Albania breaks UN embargo on Yugoslavia in 1990s
Albania had broken the United Nations embargo on former Yugoslavia and shipped fuels to Kosovo and neighboring Montenegro in the 1990s, local news reported on Friday.
The weekly newspaper Tirana Times quoted Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha as saying that he considered the UN embargo unfair, because it hurt ethnic Albanians in those two places.
Berisha, who was Albania's president from 1992 to 1997, said he had continuously disagreed with the UN embargo as it was negatively affecting Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian majority, and neighboring Montenegro at a time when Serbia received fuels from other channels and Europe did nothing to stop it.
"There might have been some displeasure with Albania's behavior at that time, but a UN study has concluded that 96 percent of the fuel entering Former Yugoslavia came from other countries, and only 4 percent from Albania," Berisha said.
The United Nations imposed the embargo on Slobodan Milosevic's Yugoslavia, hoping to stop the spread of war across the country.
The weekly newspaper Tirana Times quoted Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha as saying that he considered the UN embargo unfair, because it hurt ethnic Albanians in those two places.
Berisha, who was Albania's president from 1992 to 1997, said he had continuously disagreed with the UN embargo as it was negatively affecting Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian majority, and neighboring Montenegro at a time when Serbia received fuels from other channels and Europe did nothing to stop it.
"There might have been some displeasure with Albania's behavior at that time, but a UN study has concluded that 96 percent of the fuel entering Former Yugoslavia came from other countries, and only 4 percent from Albania," Berisha said.
The United Nations imposed the embargo on Slobodan Milosevic's Yugoslavia, hoping to stop the spread of war across the country.