Fiche du document numéro 13326

13326

Thursday April 21, 1994

19940421

Giacomo, Carol

1994-04-21ReutersChristopherDefendsAirStrikes.pdf

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1994-04-21ReutersChristopherdefendsU.S.effortsonairstrikes.html

Christopher defends U.S. efforts on air strikes

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Reuters

Boudiguet

Dépêche d'agence

EN

WASHINGTON, April 21 (Reuter) - Secretary of State Warren Christopher
Thursday defended U.S. efforts to expand NATO air strikes in Bosnia
before sceptical senators, saying the Bosnian conflict threatens to
grow into a wider war.

The Clinton administration consulted NATO allies and Russia on its
proposals to protect six U.N. safe areas from Bosnian Serb attacks
but continued to resist Russian President Boris Yeltsin's appeal for a
U.S., Russian and European summit on the issue.

White House spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers said the summit was something
that could not happen in the next few days or even in the very near
future because it would require extensive preparation.

Christopher tried to lay down a firm policy justification for President
Clinton's proposal for expanded allied military and diplomatic action
in Bosnia before a panel of senators who kept asking why there, why now
and why us?

Portraying a conflict that could embroil Europe in warfare and a tide
of refugees, he said important U.S. and allied interests were at stake.

The courtly Christopher took exception when Senator Ernest Hollings, a
South Carolina Democrat who chairs the appropriations subcommittee,
said Bosnian Serb-Moslem fighting was merely a civil war unworthy of
U.S. military involvement.

I think this is more than a civil war, Christopher said. The
aggression of the Serbs, I think, is quite transparent.

They have in mind a Greater Serbia. They're looking to the south to
Kosovo, possibly to Macedonia. They're moving into Bosnia and perhaps
into Croatia.

His comments represented the fullest assessment yet of what the United
States views as Bosnian Serb military objectives. Last week, as Bosnian
Serbs advanced on Gorazde, U.S. spokesmen explained away allied
inaction saying they did not know Bosnian Serb intentions.

As Christopher defended the policy on Capitol Hill, the White House
rejected criticism that Clinton had acted indecisively in handling
Gorazde and thus contributed to a damaging of American prestige.

Many U.S. lawmakers and various newspaper editorials and Washington
pundits have excoriated the president for showing a lack of leadership
in Bosnia.

This isn't about American prestige, Myers said. It's about what to
do next to move the situation toward the only reasonable conclusion,
which is a negotiated settlement. Obviously, nobody's happy about the
situation, nobody's happy about the way circumstances have worked out.

Christopher showed some of the frustration the U.S. government feels
over the issue. This aggression began in 1992 on somebody else's
watch, he said in a swipe at Clinton's Republican predecessor, George
Bush.

Georgia Democrat Sam Nunn, chairman of the Senate Armed Services
Committee, said NATO must be prepared to hit targets in neighbouring
Serbia, supplier of Bosnian Serbs, because Bosnian Serbs have a limited
number of lucrative targets.

And he said if air strikes are escalated it would be a good idea to
pull out U.N. peacekeepers and humanitarian relief officials to remove
them from harm's way and prevent their being taken hostage.

The secretary of state went to Capitol Hill to explain the U.S.
proposal that NATO vastly expand its threat of air strikes against
Bosnian Serb positions, tighten enforcements of economic sanctions and
step up humanitarian relief efforts.

He stressed the objective of a bolder new allied effort would be to
force the Bosnian Serbs to the peace table, but said air strikes could
also raise the price for continued attacks on besieged Moslem enclaves
like Gorazde even if they could not stop them entirely.

Allies like Britain and France, who have peacekeeping troops in Bosnia,
have in the past opposed increased NATO air strikes, as has Russia, an
ally of the Serbs.

Hollings and others rubbed some political sore points by saying the
administration seemed more interested in allied government support than
that of the Congress, and noting it had backed away from comparable
U.S. commitments in Somalia, Haiti and Rwanda, where only blacks were
involved.

Christopher said the administration was consulting Congress regularly
and that the difference between Bosnia and the other trouble spots was
national interest.

Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole and other senators of both parties
introduced an amendment requiring the president to unilaterally lift
the arms embargo against the Bosnian Moslems.

(c) Reuters Limited 1994