Nuremberg In Bosnia

THE CHARGES, ESSENTIALLY OF MASS MURDER OF civilians, have become as repetitious as they are ghastly, until U.S. Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger managed to strip away the familiarity and make the accusations arresting again. He named seven Serbs, two Croats and one Muslim allegedly responsible for such atrocities in Bosnia and Croatia; the accused ranged from the very obscure (concentration-camp commander Drago Prcac) to the globally notorious (Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic). All, said Eagleburger, should be hauled before an international court of justice -- a "second Nuremberg" -- and tried for war crimes.

No international body, however, has any practical means of apprehending these men, and the U.S. has no proposals. So what was the point? Possibly to influence Serbs to vote against Milosevic in the elections that were scheduled Sunday, by reminding them that their country will be a pariah as long as Milosevic lasts. More probably, by highlighting atrocities, the U.S. may have won support for a United Nations resolution approved by the General Assembly on Friday that proposed lifting the arms embargo against Bosnia and establishing a no-fly zone over the region.