Clinton Opens Door to War Crimes Force

President Clinton barred expanding the mission of peacekeeping troops in Bosnia-Herzegovina to include hunting down war criminals, but he opened the door to creating a separate war crimes strike force to do it. Speaking to reporters at a Pentagon meeting, Clinton said such a force must not be involved in peacekeeping duties, nor limited to Bosnia. “We ought to consider whether there ought to be a permanent war crimes tribunal, which of course would require some sort of way of carrying out its mandate,” Clinton said. “But if we do that, we need to look at it not just in terms of Bosnia but over the long run.”