugoslavia.