Albania broke UN Embargo to Yugoslavia

TIRANA, Nov. 30 – Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha acknowledged on Thursday that Tirana had broken the United Nations embargo on former Yugoslavia during the first years of the 1990s by sending fuel there. This came after a question from a reporter from an Albanian newspaper dealing with Momir Bulatovic, the former leader of tiny Montenegro who was a key ally of Milosevic during his decade-long rule here, and a deal for fuel supply with Berisha. Berisha, who was Albania’s president from 1992 until 1997, said he had continuously disagreed with the U.N. embargo as it was negatively affecting Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian majority, and neighboring Montenegro at a time when Serbia illegally received fuel through the Danube “and Europe did nothing (to stop it.” “I can’t say there was not displeasure on Albania’s stand at the time but in total a U.N. research study concluded that 96 percent of the fuel entering former Yugoslavia came from other countries and only four percent from Albania,” Berisha said at a news conference. “I tried to assist these two countries (Kosovo and Montenegro) but I could not control what was done with fuel in that country. Our efforts were held beyond any unilateral interest for Albania,” he said.
The U.N. imposed an embargo on the former Yugoslavia under the regime of the late Slobodan Milosevic for fomenting fighting. Berisha denied there was any deal with Bulatovic.
The premier’s reaction came after Albania had received a positive signal from the NATO summit in Riga, Latvia, saying that it would be invited as a full member in the next enlargement summit in 2008. The premier pledged his government would “do its utmost and pay any price” to achieve full NATO membership, specifying that that meant extending participation in international peacekeeping missions, increasing defense expenditures to two percent of GDP until 2008, fighting crime and corruption, and consolidating the rule of law. Albania has small military units in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. It has also said it is in negotiations to send another unit to Lebanon.