Despite Gorazde, U.S. backs Russian diplomatic role

By Carol Giacomo

WASHINGTON (Reuter): Despite the humiliating debacle of Gorazde, the United States says Russia's Bosnia diplomacy has been "careful and appropriate" and it seems committed to support Moscow's need to reassert a prominent role on the world stage.

But Washington henceforth may be more wary about trusting in Moscow's ability to deliver on a deal -- at least with Bosnian Serbs, who share an ethnic kinship with the Russians but seem only marginally receptive to their influence.

After Serbs Sunday reneged on yet another ceasefire pledge on their way toward seizing Gorazde, a strategic Moslem enclave in eastern Bosnia, Secretary of State Warren Christopher accused them of engaging in a "tangle of lies."

Asked why NATO and the United States fell for the deceit, he told reporters Monday: "The Russians were the principal interlocutors. I think we have some reason to have confidence based upon what had happened in Sarajevo. But certainly the confidence was ill-placed here."

Aides insist Christopher meant confidence was ill-placed in the Serbs, not the Russians.

"I think that the secretary is satisfied that the Russian government ... took very careful and appropriate diplomatic steps to attempt to address this, dealing directly with the Bosnian Serbs," spokesman Mike McCurry told reporters.

After NATO threatened Serbs with air strikes in February if they did not put heavy weapons under UN control, Russia rushed in to negotiate a deal that met the alliance ultimatum and lifted the Serb siege of Sarajevo.

Based on this success, and the administration's close ties with Russian President Boris Yeltsin's government, it might have been expected that Washington would alert Moscow before NATO last week bombed Serb targets around Gorazde.

When that did not happen, Russian leaders, including Yeltsin and Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev, erupted in anger.

The two governments had been working together for weeks on efforts to negotiate an end to the war between Serbs, Croats and Moslems, and Russia felt betrayed.

Yeltsin has been under extreme nationalist pressure to back Serbs and hence NATO military action against Russia's kinsmen -- which as an unintended consequence underscores the decline of Russian military power -- remains a bitter pill.

The United States defended the lack of direct notification by Washington, saying Russia had a representative on the staff of the UN commander in Bosnia and should have been aware of what was going on.

But after the strikes, Serbs would only talk to Russian special envoy Vitaly Churkin so much of the diplomacy was in his hands and Washington backed off on more aggressive use of force even as Serbs marched on toward Gorazde.

Some experts complained that the United States allowed Russia a veto over its policy.

U.S. officials admit the use of NATO force was restrained last week while diplomatic efforts to end the siege of Gorazde were underway and that alliance air strikes might have deprived Serbs of that victory.

But, argued one official, "there is a possibility that if we had acted more forcefully before the Russians exercised their diplomatic options, they might have come unhinged on this," meaning it would cause more serious problems for Yeltsin's government and for Russia's ties with the West.

Darker minds suggest Moscow may have deliberately strung out negotiations so Serbs could take Gorazde.

But administration officials insist they do not feel misled by Russia, say Moscow desperately wants the Bosnian war ended and discount suspicions Russia is trying to take Cold War-style advantage of the conflict.

Patrick Glynn of the American Enterprise Institute, agrees. "Clearly they want to establish their credentials as a world power and to demonstrate their ability to protect an ally (but) the Russians do not have to be feared in this situation."

The Gorazde experience reinforces how far the United States still has to go to "learn how to calibrate diplomacy with the Russians," one U.S. official said.

"It doesn't hurt when they have a situation like this where they can play an enormously useful role to let them play that role and acknowledge they deserve credit for it," he said, but there will be moments of rivalry that the two sides still have to learn how to balance.

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