Yugoslavia Protests Exclusion from Security Council Meeting on BalkansBelgrade Tuesday lodged "the strongest protest" with the United Nations over the exclusion of the Yugoslav charge d'affaires to the United Nations, Vladislav Jovanovic, from the Security Council meeting on the Balkans.Jovanovic, who filed the protest, said that his country "has more right than any other country to participate in the meeting of the Security Council." Yugoslavia, situated in the central part of the Balkans and a signatory party and a guarantor of the Dayton-Paris Agreement, signed agreement that paved the way for the international military and civilian presence in Kosovo, a Serbian province. The Security Council, in heeding the proposal from the United States, voted 7-4 with four abstentions to exclude Jovanovic from the meeting. But the Council's decision was under fire from Russia and China at the Security Council. "My country was prevented even though it had an evident and a very strong interest in its debate," Jovanovic said in a letter, which is being distributed Tuesday. "The rejection of the request of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is discriminatory and contrary to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations," he said. |
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