U.S. Backs a European Solution to Crisis in Yugoslavia : Diplomacy: The EC is expected to call for action today by the Continent’s new security forum.

The Bush Administration will join with European allies in calling on the 35-nation Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe to try to resolve the crisis in Yugoslavia, officials said Thursday.

The diplomatic effort will be the first real test of the crisis-management ability of the CSCE, a loosely knit organization of European countries, the United States and Canada that some have hailed as the potential cornerstone of a new security structure in Europe.

The 12 foreign ministers of the European Community are expected to call for CSCE action today, U.S. officials said, and the Administration intends to support their move.

“No formal decision has been made, and the consultations are still going on, but the United States is generally inclined to see CSCE action as useful,” one official said.

The Administration has deliberately decided to let European governments take the lead, he added--partly because the European Community can put more economic pressure on Yugoslavia than the United States can, but also because of anger and frustration at the Yugoslavs’ rejection of U.S. attempts to forestall the conflict.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III spent several weeks trying to persuade Yugoslavia’s warring leaders to pull back from the brink, and even visited Belgrade last week to make a personal appeal, to no avail.

As recently as Thursday morning, U.S. Ambassador Warren Zimmermann met with Yugoslav Prime Minister Ante Markovic to ask for restraint on the part of the federal government, but got nowhere, officials said. As Zimmermann presented a formal U.S. message, the federal army’s tanks were already rolling across Slovenia to seize border posts and other key positions, they said.

Administration officials were bitter not only about the Belgrade government’s military action, but at Slovenian and Croatian leaders as well for walking out of talks with the federal government and bringing on the confrontation.

“There are no saints in this one,” one senior official said.

An Administration spokesman publicly criticized both sides. “We will not reward unilateral actions that preempt dialogue or the possibility of negotiated solutions,” White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said, referring to the declarations of independence by Croatia and Slovenia. But “we will strongly oppose intimidation or the use of force,” he added, referring to the actions of the federal Yugoslav army.

But officials acknowledged that the United States has had little influence over the Yugoslavs’ separatist passions, so the Administration is staking its hopes on the untested forum of the new pan-European organization, the CSCE.

Under a new “emergency mechanism,” which CSCE foreign ministers approved only eight days ago, the organization can act if 12 members agree that a crisis is “endangering peace, security or stability” in Europe.

The action can take any of several forms, from a simple request for information to an emergency meeting of all 35 governments or a formal mediation mission.

State Department officials said the 12 European Community countries were still discussing the form of their proposal on Thursday, but they appeared to be moving toward calling an emergency meeting of senior officials of the 35 CSCE countries. The officials said they expected the move to come today from an EC foreign ministers’ meeting in Luxembourg.

Baker told reporters that if an emergency session were called, the United States “would obviously participate,” but he added that details were still under discussion.

Part of the problem, officials said, is that these procedures have never been used before, leaving diplomats puzzling over protocol.

“We’re all trying to figure out how the thing is supposed to work,” said one.

Another problem is that the CSCE machinery was designed to help solve conflicts between countries, not the kind of internal conflict that is tearing Yugoslavia apart.

“As far as I can tell, for CSCE to get involved, the Yugoslav (federal) government has to agree to it,” another official said.

Yugoslavia’s central government is a member of CSCE; Slovenia and Croatia, the two republics that have declared their independence, are not.

Baker, in brief comments to reporters at the State Department, repeated the U.S. position that Yugoslavia’s six republics and two autonomous provinces should be granted greater “sovereignty” but should remain within a single federation.