U.S. Launches Its Own Plan for Peace in Bosnia : Balkans: Like Vance-Owen proposal, strategy would not force Serbs to give up all territory they have seized.

The Clinton Administration announced Wednesday that it is launching a full-scale diplomatic effort to end the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina and said it is willing to send American troops as peacekeepers if a settlement is reached.

The long-awaited plan, the first major foreign policy initiative of the 3-week-old Administration, relies on stepped-up economic sanctions and political pressure--but not military action--to press Serb-backed militias to withdraw from some of the territory they have seized in Bosnia, senior officials said.

But the Administration will not insist that the Serbs give up all the land they have taken, viewing that as an unrealistic goal, the officials said.

Instead, the United States hopes to produce a compromise much like the plan already proposed by Cyrus R. Vance, the former secretary of state, and Lord Owen, the former British foreign secretary, dividing Bosnia into 10 autonomous regions dominated by the country’s warring ethnic groups: Serbs, Croats and Muslims.

While the Vance-Owen plan has won acceptance only from the Croats, U.S. officials said, they hope a new proposal backed by American clout can compel agreement by all three factions.

The officials, however, refused to say what specific steps the Administration plans to take to bring Bosnia’s embittered factions to an agreement, beyond saying they hope to enlist Russia and other countries in a concerted campaign of diplomatic pressure and economic sanctions.

Pentagon officials said the Joint Chiefs of Staff have estimated that a multinational force of between 25,000 and 40,000 troops would be needed to enforce a settlement in Bosnia and that the American share of that force might be between 5,000 and 12,000 troops.

As an interim step, one senior official indicated, the Administration is considering sending some American forces to help deliver humanitarian aid to civilians in Bosnia, although no decision has been made.

“We are not committing today to make war in the former Yugoslavia,” Clinton told citizens at a televised “town meeting” in Detroit. “We are committing to try to help get a peace and then to enforce it.”

Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who unveiled the plan at a State Department news conference, said Clinton decided to intervene in the tangled Balkan war for moral and strategic reasons. “Our conscience revolts at the idea of passively accepting (the) brutality” of the conflict, Christopher said.

The Administration also fears that the war could spill over into neighboring countries and turn into a large-scale European crisis, he said.

On a global scale, the conflict poses an important test of how the United States should respond to ethnic violence in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and elsewhere.

“This is an important moment for our nation’s post-Cold War role in Europe and the world,” he said, noting, “The United States is not the world’s policeman. Yet we are the United States of America. We have singular powers and influence.

“Our values and interests give us reason to help create an international standard for the fair treatment of minorities,” he added, suggesting that the new Administration will try to bring its influence to bear on inter-ethnic conflicts all over the world.

The American initiative was welcomed by Vance, the United Nations’ special envoy to the region, and by Owen, the European Community’s negotiator, a spokesman said.

It also received a cautiously favorable reception from representatives of the warring Bosnian factions at the United Nations, where some diplomats and ambassadors also expressed unease with the Americans’ pace in formulating a response to the crisis.

Christopher said that the plan centers on six broad steps:

* A special envoy, Reginald Bartholomew, now the U.S. ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, will work with Vance and Owen to try to bring about a settlement.

* The United States will exert political pressure on all three sides in the conflict and will inform each faction that it must “accept a resolution that falls short of its goals.”

* The United States will work to tighten sanctions on Serbia “to raise the economic and political price for aggression” and to deter the Belgrade government from sending Serbian forces into the largely Albanian province of Kosovo or into Macedonia.

* The Administration will increase its efforts to reduce civilian suffering and bloodshed and will consider new actions to help deliver humanitarian aid. A senior official indicated that this could include adding American troops to the British, French and Spanish forces now on humanitarian duty in Bosnia but said that no decision has been made.

* To help promote a workable peace plan, the Administration is pledging to send military forces to Bosnia, if needed, to enforce a settlement. “We are prepared to use our military power to enforce the agreement,” Christopher said, adding that it is “premature” to decide whether that might mean ground troops or some other form of power.

* Finally, Clinton and Christopher are seeking support for the effort from other countries, especially Russia, which has good relations with Serbia. Clinton telephoned Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin Wednesday morning to ask his help.

The plan constitutes a clear retreat from Clinton’s position on Bosnia during his presidential campaign, when he indicated that he would seek to deny the Serbs any territorial gains and would consider the immediate use of American air power against Serb militias around the embattled city of Sarajevo.

A senior official who helped draw up the plan acknowledged, with a tone of regret, that any achievable settlement would probably impose “inequities” on Bosnian Muslims, who make up 44% of the republic’s people, and would solidify the division of the area on ethnic lines. “That’s the unhappy state we’re in,” he said. “. . . But what is needed here is to get an agreement that all parties can agree to.”

The American plan depends heavily on the Administration’s ability to tighten economic sanctions on Serbia to win concessions from the Bosnian Serbs. A State Department official said the limited trade embargo now in place has had “dramatic effects” on Serbia’s economy but acknowledged that “the imponderable factor is how much you need to change political behavior. When is the misery index so high that something happens?”

The plan was drawn up by Christopher, White House National Security Adviser Anthony Lake and other senior officials in the last three weeks, and was approved by Clinton Monday evening, officials said. Gen. Colin L. Powell, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who has often warned against committing American troops to uncertain goals, also endorsed the plan, they said.

Initial reactions to the plan from Congress were positive but there were some complaints that Clinton was neither forceful nor specific enough.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), a leading proponent of American intervention in Bosnia, said he “applauded the Administration for its willingness to place the full faith and credit of the United States behind a new effort” but added that any solution should avoid dividing Bosnia.

But Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), who has also argued for intervention, was clearly disappointed. “We are hopeful this will be an important step toward an acceptable solution,” he said, adding: “The United States and its NATO allies should not accept a pattern of ‘ethnic cleansing,’ ” the Serbs’ now infamous practice of expelling others from territory through murder, rape and terror.

At the United Nations, despite the public statements, diplomats said privately that Vance was quietly disappointed and Owen furious that the United States had not simply supported their plan.

Times staff writers Melissa Healy and Michael Ross contributed to this report.

What the U.S. Will Do

Six elements of the plan for U.S. involvement in the former Yugoslav federation announced by Secretary of State Warren Christopher:

To “bring the full weight of American diplomacy” to the crisis, Reginald Bartholomew was named U.S. envoy to the cease-fire negotiations over Bosnia-Herzegovina led by former Secretary of State Cyrus R. Vance and European Community representative Lord Owen.

The United States will try to convince the warring ethnic groups that the only way to end the conflict is through negotiation, with no solution to be imposed on the parties.

Economic sanctions against Serbia will be tightened, with political and economic pressure against extending the conflict into Kosovo and a strengthened international presence in Macedonia.

All parties are called upon to stop the violence, with enforcement of a “no-fly zone” over Bosnia, further actions to allow delivery of aid and creation of a war crimes tribunal at the United Nations.

The United States is willing to help enforce any settlement reached by the combatants, including by joining with the United Nations, NATO and others and by the use of U.S. military action if necessary.

The United States will consult with its allies, particularly Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin. Bartholomew is to visit Moscow to discuss the U.S. plan before going to New York to participate in negotiations.

Source: Times wire reports