
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 19, 1994                   TAG: 9404190158
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

U.S. HAS LIMITED ROOM TO MANEUVER

The Clinton administration's strategy since it became embroiled in the Bosnian conflict - a course of steady diplomacy supported by the threat of limited NATO force - clearly isn't working, and the alternatives are not attractive.

After days of violence and failed diplomatic efforts in Bosnia, President Clinton described the situation Monday as ``grim and uncertain.''

Bosnian Serbs have made a farce out of the U.N. notion of a ``safe haven'' in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and several U.S. lawmakers are pushing Clinton to take a tougher stance.

``This is absolutely unconscionable, what's happening now,'' said Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

``Either NATO makes a full-blown effort to go after the Serbs and stop this fooling around, or we lift the arms embargo against Bosnia immediately.''

Even Russian diplomats, who have been working on a parallel track with European and U.S. allies in trying to broker a peaceful settlement, have been unable to thwart Serb aggression. Bosnian Serbs violated a cease-fire agreement that Vitaly Churkin, a special Russian envoy to the former Yugoslavia, thought he had worked out over the weekend.

In Moscow, an angry Churkin said the Serbs showed no real willingness to negotiate and only played for time. ``The time for talking is over,'' Churkin said.

Faced with a looming crisis and the possibility of more bloodshed, the U.S. and its Western allies are running out of options.

Analysts and lawmakers said some of the remaining options for Clinton include:

Lifting the arms embargo held against Bosnia since 1991 and urging the United Nations to pull out peacekeeping troops so the Bosnian Muslims and Croats could settle the score militarily with the Serbs.

Stepping up NATO airstrikes against Serb military positions, as well as air fields and energy sources.

Staying the course and continuing to use only the threat of force to pursue a diplomatic resolution.

Clinton said Monday he supports a removal of a U.N. arms embargo against Bosnia, but added that such a move would be impossible as long as there was Russian, French and British opposition.

Key U.S. allies fear that the escalation of fighting likely to follow an end of the embargo would endanger their peacekeeping troops.

by CNB