United Nations Security Council resolution 1160, adopted on 31 March 1998, after noting the situation in
Kosovo
Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
, the council, acting under
Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, imposed an
arms embargo and economic sanctions on the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...
, hoping to end the use of excessive force by the government.
Some countries had suggested a comprehensive arms embargo to be imposed against Serbia and Montenegro, including Kosovo. The Security Council condemned the violence that the Serbian police used against peaceful demonstrators, and the terrorist acts of the
Kosovo Liberation Army.
Yugoslavia was urged to seek a political solution to the conflict, while the Kosovar
Albanians
The Albanians (; sq, Shqiptarët ) are an ethnic group and nation native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian ancestry, culture, history and language. They primarily live in Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Se ...
were called upon to condemn all terrorist actions and pursue their goals through peaceful means. It was stated that the only way to avoid further violence was to allow the Kosovar Albanian community a genuine political process and prospects for meaningful
autonomy
In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ...
and
self-determination
The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law (commonly regarded as a ''jus cogens'' rule), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. It stat ...
.
Acting under Chapter VII, the Council imposed an arms embargo on Serbia and Montenegro, and established a Committee to monitor its implementation and suggest improvements. The measures would be revised if it noted in reports from the Secretary-General
Kofi Annan
Kofi Atta Annan (; 8 April 193818 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founde ...
, the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, prom ...
, Contact Group and
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
that Serbia and Montenegro had begun a dialogue, withdrew its police forces, allowed access to
humanitarian aid agencies and accepted missions from the OSCE and
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and protect refugees, forcibly displaced communities, and stateless people, and to assist in their voluntary repatriation, local integrati ...
to the region.
The resolution concluded by asking the
Prosecutor
A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...
at the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to begin gathering information on
human rights violations
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hum ...
, affirming that further measures would be imposed if there was no constructive progress. The arms embargo was lifted under
Resolution 1367 (2001).
Resolution 1160 was approved by 14 votes to none against, with one
abstention from
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, which argued that it was an internal matter.
Consequences
The
Kosovo Verification Mission
The 1998-1999 Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM) was an OSCE mission to verify that the Serbian and Yugoslav forces were complying with the UN October Agreement to end atrocities in Kosovo, withdraw armed forces from Kosovo, and abide by a ceasef ...
sought to verify compliance with resolution 1160.
The resolution was disregarded:
NATO then planned to
intervene by force.
See also
*
Breakup of Yugoslavia
The breakup of Yugoslavia occurred as a result of a series of political upheavals and conflicts during the early 1990s. After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...
*
Kosovo War
The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the war ...
*
(1997–1998)
References
External links
*
Text of the Resolution at undocs.org
{{UNSCR 1998
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1998 in Yugoslavia
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United Nations Security Council sanctions regimes
Sanctions against Yugoslavia
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1998 in Serbia
March 1998 events
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