ACCESSION NUMBER:288501

FILE ID:POL406

DATE:06/10/93

TITLE:SECURITY COUNCIL WANTS EMBARGO MONITORS FOR SERB BORDER (06/10/93)

TEXT:*93061006.POL

SECURITY COUNCIL WANTS EMBARGO MONITORS FOR SERB BORDER



(Asks secretary general for deployment plan)  (470)

By Judy Aita

USIA United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- The Security Council June 10 passed a resolution asking

Secretary General Boutros-Ghali to report on options for the deployment of

U.N. monitors on Bosnia-Hercegovina's borders to ensure that Serbia and

Croatia do not send arms to their allies.



The council, in adopting resolution 838, asked for the report because

council members, who have wanted to put U.N. observers along the borders as

part of their overall effort to end the fierce fighting in the former

Yugoslavia, are unsure if the plan is feasible or if new peacekeeping

personnel will be available.



Monitors can only enter an area with the agreement of the government

involved.  Council members so far have been unable to confirm that the

Serbian government would allow monitors on its side of the border or that

the Bosnian-Serbs would accept the monitors on the frontiers they control.



The council asked the secretary general to submit his report as soon as

possible and also to contact nations to ensure that any relevant aerial

surveillance material will be available to the U.N.



The council imposed an arms embargo against all the former Yugoslav

republics in 1991 and tightened sanctions against Serbia-Montenegro in

April after the Bosnian-Serb attacks on Bosnian-Muslim enclaves continued

with the help of Serbian supplies.  Although the tighter sanctions closed

Serbia's borders to the outside world, borders among the former Yugoslav

republics have gone unchecked.



1hile Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic has said that arms and fuel

shipments to the Bosnian-Serbs have stopped, intelligence reports indicate

that the supplies continue.



U.S. Ambassador Madeleine Albright said that "soon we will know whether Mr.

Milosevic is serious about ending the carnage in Bosnia or is merely

engaging in yet another elaborate attempt to hoodwink the civilized world."



"After the Bosnian-Serbs rejected the Vance-Owen plan, Serbian strongman

Milosevic claimed that Serbia-Montenegro would no longer aid the

Bosnian-Serbs in their violence against the Bosnian government.  While

skeptical, we intend to put his government to the test," Albright said.



"The pressure must be kept on the Bosnian-Serbs," she said.  "Sealing

Bosnia's border with Serbia-Montenegro would be a constructive step in that

direction."



British Ambassador Sir David Hannay said that one significance of the border

monitors is that they "could bring home to the Bosnian-Serbs the bankruptcy

of their plan."



All the council members stressed that this latest move to increase the U.N.

presence in Bosnia as well as tighten pressure on the Bosnia-Serbs is an

interim step in the council's overall plan to stop the fighting and get a

comprehensive political settlement.



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