Although the Security Council has voted to tighten economic sanctions on Yugoslavia with a naval blockade, it is not clear to what extent governments are willing to get involved in enforcement.
The council voted for a naval blockade on the Danube River and the Adriatic Sea as a way of stepping up pressure on Yugoslavia to end the fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina.The world community widely considers Serb-led Yugoslavia the aggressor in the 8-month-old war. Serbian forces have seized about 70 percent of Bosnia. Most of the rest is held by Croat militias, with only Sarajevo and a few towns still held by the Muslim-led government.
In related developments:
- Bosnia's three warring factions agreed to give relief convoys free access on a key road from Mostar to Sarajevo, further raising hopes that the worst of the fighting is over. The move comes on the sixth day of a cease-fire that has been more closely observed than previous truces, some of which failed in hours.
- The cease-fire is not holding in Bosnia's outlying regions, though. There were reports of heavy fighting Monday around Serb-held Doboj and Muslim-held Tesanj, both in the north. There was also fighting between Jajce and Travnik, northwest of Sarajevo, said Cmdr. Barry Frewer, a U.N. spokesman.
The U.N. imposed economic sanctions on Yugoslavia on May 30 but provided only a weak enforcement mechanism.
Violations have been frequent; the shelves of stores in the Yugoslav capital, Belgrade, are filled with imported goods.
In the new measure, the Security Council cited Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which it has used to enforce embargoes and bans on international weapons trade with Iraq and Libya.
The resolution prods Bulgaria and Romania to patrol the Danube, which flows along their border to the Black Sea after passing through Yugoslavia. But there was no word from those countries, which are struggling with their own post-Communist domestic problems, on whether they would take action.
The resolution also authorizes inspections of ships in the Adriatic that are headed for Yugoslavia.
NATO and the Western European Union have five frigates each in the Adriatic, but they have not been authorized to inspect vessels.
The vote on the resolution was 13-0, with China and Zimbabwe abstaining because they believe the Serb-led Yugoslav government has no significant control over the Bosnian Serbs.
Yugoslav Foreign Minister Ilija Djukic asserted that the war in Bosnia is a civil and ethnic war fought by paramilitary groups not controlled by Belgrade, and by mercenaries from Islamic nations.
The resolution's main thrust is to close off loopholes in the economic embargo on Serbia and Montenegro adopted in May, and the ban on arms supplies to all the former Yugoslav republics, in force more than a year.Until now, ships moving up the Danube have not been boarded and searched. Port authorities merely radio the captain to ask what is in the cargo and where it is bound. After that, the ship goes on, often all the way to Belgrade.
Other ships unload at Montenegrin ports on the Adriatic.
Serbia and Montenegro are the remaining republics of Yugoslavia.
Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia withdrew from the federation over the past two years.
A report in Privredni Pregled, a Belgrade business weekly, says oil and gasoline have been imported into Yugoslavia in violation of the embargo.
To discourage smugglers, the resolution bars shipment through Yugoslavia of gasoline, coal, iron, steel, rubber, chemicals, tires, aircraft and any type of motor, to keep strategic material from reaching Serbian forces.
The sanctions are hurting ordinary Serbians, who suffer from runaway inflation and high layoffs and wait in lines for gasoline as long as 10 hours.
The resolution also asks the secretary-general to send observers to check on Croatian and Serbian involvement in the war, and to study the possibility of having U.N. peacekeepers establish safe zones for refugees under international protection.