WASHINGTON The United States, which cast itself as the leader ofworld opposition to last week's attempted Soviet coup, is taking acautious backseat in public dealings with the civil strife inYugoslavia.
Despite some tough talk Thursday, the Bush administration hasdelayed any initiative on Yugoslavia pending the outcome of EuropeanCommunity efforts to broker a cease-fire among rival republics.
The State Department called Thursday for an immediate,unconditional cease-fire and blamed Serbian Republic leaders and theYugoslav military for escalating violence in Croatia.
Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Serbian Republicleaders and the Yugoslav military "bear a particular and growingresponsibility for the country's tragic descent toward civil war."
"We call on all parties to implement immediately anunconditional cease-fire in Croatia," he said, adding that Washington"cannot and will not accept repression and the use of force" to solveYugoslavia's internal political problems.
But the U.S. reluctance to bring its own diplomatic clout tobear directly contrasts with its swift, strong response to thebotched Kremlin coup last week against Soviet President Mikhail S.Gorbachev.
At that time, President Bush played up U.S. authority andreferred to what he called allies' "disproportionately" relying onguidance from Washington.
"The world is turning to the United States for leadership now,"he said last week while Gorbachev was under house arrest.
In a similar vein this week, Bush justified his decision todelay formal recognition of the Baltic states by saying, "I think wehave special responsibilities," suggesting that U.S. actions carrymore weight than those of other countries.
The United States is shrinking from active involvement inYugoslavian issues for several reasons, notably the implications forindependence-minded republics in the post-coup Soviet Union, expertssay.
"We don't view our strategic interests as at stake inYugoslavia," said Martha Brill Olcott, a specialist on Sovietnationality issues at Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y.
She contrasted this with the importance the United Statesattaches to stability in the nuclear-armed Soviet Union and topreserving Gorbachev as a key player, partly because of his role inbrokering a Middle East peace conference tentatively scheduled forOctober.
Both Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union are on the brink of splintering in the absence of strong Communist centralrule, the glue that combined them in present form after World War II.
In publicly deferring to the European Community on Yugoslavia,the Bush administration embraced a plan proposed by France andendorsed by EC foreign ministers late Tuesday.
The European Community plan urges creation of a five-memberarbitration panel to resolve the disputes that erupted after Croatiaand the neighboring republic of Slovenia declared their independencefrom the six-republic, multiethnic Yugoslavian federation June 25.
The European Community threatened unspecified "internationalaction" against Serbia unless federal and guerrilla forces loyal tothe Communist Serbian government observed an EC-monitored cease-fireby Sunday.
More than 300 people have been killed in fighting between Serbsand Croats, Yugoslavia's biggest ethnic groups, since Croatia andSlovenia declared independence. Croats complain that Yugoslavia'sgovernments have always been dominated by Serbs, the most numerous ofthe country's many ethnic groups.
The Center for Security Policy, a conservative reseach group,faulted both the United States and the European Community for failingto support the breakaway governments in Croatia and Slovenia.
But it said in a statement Wednesday, ". . . by contrast withthe United States' performance in this crisis, that of the EuropeanCommunity seems like a profile in courage."
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