Despite Gorazde, U.S. backs Russian diplomatic role

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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