During the war in Bosnia, there were multiple allegations of the use of chemical munitions, including CS, CN and an agent like BZ, emanating from the various sides. Human Rights Watch has no evidence of the use of lethalchemical weapons during the war. Human Rights Watch has not yet drawn a conclusion about the use of chemical incapacitants, like BZ, during the war, and is continuing to investigate allegations of the use of such agents.

Human Rights Watch also interviewed numerous persons who reported having been affected by a chemical agent that appears to have been the chemical irritant CS or CN. A typical example involves two Bosnian soldiers interviewed by Human Rights Watch who reported daily CS attacks on their lines in Zepa during the August 1995 Serb assault on the safe haven. Both described the effects the tear gas had on them, which they said were of a passing nature.54 Another Bosnian soldier reported having been affected by a tear agent on the Sarajevo front in August 1993.55 A Croat soldier described a Serb attack near Vukovar in November 1991 which produced symptoms consistent with a CS attack.56 A second Croat soldier reported having been affected by a tear agent during a Serb attack near the village of Crnilug in the Krajina, Croatia, on July 25, 1995.57 U.S. Department of Defense and NATO intelligence, as well as several U.N. officials in interviews with Human Rights Watch, have indicated that chemical irritants were used during the war.58