Ex-Diplomat Says U.S. Should Arm Bosnians

The State Department’s former officer in charge of daily policy for Yugoslavia said Friday he believes the United States should arm Bosnians so they can fight against Serbian attacks.

George Kenney, former acting chief of Yugoslav affairs, said in an interview that he believed U.S. air cover should be provided over Bosnia to stop Serbian air attacks.

Kenney, 35, resigned Tuesday after four years at the State Department. He was appointed deputy chief of Yugoslav affairs Jan. 31 and had been acting chief for a month.

He said his efforts to persuade the department to take a firmer stance against the Serbian siege of Bosnia were frustrated by an Administration that fundamentally did not want to get involved in the Yugoslav conflict.

“The Bosnians are really the poor innocents who got mugged,” Kenney said.

“What we could do, what we should do, is arm the Bosnians, allow them to defend themselves, allow them to protect their remaining territory and allow them to try to recover territory which has been forcibly taken from them,” he said.

Kenney discounted the results of a two-day peace conference in London this week that world leaders have acknowledged are unlikely to bring an end to the war in Bosnia that has killed at least 8,000 people.

“The conference has in effect given the Serbs a green light to finish what they are doing,” he said.

Kenney said that absent world sanctions it was doubtful Serbs would honor the peace agreement or their promise to turn over their heavy artillery within the week.

Based on information he received over the past few months, Kenney said, there was no doubt in his mind that Serbian forces should bear the blame for the conflict that has included the imprisonment of thousands in detention camps and aerial bombing with cluster bombs and napalm.

“I do not understand at all why the Administration will allow Serbian military aircraft to bomb towns in Bosnia,” he said.

One of his major disagreements with senior officials was their reluctance to consider credible the reports by media and refugees of the situation in Sarajevo and other Bosnian cities. At the same time, he said, the officials did not want to send in U.S. observers to investigate.

“Everyone who has been there will agree that a tragedy is taking place and that the Serbs are responsible, and many people will agree with me that what is going on is genocide,” he said.

Kenney was unsuccessful in convincing the department to refer to the situation in Bosnia as genocide.