U.S. Prepared to Act Alone to Save Sarajevo

The Clinton Administration warned Sunday that it is prepared to act alone in launching air strikes in Bosnia-Herzegovina--but said it is confident it will win full allied backing for such action at a NATO meeting today.

Traveling with Secretary of State Warren Christopher on a trip to the Middle East, State Department spokesman Mike McCurry said preliminary negotiations suggest that the allies will back the U.S. proposal, which is scheduled to be discussed by the 16 North Atlantic Treaty Organization nations in Brussels today.

But McCurry said that Washington had made clear to all sides that it is “determined to act” in any case, indicating that the United States would launch air strikes using only U.S. warplanes, if necessary, to keep Sarajevo from falling to Bosnian Serb attackers.

As for the timing of any Western military action, McCurry said, “We’re certainly not talking months, probably not weeks, more like a matter of days.”

The allies have assembled several dozen warplanes in Italy and on aircraft carriers in the Adriatic Sea, in anticipation of such operations.

U.S. intelligence analysts have warned that 380,000 civilians in the capital are in increasing danger of falling to Serbian guerrillas.

The Administration is proposing that the NATO ministers authorize the air strikes, both to protect Sarajevo and to pressure the Serbs into carrying out a newly negotiated framework for a peace accord guaranteeing territory for Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Muslims.

All three sides in the Bosnian struggle agreed Friday on a framework for a peace accord that calls for including the Muslims in any partition, but U.S. officials are skeptical that the Serbs will comply.

The U.S. proposal calls for targeting the air strikes well beyond the Sarajevo area, bombing Serb-held arsenals, radar installations and command centers throughout Bosnia to prod the Serbs into halting their siege of Sarajevo and adhering to a three-part partition.

Washington hopes that the threat of NATO air strikes will persuade the Serbs to meet the allied demands, but the Administration wants NATO to authorize the attacks formally to show all sides that the allies are serious. A decision is expected today or Tuesday.

“In the best of all worlds, we would not have to use this type of force because (the threat of allied action) would be made known to the Serbs,” McCurry said.

But he added that unless the Serbs relent, the allies will go ahead. “Even if there is an interim accord,” he said, “we cannot allow the strangulation of Sarajevo to continue.”

McCurry’s comments marked the first time that the Administration has vowed to go it alone in military action in Bosnia. In previous discussions of possible military action, the White House has stressed the importance of an allied effort.

Analysts said McCurry’s unusually strong language was designed to reflect the Administration’s new determination both to save Sarajevo and to finally end the fighting in Bosnia. U.S. officials believe that if Sarajevo falls, the Muslims will refuse to settle.

U.S. officials say the wider air operations against the Bosnian Serbs would be justified under existing U.N. Security Council resolutions and that no new U.N. action would be necessary. One of the two relevant U.N. resolutions allows the allies to act militarily to safeguard “humanitarian” relief efforts.

Even so, the Administration clearly expects to win allied backing in the meeting in Brussels. Top U.S. officials have been consulting all week with their British and French counterparts, and McCurry said Sunday that Russia does not appear likely to oppose the plan.

The developments came as Christopher flew on to Cairo to begin a week of shuttle diplomacy in an effort to revive the Middle East peace talks, hoping to “refocus” Arab and Israeli leaders on the negotiations after a week of violence in southern Lebanon that ended in a U.S.-brokered cease-fire.

A senior U.S. official said the secretary hoped mainly to “get things back on track” in the wider negotiations in hopes of eventually scheduling a new round of peace talks in Washington, possibly before late summer or early fall. But he declined to predict how soon that might come.

The muted tone of the comments by the officials underscored indications that the Administration is not expecting any major breakthroughs in the Middle East situation during the secretary’s trip, particularly in the wake of the violence that prevailed for much of last week.

In outlining the U.S. proposal for launching air strikes in Bosnia, McCurry declined to discuss operational details of the plan. However, he said U.S. participation would be limited to air operations.