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- THE WEEK, Page 26WORLDUpping the Pressure On Serbian Aggression
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- A revolting massacre stirs the international community at last
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- Finally, impelled by scenes of civilian slaughter in
- Sarajevo, the U.S. and its European allies went to work last week
- to impose economic sanctions on Serbia. The Serbs, who fill the
- ranks of both regular and irregular forces, are now seen as the
- main aggressors in the war in the ruins of Yugoslavia.
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- Though the Serbs make up only a third of the population of
- Bosnia-Herzegovina, they are, says U.S. Ambassador to Yugoslavia
- Warren Zimmermann, "trying to take over two-thirds of the
- country." In their campaign to carve out a Greater Serbia and
- expel Croats and Slavic Muslims, the Serbs have created hundreds
- of thousands of refugees; Serbs have been pushed out by Croats
- and Muslims in response. U.N. Secretary-General Boutros
- Boutros-Ghali said it was the largest uprooting of population
- "in Europe since the Second World War."
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- In Brussels the European Community imposed limited
- economic sanctions on the rump Yugoslav state at midweek. The
- Serbian Orthodox Church said it was "openly distancing itself"
- from the government in Belgrade. Then came the revolting images
- of death in Sarajevo's marketplace and the U.S., Britain and
- France pressed the U.N. Security Council to impose full,
- mandatory sanctions.
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- Russia and China, who are permanent members of the
- Council, had been reluctant to go along with the sanctions plan.
- Its measures range from a complete trade embargo, including oil
- shipments, to cutting air links and freezing Serbian assets
- abroad. After quiet negotiations, the Security Council passed
- the resolution Saturday. Even so, no one was predicting that
- Serbia and its hard-nosed President Slobodan Milosevic would
- quickly move to end the bloodshed.
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