Acting swiftly to boost the Balkan peace accord, the U.N Security Council on Wednesday suspended economic sanctions against Serbia and began lifting the arms embargo against the states of the former Yugoslavia.
The council voted unanimously to suspend the 3-year-old economic embargo and voted 14-0 to lift the arms ban in stages. Russia abstained on the arms embargo vote.Leaders of the three Balkan states agreed Tuesday in Dayton, Ohio, on a plan to end 3 1/2 years of ethnic bloodshed in Bosnia.
"By lifting the arms embargo and suspending economic sanctions, we have kick-started that long journey," said U.S. Ambassador Madeleine Albright. "And we have given the parties the support they need to sign this historic agreement and insure its effective implementation."
Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic was instrumental in winning the Bosnian Serbs' agreement, and he participated in the Dayton talks in hopes of winning an end to the sanctions that have crippled the Serbian economy.
The vote Wednesday was his reward.
"This is the first concrete way of translating what happened in Dayton," Albright said before the vote.
The council ordered an immediate suspension of its trade sanctions against Yugoslavia, imposed in 1992 to punish Belgrade for its role in fomenting the war in Bosnia.
The trade sanctions would remain in force in Bosnian Serb areas until after Bosnian Serb forces withdraw to buffer zones.
The sanctions against Yugoslavia, which is now comprised of Serbia and Montenegro, could be reimposed if Belgrade does not formally sign a peace agreement. The signing is expected early next month in Paris.
The sanctions also could be reimposed if international forces monitoring the peace decide that Yugoslavia or the Bosnian Serbs are violating the agreement.
The economic sanctions would end permanently 10 days after elections in Bosnia, but only if the Bosnian Serbs have withdrawn to the buffer areas.
A separate resolution allows the Balkan republics to begin importing defensive weapons such as anti-tank rockets 90 days after the peace agreement is signed. The arms embargo would end entirely after 180 days.
Bosnian leaders have said that the weapons embargo cemented the huge imbalance in artillery and tanks between Bosnian Serb forces and the Muslim-led army.
The end of the arms embargo "should have come much, much sooner," Bosnian Foreign Minister Muhamed Sacirbey said.
Russia abstained from the vote on the arms embargo. Ambassador Sergey Lavrov later said his country was "not in favor of accumulating arms in that region, rather in restricting and reducing them."
To prevent an arms race, the accord initialed Tuesday calls for the parties to begin arms control talks to achieve "the lowest level of armaments" in the region.
The United States has said it might help train Bosnian soldiers to create a military balance.