U.S. Contemplating New Serbia Sanctions

The Clinton Administration, reacting to Serbian military gains in Bosnia-Herzegovina, is preparing a list of possible new economic sanctions against Serbia as well as measures to enforce existing sanctions more tightly, officials said Friday.

Among the options under consideration are a “total isolation” embargo that would cut Serbia’s transportation and communications links and new measures to seize Serbian assets abroad, officials said.

The measures are being considered--and trumpeted publicly--in hopes of persuading the Serbs to stop their military onslaught against Muslim areas in Bosnia and to cooperate with U.N. negotiating efforts, officials said.

But the actions also appear aimed at fending off growing criticism of the Administration’s inability to deter the Serbian attacks on Bosnian Muslims, despite President Clinton’s campaign promises of tougher action.

In Bosnia, Serbian militias continued their attack on Muslim villages around Cerska on Friday and ham radio operators in the area relayed unconfirmed reports that Serbian gunners had killed hundreds of unarmed refugees attempting to flee the fighting.

The commander of U.N. troops in the divided republic, French Gen. Philippe Morillon, set off overland for Cerska on Friday to try to open a safe corridor for refugees.

At the United Nations, negotiations toward a peace plan were reported at a standstill after both Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Muslims rejected a map proposed by mediators Cyrus R. Vance and Lord Owen to divide the republic into 10 provinces. Talks were to continue through the weekend.

U.S. officials, angry and defensive over the Serbian offensive in an area targeted by the U.S. airdrop of humanitarian supplies, sought to send a message that Serbia will face tougher measures soon.

“The entire effort is designed to crack down on the Serbians, to inflict real pain and real price for the actions they’re taking,” White House spokesman George Stephanopoulos said.

But officials acknowledged that the new measures under consideration are unlikely to bring about immediate results and that the options for further action are limited--short of military action, which Clinton has said he wants to avoid.

“We are exploring and indeed we are in the process of implementing ways to tighten the embargo, which we will announce very shortly,” Clinton told reporters. “But the United States cannot proceed here unilaterally. We need the support of the Europeans, who are much closer to the situation.”

Officials said that an interagency working group directed by Leon Fuerth, an aide to Vice President Al Gore, is working on a package of new actions to consider.

Two lower-level teams led by officials of the State and Treasury departments were in Europe this week discussing ways to tighten sanctions against Serbia with other governments, they said. The current sanctions, adopted nine months ago during the George Bush Administration, prohibit most trade and financial transactions with Serbia and Montenegro, except those in humanitarian goods like food and medicine.

Another official said that further options include a “total isolation” embargo that has already been proposed by the European Community if U.N. negotiations fail. Such an embargo would cut all road, rail, air and sea traffic into Serbia, as well as all telephone and postal links. But that option is opposed by Serbia’s neighbors, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, because many of their transportation and communications links also run through Serbia.

Clinton said that, in considering new measures against Serbia, he is operating under several constraints.

One, he said, is “that I would not commit the United States to a quagmire where our efforts would be frustrated but where I could put a lot of Americans at risk.”

A second limitation, Clinton said, is that no new action should be taken that would likely provoke retaliation against the European forces now on the ground to deliver humanitarian aid in Bosnia.

The third constraint, Clinton said, is the American desire to avoid a break with Russia.