The New York Times

Wednesday, April 1, 1998

U.N. Council Bars Sale of Arms to Yugoslavia

UNITED NATIONS, March 31 - (AP) The Security Council imposed an arms embargo on Yugoslavia today to press President Slobodan Milosevic to make concessions to ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

China abstained, saying the resolution would not help negotiations on giving more autonomy to the ethnic Albanians who constitute about 90 percent of Kosovo's population. Delegates from Russia and China said they do not consider the unrest in Kosovo a threat to international security, the traditional justification for Security Council involvement.

Yugoslavia has sought to block independence for Kosovo and has refused to restore the autonomy that Mr. Milosevic rescinded in 1989. A crackdown by Serbian police in Marc left more than 80 people dead

and brought fears of a wider war.

The embargo is largely symbolic; the Yugoslav Government and Albanian militants are well armed.

Last week the foreign ministers of the United States, Britain, France, Russia, Germany and Italy set a deadline today for the council to vote on a weapons ban after the crackdown on Albanian separatists.

Yugoslavia's United Nations representative, Vladislav Jovanovic, denounced the resolution as unprecedented interference in internal affairs.

He said the unrest was caused by militants seeking to break with Serbia, which along with Montenegro forms Yugoslavia.

The ultimate goal is the secession he said. "Serbia cannot and will not allow it to happen under any conditions."

But, the chief United States delegate, Bill Richardson, said the resolution sends an "unambiguous signal" to Yugoslavia that the world "will not tolerate violence and ethnic cleansing."

Russia accepted the resolution after the other Council members deleted a description of the situation in Kosovo as "a threat to international peace and security."

A Chinese representative, Shen Guofeng, said Council involvement

"may create a bad precedent and have wider negative implications."