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NEW YORK - Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic met late Wednesday with U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson and his Armenian counterpart Vartan Oskaniyan.
Jovanovic pointed to a large-scale violation of basic human rights of Serbs, Montenegrins and other non-Albanians in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia's Kosovo and Metohija province on the part of the ethnic Albanian terrorist organisation calling itself Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), and criminal and other gangs.
He said that the worst of it all was that this violation of human rights was taking place in the presence of the U.N. peacekeeping force KFOR.
He said that the sanctions and embargo imposed on Yugoslavia by some countries and international organisations represented the most massive and most flagrant violation of human rights imaginable.
In this connection, he said that making it impossible to import fuel and all that needed for dealing with humanitarian problems facing the population and placing obstacles to the reconstruction of hospitals, schools, housing facilities, roads, bridges, and water and power supply systems was the grossest violation of human rights possible.
Robinson said that she urged impartiality in solving all humanitarian problems and an unbiased approach to all issues in the human rights field. She said that she was satisfied with cooperation to date with the Yugoslav government and conditions of work of the U.N. human rights commissioner's office in Belgrade.
In the talks with the Armenian foreign minister, Jovanovic pointed to immense damage incurred by NATO on Yugoslavia and to victims of the aggression and devastation caused in the country.
Oskaniyan said that Armenia had offered moral support to Yugoslavia and that it deeply sympathised with the Yugoslav people.
Readiness was voiced to promote cooperation and traditionally good relations between the two countries, with Oskaniyan stressing that his country would back Yugoslavia's full engagement in the United Nations and other international organisations.