MORE ON MOSCOW’S PROPOSALS FOR EX-YUGOSLAVIA.

Russian presidentBoris Yeltsin told journalists in the Kremlin August 7 that NATOair sorties, or the possible introduction of rapid deploymentunits against Serbian attacks on UN "safe zones" inBosnia, are unacceptable and provocative to the Serbs. Yeltsinoffered to persuade Serbia’s president Slobodan Milosevic andBosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic not to move against the UN"safety zone" Gorazde, and to send Russian peacekeepingtroops there. The proposal recalls Moscow’s successful 1993 moveto send its peacekeeping troops to certain areas around Sarajevoas allegedly the only way to prevent Serbian violations of thecease-fire.

Also on August 7, the Russian foreign ministry’s internationalorganizations department chief Aleksandr Gorelik told Interfaxthat Russia would "insist" on a UN Security Councilresolution which would "denounce Croatia and hold it responsible"for the fighting in Krajina [which Croatia has virtually recoveredfrom Serb insurgents in recent days]. At the UN Security Council,Russia and rump Yugoslavia submitted separate but similar draftresolutions demanding the withdrawal of Croatian forces from Krajina[notwithstanding that the territory is legally part of Croatia]and calling for economic sanctions in case of noncompliance.US diplomats at the UN termed the Russian draft "a nonstarter,"Western agencies reported. And back in Moscow, an anonymous seniorForeign Ministry official admitted to Interfax August 7 that Croatia’saction in Krajina was "a response to the unconstructive positionof the Krajina Serbs…[who] have for three years been thwartingall attempts at a political solution of the problem."

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