US expert quits over carve-up

THE US State Department's chief expert on Bosnia has resigned, accusing the Clinton administration of placing undue pressure on the Bosnian government to agree to a partition and acting too late to save it from destruction by the Serbs, writes Peter Pringle.

Marshall Freeman Harris, 32, a foreign service officer who has run the desk on Bosnia since February, said in a resignation letter that the administration's new commitment to air strikes to stop the strangulation of Sarajevo was too little, too late. 'I can no longer serve in a Department of State that accepts the forceful dismemberment of a European state and that will not act against genocide and the Serbian officials who perpetrate it.'

A year ago, George Kenny, who was in charge of Bosnian affairs in the Bush administration, resigned after accusing it of failing to deal appropriately with the growing crisis in Bosnia. Other signs of dissension from and frustration with US policy has come from mid-level officials in the State Department under Mr Clinton.

In his letter to Warren Christopher, the Secretary of State, Mr Harris complained that the administration had 'missed or mishandled' earlier opportunities to persuade the allies to agree to lifting the arms embargo on Bosnia so that it could defend itself. The air strikes the administration is now planning were partly intended to 'assuage our guilt' over earlier inaction, wrote Mr Harris.

By putting pressure on the Bosnian government to sign a partition agreement, he added, the US was driving Bosnia 'to surrender its territory and its sovereignty to the victors in a war of aggression'.

The State Department said yesterday that Mr Harris's departure would not have 'any substantial impact' on policymaking.

US voices raised, page 10