Christopher Seeks Europe’s Backup on Bosnia Airdrop

Secretary of State Warren Christopher told America’s European allies Friday that he hopes they will join the U.S. airdrop operation in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but none stepped forward to volunteer immediately.

European governments praised the United States for undertaking the mission. “The Americans are going ahead. . . . Everyone around this table will support them,” British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd told reporters.

But German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel said none of the allies are ready to offer their own air forces as participants.

“I admire the Americans because they have the courage to do that,” Kinkel said just before Christopher met with the foreign ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Before the meeting, some European diplomats said their governments are skeptical of the U.S. airdrop plan because they believe it is being launched largely as a symbolic, high-profile way for the Clinton Administration to deliver on its promise of action in Bosnia.

Britain and France have had troops protecting humanitarian aid convoys on the ground there for almost a year; Germany’s is one of several air forces delivering supplies to the capital, Sarajevo.

Christopher said he was not discouraged by the Europeans’ initial reaction, noting that they had learned of the airdrop plan only a day earlier. “I didn’t come here to ask for their participation,” he said.

But in a closed-door meeting with the other NATO foreign ministers, Christopher told them he “would welcome . . . broad participation in this effort.”

“The Clinton Administration is prepared to do its part,” he said pointedly. “We look to you to do yours.”

Christopher also called on NATO to begin serious planning for a multinational peacekeeping force in Bosnia if U.N. efforts to arrange a settlement succeed.

NATO Secretary General Manfred Woerner said that planning is already under way for “a major peacekeeping force” and added that Russia has indicated it might be willing to participate.

President Clinton has said he is willing to commit U.S. troops to such a force.

Pentagon officials have said such a peacekeeping force would probably require between 25,000 and 40,000 troops, of whom 5,000 to 12,000 might be Americans.

It was Christopher’s first meeting with the other NATO ministers as Clinton’s secretary of state, and he took the opportunity to make a long statement about the new Administration’s foreign policy goals.

On Bosnia, he said: “We must today admit frankly a fact that now haunts our search for peace: The West missed too many opportunities to prevent or contain this suffering, bloodshed and destruction when the conflict was in its infancy. The lesson to be learned from this tragedy is the importance of early and decisive engagement against ethnic persecution and aggressive nationalism.”

Those were pointed words. Until last year, the European Community had said it would take a leading role in halting the strife, but EC efforts were too little and too late to stop the conflict from spreading.