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U.N. Renews Bosnia Mission, Russia Abstains From Voting
The U.N. Security Council Wednesday okayed a 12-month extension of the Stabilization Force in Bosnia (SFOR) and a U.N. mission there, and Russia Wednesday abstained from the Council vote in protest against the exclusion of Yugoslavia from an international conference last month on the future of Bosnia.
The 15-nation Council voted 14-0 for a resolution to renew the 21,000-strong SFOR and the U.N. mission comprising 1,600 police.
Both the U.N. Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH), whose mandate now runs until June 19, 2001, and the SFOR were established to carry out provisions of the U.S.-mediated 1995 accord signed in Dayton, Ohio, that ended nearly four years of fighting during the breakup of Yugoslavia.
The Russian permanent representative to the United Nations, Sergey Lavrov, said before the vote that his country was forced not to participate in the Peace Implementation Conference in Brussels in May because "further isolating and having a blockade against Yugoslavia," a signatory to the Dayton accord, was illegal and could have "serious consequences for the whole Balkan region."
Lavrov said that his country "has been one of the main participants in the Bosnia settlement. While it is in the interest of the continuing peace process to pass the resolution, the Russian Federation cannot do so because Russian amendments have not been taken on board."
Russia was "compelled not to participate in the Brussels meeting of the Peace Implementation Conference because of the discriminatory approach adopted towards the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which has not been admitted although it was one of the signatories to the accord," he said.
"The Brussels meeting has been conducted in violation of the Dayton Agreement," he said.
Wang Yingfan, Chinese permanent representative to the United Nations, told the Security Council that excluding Yugoslavia "does not help peace."
"China has always supported the peace process in Bosnia and Herzegovina," he said. "However, the text of the resolution still contained elements supporting the ministerial meeting of the Peace Implementation Conference in Brussels. As a signatory of the Peace Agreement, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia should have been invited to that meeting."
The SFOR comprises troops from 19 NATO countries and 17 non-NATO countries while the police force is drawn from more than 40 nations.
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