Almost from the beginning of his administration, President Clinton has urged a more active response to Serbian aggression in Bosnia - including lifting of the U.N. arms embargo that has kept ill-equipped Bosnia Muslims from defending themselves on more equal terms.
That has always been a reasonable goal, but U.S. allies in Europe have generally resisted such actions, saying air strikes and arms shipments would be seen by the Serbs as "taking sides" and would endanger their troops who are trying to deliver U.N. humanitarian aid in Bosnia.But Clinton's position appeared to receive strong support last week when the U.N. General Assembly voted 97-0 to lift the arms embargo. Unfortunately, the seemingly lopsided vote will have little impact on what really happens in Bosnia.
First of all, the General Assembly has no power to force the 15-member U.N. Security Council to end the embargo. The 97-0 vote is little more than a recommendation. Further, some 61 nations abstained in the General Assembly balloting, including 10 members of the Security Council, among them Britain, France, Russia, China and Spain.
If those 10 members also abstained in a vote on the issue by the Security Council itself, their absence would defeat the question. Any resolution by the council needs nine affirmative votes. Right now, only five votes are there - the United States and its friends - Pakistan, Djibouti, Oman and Rwanda. That's hardly impressive support for the American position.
This Security Council refusal to take stern action against the Serbs is hard to understand since it is the Serbs who have refused to sign a Western-brokered deal with Bosnia's Muslims that is hardly more than a surrender by the beleaguered Muslim government.
U.N. action to lift the embargo would do more to push the Serbs toward accepting the settlement than all the dithering that has marked Europe's response to Serb conquest and atrocities.
Bosnian government soldiers, together with their Croatian neighbors, have scored some battlefield successes against the Serbs in recent weeks - the first of the civil war.
If the Serbs don't settle quickly, the Bosnian Muslims may be encouraged to keep fighting and the likelihood of peace - even an unfair and unsatisfactory peace - will disappear in protracted warfare.