
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 13, 1994                   TAG: 9405130118
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

SENATE VOTES SEND CONFLICTING SIGNALS ON ARMS EMBARGO

The Senate voted Thursday to require President Clinton to lift the arms embargo against Bosnia, but muddied the action with a contradictory directive to first seek the support of other nations.

With back-to-back 50-49 votes on competing amendments that made up a Bosnia bill, senators first directed Clinton to seek a U.N. termination of the embargo and then added language ordering him to go it alone.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., called the outcome farcical.

``It shows you the ineptitude of the United States Senate at times in giving direction on foreign policy. ... We sound an uncertain trumpet in the ears of those suffering in Bosnia,'' Warner said.

Only six other senators joined Warner in voting against both approaches to lifting the embargo, and Bosnia-Herzegovina's ambassador to Washington counted the 92 senators who voted for one or the other approach as a strong endorsement for arming his country against Serb aggression.

``We consider this a big step forward to finally having our rights to defend ourselves,'' said Ambassador Sven Alaklaj, who witnessed the vote from the Senate gallery.

Senate Democrat and Republican leaders disagreed on the impact of the vote.

Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, who faced surprising bipartisan opposition to his efforts to save the president from the embarrassment of having to veto a measure he supports, said the vote ``makes clear there is not going to be unilateral action by the United States to lift the embargo.''

Clinton supports a lifting of the embargo but is against doing it without U.N. and NATO support.

At the White House, Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers reiterated Thursday that ``the president does not support unilaterally lifting the arms embargo.''

After the votes, Mitchell said, ``What it says is that the Senate favors an end to the embargo ... but is equally divided on the question of how to do it.''

He said the bill had virtually no possibility of becoming law. The House would have to approve the bill before sending it to the president.

by CNB