U.S. Ponders Further Measures Against Serbia

Deeply frustrated by the failure of U.S. and European diplomacy to stop the dismemberment of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bush Administration officials said Tuesday that the United States is considering additional economic and political measures to punish Serbia. But they flatly ruled out the use of military force.

Although the officials asserted that no party to the complex Yugoslav tragedy is completely blameless, they said that Slobodan Milosevic, the militantly nationalistic Serbian president, is the individual most responsible for the worst atrocities in Europe since World War II.

“It is obviously a very frustrating situation when you look at genuine evil being done, you think you know the source of that evil and you can’t do anything about it,” one State Department official mused when asked what the United States can do.

Although the Administration cannot land a “knockout blow” on Milosevic, the official said Washington is determined to tighten the political and economic screws on the Serbian president. He declined to spell out specific steps but said they could not be subtle. “The only thing this man understands is power,” the official said.

Nevertheless, the Administration turned aside the plea of Bosnian Foreign Minister Haris Silajdzic for military protection for his beleaguered population.

At a Washington press conference, Silajdzic said he has asked the United States or the United Nations to create a haven in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo similar to the security zone created for Iraqi Kurds after the Persian Gulf War. He also called on the international community to disarm the Serb-led Yugoslav army. Both steps clearly would require the use of armed force.

“My country has turned into a slaughterhouse,” Silajdzic said. But his request went unheeded.

“We should not commit American forces to this conflict,” State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said. Even as the world’s only remaining superpower, Tutwiler said, the United States is not “the military policeman of the world.”

Asked why the United States used military action to reverse Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait but is unwilling to take similar action to prevent the dismemberment of Bosnia, Tutwiler said President Bush concluded that the fate of Kuwait was vital to U.S. national security but that he has made no such determination concerning Bosnia.

Another official said that limited military action would do no good and that anything more “would get us involved in a quagmire. . . . If it doesn’t work, then it’s a defeat. Then you have the terrible choice between escalating in a large sense or acknowledging that you made a mistake.”

Even so, Tutwiler said, “we are actively considering further concrete measures either alone or in concert with our allies aimed at stopping (Serbian) aggression.” It was the first time the Administration has indicated it might act on its own if it is unable to build a consensus for international action.