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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: goldsnow who wrote (3925)	4/15/1999 8:24:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 17770

FOCUS-NATO seeks help to cut oil sales to Serbia 12:42 p.m. Apr 14, 1999 Eastern By Peter Lardner LONDON, April 14 (Reuters) - NATO countries are seeking voluntary support from countries neighbouring Yugoslavia to cut the vital flow of oil products to Serbia's military, a NATO official said on Wednesday. ''The allies are endeavouring to prevent further shipments of oil to Yugoslavia,'' the NATO official told Reuters from Brussels. Currently there are no international sanctions in place which prohibit the sale of oil into Yugoslavia, NATO said. Economic sanctions covering fuel imports were lifted in 1995 following the signing of the Dayton peace treaty. ''While there is no mandatory prohibition, we are relying on voluntary measures to prevent oil from arriving,'' the NATO official said on Wednesday. He said that Serbia could still be importing fuel from outside sources via the Adriatic port of Bar in the Yugoslav province of Montenegro. ''From a purely legal point of view, shipments can continue, including into the port of Bar,'' the official said. He was elaborating on comments on Tuesday by NATO Supreme Commander Europe General Wesley Clark who said diplomatic moves were underway to halt oil deliveries to Serb forces. The country's ability to refine its own transport and heating fuels has been hit hard by NATO bombing in the 22-day air campaign, with Serbia's only two oil refineries in Pancevo and Novi Sad severely damaged. Western war planes and missiles have also targeted fuel depots and key supply routes used for the possible transport by either road or rail of fuels for use by Serbian tanks and troop carriers. On Monday a NATO missile cut a passenger train in two, killing 10 people, as it crossed a bridge over the Juzna Morava River in southeastern Yugoslavia. The bridge was along the line connecting Serbia's capital of Belgrade with the Macedonian city of Skopje, where the Okta crude oil refinery is capable of processing just over 50,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Allied bombings of Danube River bridges have also complicated barge deliveries of fuel into Serbia, which even during peacetime relied on imports for 75 percent of its crude oil needs. NATO on Wednesday confirmed that crude oil supply to Yugoslavia through two major arteries -- the Druzhba pipeline from Russia through Hungary, and the Adria pipeline from Croatia's Adriatic coast -- had ceased. Last week Croatian firm Janaf Jadranski Nafta, operator of the Adria pipeline and Hungary's Moltrade Mineralimpex, which has previously supplied crude via the Druzhba, said they had not transported oil to Yugoslavia since NATO air raids began. Mediterranean oil traders said that years of sanctions prior to 1995 made the Yugoslav government extremely adept at surreptitious shipments of oil products into the country. Yugoslavia sent a request last week to Russian President Boris Yeltsin for his help in securing supplies of fuel. Itar-Tass news agency quoted Russian MP Nikolai Ryzhkov as saying during a visit to Belgrade that the request for fuel had been sent to Yeltsin by Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic. He was quoted as saying that the fuel was needed for the spring harvest. Previous suppliers of crude oil to Yugoslavia have included China and Libya but China ended a barter deal last year because of Belgrade's payment arrears. Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.