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Post-Milosevic Yugoslavia re-admitted to UN after ostracism

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November 3, 2000 

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Yugoslavia's new democratic government has joined the United Nations, opening a new chapter in Belgrade's relations with the international community after eight years of U.N. ostracism under former strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

By acclamation and with a loud round of applause, the 189-member General Assembly overwhelmingly on Wednesday approved Yugoslavia's application for U.N. membership and hailed Belgrade's democratic transition and the newly elected president, Vojislav Kostunica.

"This indeed is a historic day for the United Nations, and for the Balkans - for all of Europe, indeed for all of the world," said U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. "We welcome Yugoslavia as the United Nations' newest member."

After General Assembly President Harri Holkeri proclaimed the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia admitted, the Yugoslav delegation was led to its seats in the General Assembly hall where a "Yugoslavia" nameplate was placed in front of them.

"With legitimate pride, the Yugoslav people are going to take their rightful place in the concert of nations," French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte told the assembly, speaking on behalf of the European Union.

"Also this evening, an important step will be taken toward reconciliation, stability and peace in a region that has been marked by so many trials."

Under Milosevic, Yugoslavia had refused to comply with the General Assembly's 1992 demand that it apply for U.N. admission as a new country following the breakup of the Yugoslav socialist republic in the early 1990s.

Milosevic had argued that his government was the legitimate successor state and didn't need to apply. As a result, Yugoslavia was barred from speaking or voting in the General Assembly.

But last Friday, a month after ousting Milosevic in elections, Kostunica requested the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia be admitted. His application moved quickly through the U.N. bureaucracy, with the Security Council recommending Tuesday that the General Assembly approve it.

All four former Yugoslav republics of Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia, which are now independent states and U.N. members, co-sponsored the assembly resolution, which was adopted without a vote.

Bosnia's U.N. ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey said the republics' eight-year insistence that Belgrade apply as a new U.N. member was not an effort to seek vengeance against Milosevic.

"This is really about calling a neighbor to come join us in this family of nations," he said.

Kostunica's envoy, Goran Svilanovic, who is a top candidate to be Yugoslavia's next foreign minister, was in New York on Wednesday for the occasion and headed the Yugoslav delegation.

Svilanovic and other delegates were later expected to attend a flag-raising ceremony outside U.N. headquarters to replace the communist-era flag of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's flag.

The admission of Yugoslavia, which now comprises the republics of Serbia and Montenegro, moved ahead despite calls from Montenegro's pro-Western leadership to hold off on the decision until relations between the constituent republics are resolved.

President Milo Djukanovic said on Montenegrin television Tuesday that the two republics should each have a U.N. seat and should function as a loose union of two internationally recognized states.

He said, however, that Montenegro wouldn't stand in the way of the international community's efforts to admit Yugoslavia to the international family.