US refuses to join EU in oil embargo on Serbs
Kjell S Johansen (kjellsjo@online.no)
Tue, 27 Apr 1999 09:37:22 +0200
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>From: Rkmickey@aol.com
>Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 22:44:53 EDT
>Subject: US refuses to join EU in oil embargo on Serbs
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>Given the US position on Iran, etc., this item from the morning paper is
very
>interesting indeed.
>K.Mickey
>
>Electronic Telegraph (London)
>ISSUE 1432Tuesday 27 April 1999
>
>
>
>
>US refuses to join EU in oil embargo on Serbs
>By Christopher Lockwood, Diplomatic Editor, in Washington and Tim King in
>Luxembourg
>
>
>THE European Union yesterday banned oil sales to Yugoslavia, but in a
>development that will be regarded as scandalous in European capitals,
America
>confirmed that it had no plans to follow suit.
>
>This means that while it is now illegal for any EU country to export oil to
>Slobodan Milosevic, it remains perfectly legal for American companies to
>continue to fuel the Serb war machine.
>
>On April 10, two weeks into the conflict, the American firm Texaco shipped
>some 65,000 barrels of oil products into Bar, the Montenegrin port. The
>company said it was assured that the products were for use in Montenegro but
>the port now serves as Yugoslavia's only supply route for fuel. Other
routes,
>including a pipeline from Hungary, or the land routes from Croatia and
>Bulgaria have effectively been cut off.
>
>The disclosure that American firms have been selling oil to Yugoslavia while
>America pilots have been risking their lives to bomb refineries and storage
>facilities is likely to undercut American efforts to moralise to the rest of
>the world. Texaco has now publicly stated that it will no longer sell oil to
>Yugoslavia. But hundreds of other companies have yet to do the same.
>
>A US State Department official confirmed there were no plans to introduce
the
>same sort of legislation that EU foreign ministers yesterday adopted in
>Luxembourg, which renders it a crime to sell oil to Yugoslavia. The embargo
>will be implemented on Friday.
>
>Nato's communiqué on Kosovo, published at the weekend, stops short of
calling
>on all Nato members to adopt legal instruments to halt the flow of oil. What
>Nato is committed to do, however, is to interrupt the supply of oil,
wherever
>it comes from, by means of a "visit and search" regime that will board and
>inspect ships heading for Bar.
>
>Since international law says ships can only be halted in pursuit of a United
>Nations sanctions resolution, it is extremely uncertain what will happen
if a
>Russian, or indeed an American, oil tanker declines to be searched. Russia
>has refused to join an oil embargo so the potential for conflict is high. If
>Russian ships were challenged on the high seas, it might decide to give them
>military escorts.
>
>Further economic restrictions were also placed on Yugoslavia and it emerged
>that the European Commission would halt a promised package of economic
>assistance for Montenegro - lest it fell into "the wrong hands".
>
>