U.S. Refuses to Curb New Serb Attacks : Balkans: As Bosnia aggression and ‘ethnic cleansing’ go on, Perry rejects any new American troop commitment. His comments follow plea for help from Muslim leader.

With Bosnian Serb forces pressing attacks on the Muslim and Croatian populations in at least two Bosnian cities, Defense Secretary William J. Perry on Sunday ruled out the use of U.S. troops to prevent the Serbs from capturing additional territory.

While Christians in the capital of Sarajevo observed their first peaceful Easter Sunday in two years, Bosnian Serb forces bombarded the city of Gorazde in southeastern Bosnia-Herzegovina for the sixth day.

In the bombardment and infantry battles around the Muslim enclave, where 65,000 people are trapped, the toll rose to at least 10 people killed and 120 wounded, according to U.N. peacekeeping forces in the area.

And in northern Bosnia, the Serbs continued to press what is being called a ferocious campaign of “ethnic cleansing” in the Banja Luka area, including the town of Prijedor.

Asked whether the United States will consider air strikes or armed intervention to curb further such actions by Serbian forces, Perry declared pointedly, “We will not enter the war to stop that from happening.”

Prijedor was the scene last week of a renewed terror campaign by Bosnian Serbs that is believed to have claimed the lives of 17 Muslims and three Croats. U.N. officials reported that more people were forced from their homes in Prijedor on Saturday, and one person reportedly died of wounds suffered Thursday.

Over the weekend, U.N. officials reported that Serbian militants had firebombed houses and forced Muslims from their homes in Sipovo and forcibly evicted others in Vrbanja, both Banja Luka suburbs.

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has accused Bosnian Serb authorities of allowing the attacks, and the Red Cross is planning the evacuation of Croats and Muslims from Prijedor.

On Sunday, Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic ordered his forces to arrest those responsible for the attacks in Prijedor and guaranteed safe passage for evacuees.

Perry’s comments on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press” followed a plea on the same program from Bosnia’s Muslim prime minister, Haris Silajdzic, for U.S. military intervention in the 2-year-old conflict.

“The answer is, use force. . . . Otherwise, this is going to be a very, very long and bloody peace,” Silajdzic said. “(Use) air strikes. When they (Serbs) kill innocent people, they should be punished for that, and they will not stop until they are punished.”

Lt. Gen. Michael Rose, the commander of U.N. peacekeeping forces in Bosnia, said on the same program that the addition of U.S. troops would “of course” help in quelling the conflict.

“The arrival of any troops here will help that peace process,” Rose said.

The United States has not sent any ground troops to Bosnia, maintaining that a durable settlement must be in place before it risks deploying troops there.

On Sunday, Perry said the United States will go no further, militarily, to halt a Bosnian Serb offensive that appears aimed at consolidating gains before any peace agreement is struck. Indeed, Perry confirmed that Washington is “trying to hold down the total costs involved” in peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslav federation.

Commenting on a range of U.S. national security challenges, Perry also ruled out preemptive U.S. strikes on North Korean nuclear facilities at this time. But he warned that fighting could break out on the Korean Peninsula, with catastrophic consequences, as North Korea reacts to increased diplomatic and economic pressure from the United States.

Noting that U.S. intelligence agencies believe that North Korea now has built as many as two nuclear bombs, Perry outlined a step-by-step U.S. diplomatic strategy designed, first, to freeze the North Korean nuclear program in place and only then to “roll. . . back the program they have.”

“We will not have a preemptive military strike at this time and under these circumstances,” Perry said. But he added: “I am not ruling that option out in the future.”

Perry said the United States could step up its diplomatic efforts to bring North Korea to heel with “considerable pressure,” including additional economic sanctions.

“That will increase the risk” that the North Koreans will respond with a military assault on the south, he warned. “And because it will increase the risk, we will increase our defensive forces as needed to prudently protect ourselves against that risk.”