(1 Oct 1996) English/Nat
The United States is supporting a United Nations move to lift the remaining international sanctions against former Yugoslavia.
This comes after Bosnia's election last month, which has been pronounced free and fair by official observers.
But there are still looming problems including war crimes, which may mean a complete lifting of sanctions against Belgrade will not happen.
Meanwhile the outgoing chief prosecutor of the war crimes tribunal, South African Judge Richard Goldstone, has called the major disappointment of his three year tenure the failure of NATO forces to track down and arrest people indicted for war crimes.
A vote of confidence over the elections in Bosnia.
The U-S State Department says international certification that Bosnia's elections were free and fair has cleared the way for U-S support for lifting U-N sanctions against Yugoslavia.
Spokesman Nicholas Burns says he expects the U-N Security Council to act in a matter of days.
Despite complaints about rigging in the September 14th balloting from private monitoring groups, the Organization of Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) gave the election its official blessing on Sunday.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Basically the United States position was as one of the drafters of the Dayton accords, that we had to until Ambassador Frowick certified ,we believed before the United Nations could take up the questions of a lifting of the sanctions. That has now happen. Therefore the United States will certainly work towards a lifting of the sanctions this week with the other members of the security council."
SUPER CAPTION: Nicholas Burns/US State Dept. Spokesman
But Burns says the U-S continues to have many differences with Yugoslavia, including its refusal to comply with U-N War Crimes Tribunal requests.
He says until those differences are resolved, the U-S will continue its bilateral sanctions against Yugoslavia - the rump remains of the pre-1991 Yugoslav federation, which now consists only of Serbia and its ally Montenegro.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Well we have a constructive relationship with the Serbian government. We have a lot of issues we have to work on with the Serbs. We also have a lot of issues upon which we disagree with the Serbian government. You know we have concerns about the situation in Kosovo, you know we have concerns about the issue of war crimes, and the failure of the Serbian government, as well as the Bosnian Serbs to comply with the UN war crimes tribunal. That is why despite the fact the sanctions will be lifted this week, the United States will maintain the so called outer wall of sanctions which limit Belgrade from participating in the United Nations as the success state to Yugoslavia, which limit Belgrade's ability to work with the international financial institutions or to take part in certain international events. Those are important sanctions that the United States will maintain because of the problems in Kosovo and because of the problem of war crimes and other issues."
SUPER CAPTION: Nicholas Burns/US State Dept. Spokesperson
And one way to bring the people to justice who were responsible for the mass graves and military camps of Bosnia is to give NATO-led military force there orders to track down and arrest people indicted for war crimes.
That's according to the outgoing U.N. war crimes prosecutor Judge Richard Goldstone.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
SUPER CAPTION: Richard Goldstone, Outgoing chief Prosecutor International War Crimes Tribunal
Goldstone was replaced as chief prosecutor by Canadian Judge Louise Arbour.
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