The possibility that chemical weapons may be used in the Balkans in the future cannot be discounted, especially in light of the likelihood that the Serb forces will not enjoy the enormous military superiority that characterized most of the Bosnian war. The war was marked by frequent and pervasive violations of international humanitarian law ethnic cleansing, indiscriminate use of force, summary execution, disappearance, mass rape, and targeting of civilian populations. Little if any regard was given for the safety and protection of civilians, and often civilians were the primary target of combatants. Chemical weapons would be one more tool to terrorize and kill unprotected civilians. One need only remember the Kurdish town of Halabja, where several thousand civilians were killed in an Iraqi chemical attack in 1988, to realize the terrible impact chemical weapons can have.
Chemical agents are notoriously indiscriminate and can be horribly effective weapons of terror.
This is one reason why the use of chemical weapons is prohibited by international law. It is also why Human Rights Watch holds that these weapons must be eliminated from the Balkans without delay. The ban on use, as codified in the Protocol, is considered to constitute customary international law, binding on all states regardless of whether they are parties to the Protocol. Moreover, the possession of chemical weapons is prohibited under the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention, which is scheduled to come into force for ratifying countries on April 29, 1997. According to information obtained by Human Rights Watch, the JNA conducted extensive research on a wide variety of military chemical agents, and produced the nerve agent sarin, the blister agent sulfur mustard, and the incapacitating agent BZ before the Bosnian war, and turned these chemical agents into weapons.