Bosnian men evacuated from Srebrenica by Serb forces in July 1995

November 16, 1999
Web posted at: 12:32 a.m. EST (0532 GMT)

From Senior U.N. Correspondent Richard Roth

NEW YORK (CNN) -- In a rare move, the United Nations has taken itself to task in a report on its performance before and during a massacre which claimed the lives of thousands during the Bosnian war.

The report is a frank and harsh account of the U.N.'s response to the killings in 1994 at Srebrenica.

So far, at least 2,500 bodies have been recovered from Srebrenica and thousands of Muslims are still missing. They are believed to have been killed after Serb forces overran what was said by the U.N. to be a safe haven.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan concluded after a staff investigation that "through error, misjudgment, and an inability to recognize the scope of the evil confronting us, we failed to do our part to help save the people of Srebrenica from the Serb campaign of mass murder."

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A central issue is whether 150 Dutch peacekeeping troops responded correctly to the threat, choosing not to fight as Bosnian men were separated from women and children and led away.

Report cites tragic oversights, mistakes

"There seems to be some rather tragic oversights, some tragic mistakes of judgment on the part of certain individuals who had the greatest responsibility for maintaining the safe area," said Bosnian Ambassador to the U.N. Muhamed Sacirbey.

While noting the difficult situation of the Dutch soldiers in Srebrenica, the report says it is harder to explain why the Dutch battalion did not report more fully the scenes that were unfolding around them.

According to the U.N. report Mladic, seen here in Srebrenica, told evacuated Bosnians they wouldn't be harmed

Fearing reprisals against peacekeepers, and despite three unheeded appeals by the Dutch commander for air support, the U.N. says it was wrong to declare repeatedly and publicly that it did not want to use air power against the Serbs except as a last resort.

"We tried to keep the peace and apply the rules of peacekeeping," concludes the report. "But there was no peace to keep."

"Honestly, we don't buy it," says Joanna Weschler of Human Rights Watch. "I think it wasn't that difficult to comprehend the war aim on the part of the Serbs."

The report says the policy of treating all sides equally failed.

The report says indicted war criminals Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karazdic are the major collaborators behind the mass murder. These suspects are still wanted by the International War Crimes Tribunal established by the U.N. Security Council.