Clinton to upstage Vance-Owen talks

IN AN effort to regain the initiative in the Bosnia peace talks, the Clinton administration is about to appoint a special envoy to open negotiations with the warring factions.

US officials say the new negotiations would follow and complement the talks led by Cyrus Vance, the former US secretary of state, and Lord Owen, but they would in effect upstage those negotiations. Mr Vance and Lord Owen have produced a plan that would divide Bosnia into 10 cantons with a loose central government, but the US has argued that the Vance-Owen map of Bosnia perpetuates regions that have been 'ethnically cleansed'.

Part of the administration's problem is that it keeps coming under friendly fire from Capitol Hill not to accept the Vance-Owen plan. Senator Joe Biden, a leading Democrat, complained yesterday in a letter to President Clinton that the plan was 'premised on dismemberment'. He called for new negotiations.

Opposition to the Vance-Owen media blitz in New York is growing in Washington. Frustrated by the apparent gains of Mr Vance and Lord Owen at the UN, where their plan is being considered informally by the Security Council, a Senate Democratic aide alleged that Lord Owen's campaign, in which he says his and Mr Vance's plan is the 'only game in town', was 'a bag of hot air'. The aide accused Lord Owen of acting like old British colonialists. 'The divisions of India, Palestine and Africa come to mind,' he said.

While the administration is considering its Balkan options, Mr Vance and Lord Owen have made the running even though only the Bosnian Croats are fully signed up to their plan. The Bosnian Serbs are refusing to give up almost 40 per cent of the territory they have won in the land of the former Yugoslav republic, and the Muslim Bosnians are refusing to take part in negotiations on the plan until they see Washington's proposals. They assume Mr Clinton will help them regain regions in which they have suffered from 'ethnic cleansing'.

The administration would like to see further concessions to the Muslims from the Serbs and also from the Croats, but it is not clear whether a Clinton envoy would be any more successful than Mr Vance and Lord Owen - unless the US threatened force.

US officials complain that there is no agreement on how to enforce the Vance-Owen plan, but this is a point that Mr Vance and Lord Owen concede because they say such details cannot be considered until the administration decides to what extent it will participate in enforcement of their plan, particularly whether it is prepared to use air strikes.

Mr Clinton has rejected one Vance-Owen proposal: that any Bosnian faction which does not sign up should suffer UN-imposed sanctions. Such a move could require the US to take punitive measures against the Muslim-led government of Bosnia; US officials say this would be unacceptable because it would be 'punishing the victim'.

Among other proposals in the Clinton plan are the creation of a commission to monitor human rights in Bosnia, the tightening of international economic sanctions against the Serbs and the creation of a war crimes tribunal. Mr Vance and Lord Owen would not disagree with any of them, and have proposed them too.

While the administration's plan is eagerly awaited at the UN, members of the Security Council and the Yugoslav and Serbian governments are trying to persuade the Bosnian Serbs to accept the Vance-Owen peace map. They want to pre-empt the Clinton proposals which they assume will present a plan more favourable to the Muslims. Russia is putting pressure on the Serbs to accept the Vance-Owen plan. Russia's chief delegate to the UN, Yuli Vorontsov, said: 'We will all lean on all the parties now. It is a crucial moment.'