Monday, Sep. 20, 1999

Exclusive

By Adam Zagorin/Washington

Think Russia has a corruption problem? According to BENJAMIN GILMAN, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, widespread graft threatens to destabilize Bosnia and indefinitely postpone the departure of 6,000 U.S. peacekeepers from the troubled Balkan nation. A fact-finding team dispatched by Gilman to discover what has been happening to some of the $5.1 billion in international assistance funneled to Bosnia since 1995 has come back with sobering news: in just one of the country's 10 cantons, or states, hundreds of millions of dollars provided to the government (including about $1 million from the U.S.) have already been stolen. Another shocker: public funds earmarked to pay for tombstones for some of the 7,000 victims of the Srebrenica massacre have vanished. Gilman plans hearings on the corruption this week and will call on the White House to create a "well-protected and highly trained ELLIOT NESS-style financial SWAT team" to pursue the inquiry in Bosnia.

--By Adam Zagorin/Washington