Malaysia denies breaching embargo

Malaysia denies breaching embargo

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia denied yesterday it had broken the UN arms embargo on Bosnia-Herzegovina, following accusations by U.S. presidential challenger Robert Dole that Kuala Lumpur had supplied weapons to Bosnian Moslems.

"Malaysia denies the allegations that this country has decided to ignore the (UN) embargo by giving arms aid to Bosnia," Foreign Minister Abdullah Badawi was quoted saying by the Bernama news agency.

Dole, the U.S. Senate majority leader, was reported as saying yesterday that several Islamic countries, including Malaysia, had breached the arms embargo on Bosnia.

Abdullah described Dole's allegations as baseless but added that Malaysia, nevertheless, regretted that the arms embargo on Bosnia remained.

Malaysia has campaigned for the lifting of the arms embargo since it was imposed three years ago, with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad criticizing the United Nations for leaving Bosnian Moslems virtually defenseless against Serbian attacks.