West Considers Banning Arms Sales to Yugoslavia

Amid growing signs that Yugoslavia’s federal army is out of control and no longer taking orders from the central government, the United States and many of its European allies Wednesday were considering an embargo on arms sales to demonstrate international disgust with the army’s use of force against breakaway Slovenia and Croatia.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III, predicting that Yugoslavia is headed for “a full-fledged civil war,” conferred in Washington with top officials of the 12-nation European Community about steps that the Western democracies might take to defuse the Balkan crisis.

In Prague, representatives of the 35-nation Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) called for an immediate cease-fire and demanded that the Yugoslav civilian government reassert control over the army.

But U.S. and European officials admitted that, so far at least, the conflict touched off by the declarations of independence of Slovenia and Croatia has demonstrated the impotence of the new European security structures, which were supposed to stabilize the post-Cold War world. Despite the political and economic power of the United States and the European Community, there seems to be no effective way to require the Yugoslav factions to settle their differences peacefully.

“The outside world isn’t going to be able to do it for them,” Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger said. German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher agreed. “It is completely wrong to expect a miracle” from the CSCE or the European Community, he said.

Nevertheless, the United States and most European nations were determined to try something.

Although Yugoslavia and its constituent republics are awash in sophisticated weaponry, Baker said an arms embargo could “register our grave concern and . . . hopefully reduce the opportunities for bloodshed and violence.”

Dutch Foreign Minister Hans van den Broek, chairman of the European Community foreign ministers under the organization’s six-month rotation system, said that if the United States imposes an embargo, “I feel certainly that we should also seriously consider it.” He and Baker spoke to reporters at the State Department after crisis consultations.

In London, the British government jumped the gun on Washington and the EC, ordering an immediate revocation of all licenses for export of weapons and military equipment to Yugoslavia.

In Prague, where CSCE ambassadors met for the organization’s first emergency consultation, Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel opened the meeting with a call for a worldwide arms embargo against Yugoslavia.

Baker said the United States might also suspend its tiny economic aid program. And Van Den Broek said that unless the Yugoslav army returns to its barracks by Friday, he would recommend canceling the EC’s far more important $1-billion-a-year aid program.

Nevertheless, there was very little evidence that the Yugoslav army was paying much attention to world opinion.

“There are indications that the army may be acting outside political control,” Baker said. “I think we need to develop all intelligence that we can to see whether or not we can confirm that. . . . That is a very grave concern of ours.”

In Germany, Genscher said in a radio interview that the Yugoslav military “has quite obviously shirked every political control and is acting on its own accord.”

He said that the troops are “running amok.”

It remains to be seen whether the federal army will be able to force Slovenia and Croatia back into the unraveling Yugoslav federation. But it is certain that the specter of military excesses has already produced a radical swing in international opinion away from the central government and toward the rebellious republics.

Two weeks ago, foreign ministers of the CSCE--representing the United States, Canada and every European nation--issued a statement supporting the “unity and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia” and warning that the international community would withhold political and economic support from breakaway republics. European and U.S. officials said there was no possibility of diplomatic recognition of either Slovenia or Croatia.

On Wednesday, Baker and Van Den Broek turned aside questions about possible diplomatic recognition, insisting that for the time being the priority must be on preventing bloodshed and violence.

However, White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said the United States has not abandoned its opposition to Slovenian and Croatian independence.

“We still believe in a unified Yugoslavia,” Fitzwater told reporters aboard Air Force One as President Bush flew to South Dakota for ceremonies at Mt. Rushmore.

Meanwhile, Baker sought to refute suggestions from American supporters of Slovenia and Croatia that he gave a “green light” to the Yugoslav army when he visited Belgrade last month in an 11th-hour attempt to prevent the dismemberment of the Yugoslav federation.

“Of course, we categorically reject that,” Baker said.

“What we did was to make it very clear that we were concerned that something like this (near civil war) would happen, and indeed it has,” he said. “And we warned against unilateral actions which could preempt dialogue, preempt the opportunities for peaceful negotiations.”

Baker’s deputy, Eagleburger, said there is very little that the United States can do to control events in the Balkans.

“The only leverage I think we have is to work with the international community to try to put pressure on the Yugoslavs and the various republics to . . . stop the shooting and sit down and begin negotiating,” Eagleburger, a former ambassador to Yugoslavia, said in an interview with Cable News Network. “But I would concede to you I don’t think there’s a great deal of leverage involved there.”

Genscher said the Yugoslav army, “which is tightly bound to the old political order and the Communist system, is quite obviously attempting to hold onto their old power position and also to fortify old structures with their military action.

“That is bound to fail and only brings a terrible bloodshed to the people of Yugoslavia,” the German foreign minister added.

In Geneva, U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar ruled out U.N. action regarding Yugoslavia pending the outcome of European attempts to restore peace.

Times staff writer Tamara Jones in Bonn contributed to this report.