ARMS EMBARGO TO FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

That this House deplores calls in the USA led by Senator Bob Dole for a unilateral lifting of the arms embargo in former Yugloslavia; recognises that such action will force the withdrawal of the UN humanitarian and peacekeeping forces, whose presence has contained the conflict and saved hundreds of thousands of lives, particularly in central Bosnia; believes that the advocates of 'lift and strike' are playing with fire and risking spreading the conflict throughout the Balkans; and calls on the US Congress to reject this call and, failing that, for President Clinton to veto it and thereby show solidarity with those countries in NATO and the UN who have put their own personnel at risk in an effort to save lives.