Word: serbia
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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When the European Union proposed a plan to isolate and weaken Serbian strongman SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC by delivering heating oil directly to towns run by his opponents, U.S. diplomats were skeptical. They said the oil--which Serbia badly needs this winter because of the Western embargo--would either fail to reach its recipients or end up in Milosevic's hands...
...turns out they were right. Last week Milosevic's customs seized a convoy of trucks carrying some 350 tons of oil intended for Nis and Pirot, two opposition-run towns in southern Serbia. The convoy was stopped as soon as it crossed the border from Macedonia, and the two mayors, who came to meet it, were not even allowed to get near the trucks...
When the European Union proposed a plan to isolate and weaken Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic by delivering heating oil directly to towns run by his opponents, U.S. diplomats were skeptical. They said the oil - which Serbia badly needs this winter because of the Western embargo - would either fail to reach its recipients or end up in Milosevic's hands...
...turns out they were right. Last week Milosevic's customs seized a convoy of trucks carrying some 350 tons of oil intended for Nis and Pirot, two opposition-run towns in southern Serbia. The convoy was stopped as soon as it crossed the border from Macedonia, and the two mayors, who came to meet it, were not even allowed to get near the trucks...
Washington had previously been skeptical of European initiatives, such as the plan to provide heating oil to cities controlled by the opposition, but now appears to have come around to a more subtle approach. "The blanket isolation of Serbia was only ever going to freeze the situation Iraq-style and actually consolidate Milosevic's grip on power," says TIME Central Europe bureau reporter Dejan Anastasijevic. "The new approach gives the opposition much greater leverage - by dangling an end to sanctions - to force a free and fair election. And if the opposition doesn't participate in an election...