New York - The Security Council took the unusual step of excluding Yugoslavia's UN envoy from a debate on the Balkans yesterday, prompting Russia's ambassador to walk out of the council chamber.
US ambassador Mr Richard Holbrooke led the challenge on grounds that the Yugoslav leadership, including President Slobodan Milosevic, was under indictment by a UN tribunal for alleged crimes committed during last year's Kosovo crisis.
"It would be inappropriate to allow the representative of this government to use this council in a discussion of where we stand on Kosovo," he said.
Yugoslavia's envoy, Mr Vladislav Jovanovic, has spoken to the council before on Balkan issues but apparently has not asked to do so since the indictments handed down by the The Hague-based tribunal in May 1999.
The vote was four in favour, seven against and four abstentions in the 15-member council on a motion to allow Mr Jovanovic to speak. Under Security Council rules, procedural matters take a majority vote, with permanent members Russia, the United States, Britain, China and France unable to use their veto power.