NATO and the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal are developing plans to cooperate closely on gathering war crimes evidence in Kosovo in what would be the most intensive investigative effort of its kind since World War II.

Tribunal officials could enter Kosovo with the first NATO peacekeeping troops to coordinate the speedy securing of suspected mass graves and other sites of atrocities against both ethnic Albanians and ethnic Serbs.

As the Serb military begins to pull out of Kosovo, there are reports that soldiers and paramilitary troops have burned bodies, unearthed mass graves and looted villages in Kosovo in anticipation of their withdrawal from the province. This is only the latest report of atrocities committed in Kosovo since the NATO bombing began 11 weeks ago.

The UN Tribunal at The Hague indicted Serb President Slobodan Milosevic and four of his aides last month for committing crimes against Humanity.

Guests:

• Ben Ward, researcher for Human Rights Watch based in Skopia, Macedonia. He has been conducting interviews with Kosovar refugees and gathering evidence on war crimes.
• Robert Hayden, Director of the Center for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pittsburgh.

Related link:

• Human Rights Watch