Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Gold/Mining/Energy : Erin Ventures EV.ASE -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StockPro who wrote (447)	2/10/2000 3:26:00 PM
From: StockPro	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 523

More news from Reuters .... Serb Opposition Welcomes West's Flight Ban Move BELGRADE, Feb 10, 2000 -- (Reuters) Serb opposition activists on Thursday welcomed Western signals of an easing of a flight ban against the isolated Balkan state, saying it should help them in their struggle to oust President Slobodan Milosevic. The recently united opposition has long argued that international sanctions to punish Belgrade over its role in a series of Balkan wars in fact help the Serbian strongman stay in power while hurting ordinary people. On Wednesday the United States and Britain suggested lifting the Yugoslavia flight ban as part of a package which would also tighten other forms of sanctions. Britain has said it expects the 15-nation EU to suspend the ban at a foreign ministers' meeting on Monday. "It would be real and concrete support to the opposition," said Slobodan Vuksanovic, deputy head of the Democratic party. He and others acknowledged that it would be of limited practical value for most people in impoverished Serbia, under various sanctions since 1992. "Very few people can afford to fly, that's why I say it is psychological support," Vuksanovic told Reuters. "I would like to see the lifting of all sanctions but I have to be realistic." An adviser to Vuk Draskovic, the leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO), hailed it as an opposition victory. "Every citizen in this country knows that the opposition has literally worn out its shoes over the past six months asking for sanctions to be lifted," said Ognjen Pribicevic. Opposition says sanctions help Milosevic Milosevic's domestic foes say the sanctions allow him to blame the outside world for Serbia's deepening economic crisis and to maintain tight controls of sources of finance. Many European countries agree, but Britain, the Netherlands and the United States have argued that lifting sanctions would play into Milosevic's hand by breaking his isolation. Washington threw a lifeline to the opposition on Wednesday by backing the plan to suspend the EU flight ban while enhancing so-called smart sanctions against the ruling elite. The suspension will only apply to European carriers and not the Yugoslav flag carrier JAT, a senior U.S. official said. The U.S. move was contingent on Europe expanding the list of Milosevic supporters barred from visas from the current 600, and taking steps to tighten financial sanctions. Other international sanctions, which include an EU oil embargo and an investment and credit ban, would be left intact. Up to now the United States has opposed easing sanctions until elections are held in Yugoslavia, but Albright said the Serbian opposition had taken steps toward stronger unity. Leaders of Serbia's then-fragmented opposition agreed on January 10 to put aside their differences and work together to demand early elections and oppose Milosevic. The official Tanjug news agency said the U.S. announcement did not mean it had changed its policy of aggression, noting that Albright had called for an expansion of other sanctions. "This most brutal method of interfering in the internal affairs of another country and a silent murder of the whole nation represents a dangerous weapon that (U.S. President Bill) Clinton's administration does not want to give up," it said.