Yeltsin Calls for New, Wider Summit

President Boris Yeltsin called for yet another summit on former Yugoslavia after emerging from what he called a historic meeting with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic on Thursday, only this time he invited the leaders of all three warring parties.


The planned summit, Yeltsin told Itar-Tass, would include Milosevic, Croatian President Franjo Tudjman, Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic and the "major western powers," most likely the members of the Contact Group for the former Yugoslavia.


Tudjman rejected Yeltsin's invitation to attend the Thursday meeting with Milosevic because Izetbegovic had not been invited. The Croatian president insisted on Izetbegovic's attendance, allegedly because he felt that without him the Moscow summit would be seen as part of a plan to carve Bosnia up between Serbia and Croatia.


Yeltsin criticized Tudjman on Thursday for not coming to Moscow, thus making nonsense of a clear attempt for Russia to seize the initiative in mediating the Balkan conflict. He also slammed Croatia for launching a massive assault on the Serb-held Krajina last week.


"The military actions of the Croatian army in the Serb-populated areas have pushed the situation in the former Yugoslavia to the brink of a large war in the Balkans," Yeltsin getting out of the regime of sanctions," Yeltsin said.


In a statement issued Thursday, the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church condemned "the actions of Bosnian Moslems who used the so-called demilitarized zones for combat actions," Interfax reported. Patriarch Alexy II said those actions were "sinful and criminal."


Yeltsin said Tudjman's refusal to come to Moscow was linked to pressure from the West. "Apparently, the leader of a major country has had some influence" on Zagreb, he said, without naming names. "The impression is that the Croatian leader has been under this influence."


Western analysts shared Yeltsin's suspicions.


"It is clear that the Germans and the Americans were behind persuading Tudjman not to attend the meeting in Moscow," said Jonathan Eyal, director of studies at the Royal United Services Institute, a London political-research center. "The result was a rather sharp rebuff to Russia's diplomacy, which I don't think did any good to anyone."


In real terms, the summit brought little in terms of progress. According to Alexander Konovalov, a political analyst at the USA-Canada Institute, the meeting brought "nothing more than a set of declarations that were extremely unsuccessful."


In a statement issued after the summit, Yeltsin outlined five points for action toward settling the Balkan crisis. They included:


?making Croatia "respect the standards of international humanitarianism and the rights of the Serbian minority";


?"preventing a humanitarian disaster, ensuring that all refugees return to their homes ... and ensuring the free delivery of humanitarian aid";


?securing the safety of United Nation peacekeepers;


?cessation of all hostilities in the entire former Yugoslavia;


?"integration of a peace agreement proposed by the world community."


Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev, who interrupted his vacation to attend the summit, condemned Tudjman as an aggressor, saying that his failure to come to Moscow showed "who is ready for negotiations and who counts on force," according to Itar-Tass.


While Yeltsin issued a detailed summary of the day's meetings, Milosevic was terse.


"You took the right and fair stand on this issue," he said after 1 1/2 hours of talks, according to Interfax. "Your stand reflects the need to employ an even and equitable approach to all sides."


Publicly, Milosevic said little else, other than that Serbia proceeds from the assumption that the problems in the former Yugoslavia can be resolved only by political means, Interfax reported.


"Milosevic was not very warmly received, that's how it seemed to me," said Vladimir Abarinov, a foreign policy columnist for Segodnya newspaper. "There's a serious doubt as to his sincerity in relations to Moscow and how strong his position is in Belgrade.


"That's why there was no publication of a statement from Milosevic, and only a statement from Yeltsin," he said.


"The statement Yeltsin made, he could have made without Milosevic," Abarinov said.


As Milosevic and Yeltsin met behind closed doors, rival diplomatic processes aimed at solving the Balkan crisis were underway in Western Europe.


U.S. National Security Adviser Anthony Lake was in London on Thursday for meetings with British Prime Minister John Major aimed at stimulating peace talks.


A report in The Washington Post Thursday said Lake's proposal involved a new plan for dividing up Bosnia between Moslems, Serbs and Croats, suggesting changes in the 1994 Contact Group plan. The article quoted a State Department official as saying the Moslems would have to accept a plan in line with "military reality, not wishful thinking." (See story, Page 5.)