U.S. Orders Diplomatic Sanctions Against Serbia : Yugoslavia: Two of three consulates in U.S. will be closed. American ambassador won’t return to Belgrade.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III, angered at the world’s failure to stop the bloodshed in Yugoslavia, ordered new American diplomatic sanctions against Serbia on Friday and challenged Europe to do the same.

Standing in front of British Prime Minister John Major’s 10 Downing St. residence, Baker said, “What is happening in Bosnia and Herzegovina is unconscionable.” He referred to the situation as “a humanitarian nightmare.”

The American action is aimed at blocking Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic’s ambition to convert his republic and its tiny ally, Montenegro, into the legal successor state to the shattered six-republic Yugoslav federation.

He said Washington will not recognize Serbia and Montenegro as the rightful heir to Yugoslavia “until all (Serb-led Yugoslav national army) forces are withdrawn from neighboring states and minority rights are respected.”

In a diplomatic anomaly, Milosevic’s truncated Yugoslavia maintains formal diplomatic relations with the United States and a number of other nations that established ties with the now-defunct larger Yugoslavia. Baker did not cut those ties, but he said Washington intends to reduce the relationship to the bare minimum.

He said the United States will not return Ambassador Warren Zimmermann to Belgrade, a step just short of a formal breach. The diplomat was recalled “for consultations” last week. And Baker said Washington would break relations with the Serb-led Yugoslav military by withdrawing U.S. defense attaches from Belgrade and expelling Yugoslav attaches from Washington.

Moreover, he said the United States will require Yugoslavia to close its consulates in New York and San Francisco. A consulate in Chicago will be allowed to remain open for now.

He said the United States will reduce its embassy staff in Belgrade and expects some Serbian diplomats to leave Washington.

The action propelled the United States back to the forefront of international efforts to deal with the Yugoslav tragedy. In recent months, Washington has allowed the 12-nation European Community to take the lead.

Baker announced the steps after a working dinner with Major and British Foreign Minister Douglas Hurd at Major’s Downing Street residence. The dinner began within an hour of Baker’s arrival from Washington. He meets today in Lisbon with officials of most other European nations.

Although he continued to rule out the use of American military force to blunt Serbia’s land grab in the neighboring republics of Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, Baker said he cannot guarantee “that political and diplomatic measures alone will solve the problem.”

Later, Baker hinted that the United States might support military action by the Western European Union, an organization that includes most of the European members of NATO.

Asked specifically about the possibility of European military action, Baker said: “The civilized world really should begin to contemplate what they might be able to do in concert politically, diplomatically and economically. If measures in those fields fail, then and only then . . . you take a look at questions involving military matters.”

Nevertheless, Baker said that something must be done to permit relief convoys to reach Bosnia.

The purpose of Baker’s trip to Europe is to attend today’s meeting in Lisbon of an international conference coordinating economic assistance to the former Soviet Union. But the presence in Lisbon of officials of more than 80 nations, including all the major countries of Western Europe, provides an ample opportunity for Baker and other foreign ministers to tackle pet issues.

“There will be 15,000 meetings on Yugoslavia,” one senior Administration official said with a touch of hyperbole.

Baker also plans to meet in Lisbon, probably Sunday, with the foreign ministers of the four nuclear-armed former Soviet republics--Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan--to get their signatures on an agreement eliminating nuclear arsenals in all but Russia.

The protocol is required to permit ratification of the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks treaty, signed by Washington and Moscow before the breakup of the Soviet Union last December. The treaty requires a reduction of about one-third in the long-range nuclear weaponry of the United States and Russia, acting as the successor to the Soviet government.

If all goes well, Baker said, he plans to discuss with Russian Foreign Minister Andrei V. Kozyrev the proposals of President Bush and Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin for further arms control steps. Yeltsin is scheduled to visit Washington next month for a summit meeting that could produce deep cuts in remaining nuclear arsenals.

Before returning to Washington, Baker plans to visit Tbilisi, the capital of the former Soviet republic of Georgia, to renew ties with former Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze, perhaps his closest friend among foreign diplomats. Shevardnadze is now acting president of Georgia, the only former Soviet republic that Baker has not visited since the superpower began to unravel.

Baker’s decision to plunge back into high-profile diplomacy aimed at stopping the bloodshed in Yugoslavia indicates that he is dissatisfied with the results of European Community leadership. For the past several months, the United States followed the EC’s lead on Yugoslav policy. For instance, the United States recalled Zimmermann from Belgrade only after the 12 members of the community had done the same.

Earlier this week, the United States canceled U.S. landing rights for the Yugoslav airline, JAT, a step that European nations are thought to be considering but have not yet taken.

In effect, Baker is returning to the role he played last June when he cobbled together a European consensus behind efforts to hold the 74-year-old federation together. That initiative failed because Croatia and Slovenia, followed by Bosnia and Macedonia, declared independence despite Baker’s call for them to remain within the federation until a peaceful breakup could be negotiated.

Serbian militias, backed by the Serb-led Yugoslav national army, have seized about one-third of Croatia and two-thirds of Bosnia, ostensibly to ensure the safety of the Serbian minority populations.