4 June 1992
p...w.rf.
Yugo: ty
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
31
London SWIA 2AH
Telephone: 071-270-2491
-122/329/6
Ms A Lee
Assistant Political Adviser Office of the Political Adviser
Government of Hong Kong Government House
Upper Albert Road
HONG KONG
(FAX: 010-852-521-8702)
Das To be
-40.
NDL
YOUR TELNO 1510
(PARA 2):
YUGOSLAVIA:
ARMS EMBARGO
We hope you will take action to block the financing of Chinese trade with Serbia as soon as possible now that the DT Orders
1.
implementing SCR 757 are in force. We would be interested to know of any cases in which you succeed in doing so (if the details can be made available to us).
2.
This
You also asked about the arms embargo against Yugoslavia. was imposed by UNSCR 713, passed on 25 September 1991 - a copy is attached for your information (see operative paragraph 6). The Resolution gained considerable publicity when it was passed, and we are surprised that you did not hear of it.
3.
However, perhaps we are also partly to blame since we did not issue an official notification. The reason for this was that, following the outbreak of serious hostilities in Yugoslavia, the DTI revoked all existing export licences on 3 July 1991. On 5 July, the EC imposed an arms embargo on Yugoslavia (EC regulations are directly applicable in law in all member states so no separate UK legislation was needed to implement this). Since the measures applied to arms only, exporters of non-military goods were free to apply for export licences for their products (which many did). Therefore, when SCR 713 created a UN arms embargo, the UK was already giving effect to it under existing licencing policy. It appears that none of this was notified to you.
4.
Although not explicitly covered by SCR 757 and the related UK/DT legislation, the Resolution's total ban on exports will of course cover arms and military equipment so I think you now have adequate means to prevent any such trade.