[ALBSA-Info] Clinton Won't Intervene In Crisis

[Gazhebo at aol.com]

Clinton Won't Intervene In Crisis

By ROBERT BURNS

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Clinton ruled out U.S. military intervention in 
Yugoslavia's civil uprising and administration officials urged Russia to use 
its influence to persuade President Slobodan Milosevic to step aside. 

Pentagon spokesmen said the approximately 5,200 U.S. troops in Bosnia and 
6,700 in Kosovo - part of separate multinational peacekeeping forces - were 
not on a heightened state of alert, and that U.S. forces had detected no 
signs of unusual movements by the Serb army in Kosovo or other parts of the 
country. 

Notable among other U.S. military forces in the area was the aircraft carrier 
USS George Washington, which is making a port call on the Greek island of 
Corfu, off the Albanian coast. 

There also is a three-ship Marine Corps unit known as an amphibious ready 
group, comprised of about 2,000 Marines, in the Adriatic Sea. And there are 
about 1,000 U.S. troops at a peacekeeping support base in Macedonia, on 
Serbia's southern border. 

At the White House, Clinton branded Milosevic's government a ``hard-core 
dictatorship,'' and said, ``We support democracy and the will of the Serbia 
people.'' 

As rumors swirled that Milosevic had fled Yugoslavia, National Security 
Adviser Sandy Berger said Thursday evening, ``At this stage we have no reason 
to believe he is not in Belgrade. I don't think anybody knows what his 
intention is.'' 

Berger said Milosevic ``is perfectly capable of trying to make a last stand. 
I think that the pillars of his power that have kept him in power - his 
control of the security forces, his control of the state media, the cronies 
around him - I think all of those pillars are crumbling. And therefore I 
think it will be very hard to deny the Serb people their victory. But I don't 
think anything is a foregone conclusion until he is gone.'' 

In Belgrade, the capital, mobs seeking to topple Milosevic turned their fury 
on his centers of political power, leaving parliament and other key sites in 
shambles and flames. Hundreds of thousands of people demanded that Milosevic 
accept his apparent defeat in the Sept. 24 election. 

Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said that as far as the United States was 
aware, Milosevic remained in Belgrade, apparently under the protection of his 
internal security forces. 

Asked if the United States would intervene should Milosevic order that force 
be used against the Serb people, Clinton said: ``I don't believe that it's an 
appropriate case for military intervention and I don't believe that the 
United States should say or do anything which would only strengthen Mr. 
Milosevic's hand.'' 

Clinton said he was confident that democratic forces would succeed. 

``The people of Serbia have made their opinion clear,'' Clinton said. ``They 
did it when they voted peacefully and quietly and now they're doing it in the 
streets because there's been an attempt to rob them of their vote. 

``If the world community will just stand for freedom, stand for democracy, 
stand for the will of the people, I think that will prevail,'' the president 
said. ``It did all over Eastern Europe.'' 

Later, in a speech a Princeton University in New Jersey, Clinton said it was 
his hope for the Serbians that ``the hour is near when their voices will be 
heard and we can welcome them to democracy, to Europe, to the world 
community. 

``And when they do,'' Clinton added, ``we will move as quickly as possible to 
lift the sanctions and build the kind of responsible partnership that the 
people there deserve.'' 

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, on a refueling stop in Ireland en 
route home from Middle East peace talks in Egypt, was trying to reach Russian 
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov to seek his country's help in getting Milosevic 
to step aside. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has not recognized opposition presidential 
candidate Vojislav Kostunica as the winner of the Yugoslav election. He has 
offered to mediate between Milosevic and Kostunica. 

In a weekend telephone call to Putin, Clinton urged Russia, which has been 
sympathetic to Milosevic, to acknowledge Kostunica. Since that call, ``We 
have reinforced that message in other ways to the Russian government,'' 
national security spokesman P.J. Crowley said. 

On the Net: State Department background on Serbia and Montenegro: 

http://www.state.gov/www/background-notes/serbia-9908-bgn.html