IN HOUSE VOTE, SHIFT ON ARMING BOSNIA

The House of representatives opposes Clinton politics on exYogoslavia

by Micheal Dobbs

(The Herald Tribune, 10/11/06/95)

WASHINGTON - By voting more than 3-to-1 for a unilateral lifting of the arms embargo against former Yugoslavia, the House of Representatives has in effect passed a bipartisan vote of noconfidence in the Clinton administration's handling of the Bosnian crisis.

The practical significance of the House vote is likely to be limited in the immediate future, as administration officials have said that the president will almost certainly veto the measure if it passes the Senate.

The political significance is considerable, however, as the vote illustrates the dismay felt by both Democrats and Republicans over a series of humiliating setbacks to the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Bosnia, culminating in the seizure last month of hundreds of hostages by the Bosnian Serbs.

The vote was the first major congressional ballot on Bosnia since the Republicans took control of Congress in November, and the change in sentiment from the past was striking. When the issue of permitting the Muslim-led Bosnian government to arm itself first came up in the House a year ago, the resolution passed only narrowly, and was watered down by the Senate.

At that time, a majority of House Democrats (132 to 117) supported the administration's position that a unilateral lifting of the embargo would have disastrous results, both for the United States and for Bosnia.

On Thursday, however, a large majority of Democrats (120 to 71) joined an even larger majority of Republicans (1 98 to 28) for a total vote of 318 to 99 in favour of lifting the arms embargo at a time to be determined by Bosnia's government.

"This clearly shows the will of the American people - it is 3-to- I for lifting the arms embargo," said the delighted Bosnian prime minister Haris Siladzjic, who watched the voting in the House.

The House debate, and a series of hearings in both the House and the Senate, show that pressure is building up in Congress for a radical change in Balkan policy.

"We are not going to be put off by a presidential veto, we will keep coming back," said Representative Christopher H. Snuth, Republican of New Jersey, a co-sponsor of the move to lift the embargo. "People here are frustrated with all the ineffectual talk and diplomacy."

It was left to the former chairman of the House International Relations Committee, Representative Lee H. Hamilton, Democrat of Indiana, to put the administration's case rejecting -a unilateral end of the embargo. In an impassioned speech, Mr. Hamilton saidsuch a move would put "Americans right in the middle of the hottest war in the world today - a very, very unwise move."

Reflecting administration thinking he said that the lifting

of the arms embargo would be opposed by America's allies, particularly Britain and France, and would lead automatically to a collapse of the UN peacekeeping mandate. That in turn would lead to the dispatch of 25,000 U.S. troops to extract the peacekeeping troops, with America assuming responsibility for arming the Bosnian Muslims. This would "Americanize the war," he argued.

This reasoning has now been rejected by a clear majority of congressmen, who argue that there is no peace left to keep in Bosnia, and that the withdrawal of the UN force can hardly make the situation worse.

Mr. Siladzic also argued the case for lifting the arms embargo in an appearance before the Congressional Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. He rejected administration arguments that such an action would result in an unstoppable Serbian offensive.

"If friends supply us with arms, we will solve the problem ourselves," Mr. Siladzic said.

The House resolution is likely to increase the pressure on Bob Dole, the Senate majority leader, to push ahead with his own repeatedly delayed bill on lifting the arms embargo.