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U.N. Security Council Lifts Yugoslavia Sanctions
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 10 (News Agencies) -The U.N. Security Council on Monday voted unanimously to lift the arms embargo it slapped on Yugoslavia more than three years ago during the reign of ex-president Slobodan Milosevic.
The lifting of the ban - the last remaining U.N. sanction against Yugoslavia - was made possible by the government's decision to transfer Milosevic to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague on June 28th, in light of the insecurity along the borders of Kosovo.
According to a BBC online report, the Security Council's decision is the latest in a sequence of steps aimed at restoring Yugoslavia's stability in international relations, after Milosevic's arrest and extradition.
The decision will permit the re-equipment of the Yugoslav armed forces, which have gone from being Milosevic's instrument of repression in Kosovo to becoming NATO's partner in helping to curb arms flows to insurgents in Macedonia.
The Yugoslav army had already begun cooperating with NATO in March in patrolling a buffer zone between Kosovo and the Yugoslav republic of Serbia.
But it was not until late last month that the United States, which has a veto in the Security Council, dropped its opposition to lifting the ban, placed in March 1998.
In a letter to the council on Friday, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said the new authorities in Yugoslavia "are cooperating constructively with the international community in efforts to bring peace and stability to the Balkans region."
He also noted that the government of President Vojislav Kostunica had "withdrawn the special police units and ceased action by the security forces affecting the civilian population" in Kosovo.
In a brief resolution adopted unanimously by its 15 members, the Security Council emphasized that the NATO-led force in Kosovo (KFOR) would continue to "restrict and strictly control the flow of arms into, within and out of Kosovo."
It also noted "the difficult security situation" along the border.
Reacting to the decision Monday, Annan said: "It is a very positive step and I applaud the council for taking it."
Kosovo, a province of Serbia, has been under U.N. administration since June 1999, when NATO warplanes drove out Yugoslav troops and set up a three-mile-wide "ground safety zone" along the border.
Earlier this year, the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, to the south, accused Albanian fighters of using the corridor to supply comrades in Macedonia.
Speaking before the vote, France's ambassador to the United Nations, Jean-David Levitte, said the council's decision was a "strong symbol".
Levitte said he was speaking in his national capacity and not as president of the council, a position he holds this month.
"The decision by the Security Council reveals the good relations, the constructive cooperation and the trust which exists now between the democratic authorities in Belgrade and the international community," he said.
On the eve of NATO's air war in Kosovo, the Yugoslav armed forces had about 115,000 active duty troops, one third of them conscripts, and 400,000 reservists. Those on active duty included 90,000 army regulars.
About half of the 40,000 troops then deployed in Kosovo were drawn from the interior ministry's special police, which were considered loyal to Milosevic and were better equipped, better paid and better trained than the army.
According the Center for Defense Information in Washington, the army had about 1,300 heavy tanks, but only 305 of these (mostly modified versions of the Soviet T-72) were suitable for combat against a modern mechanized force.
The Yugoslav military also had 900 armored vehicles of all types and roughly 1,200 towed artillery pieces of all calibers.
The air force had about 170 fighter aircraft of all kinds including 90 ground attack aircraft. Of the 80 fighters with air-to-air capability, only 15 were the modern MiG 29 and up to half of those were thought to be inoperable due to lack of spare parts.
The navy had four frigates and four submarines, the center said, and about 30 amphibious, mine and support ships.
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