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French minister confirms sanctions to be partially lifted

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October 9, 2000 

PARIS (AP) - French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine confirmed that the European Union would partially lift sanctions on Yugoslavia on Monday as the first step toward reintegrating that nation into a democratic Europe.

"We are going to put our promises to work. We are going to keep our commitments," Vedrine said Sunday on France's Europe 1 radio.

France currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, and Vedrine is to travel to Belgrade on Tuesday.

The French minister confirmed reports that the EU would remove a ban on all commercial flights to Yugoslavia and lift an oil embargo imposed on Serbia during the 1999 Kosovo war.

The EU has also frozen financial assets held by people linked to the regime of former President Sloboden Milosevic and placed a visa ban on Milosevic's entourage.

Vojislav Kostunica assumed the presidency on Saturday.

It is "very important for the future of Serbia that it is the Serb people themselves who got rid of Milosevic," said Vedrine. "The relationship with Europe is establishing itself on a healthy basis."

EU External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten said Saturday that Milosevic should stand trial before the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

"He belongs in The Hague," Patten said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires.

The U.S. administration also wants Milosevic, who has said he wants to return to politics in Serbia at some point, to stand trial before the Balkans war crimes tribunal.

However, Kostunica has said that he would defy Western demands to surrender Milosevic and other indicted war criminals.