Security Council calls for access for UN and other aid workers in
Kosovo and other parts of Yugoslavia.

Reaffirming the right of all refugees and displaced persons to return to their homes in safety and dignity, the Security Council late Friday night adopted a resolution calling for access for United Nations and other humanitarian personnel operating in Kosovo and other parts of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

China and the Russian Federation abstained in the vote, while the other 13 Council members voted in favour of the resolution, which was adopted just before midnight.

By the terms of the resolution, the Council invited the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other international relief organizations to extend assistance to the internally displaced persons in Kosovo, the Republic of Montenegro and other parts of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, as well as to other civilians being affected by the crisis.

Emphasizing that the humanitarian situation would continue to deteriorate in the absence of a political solution to the crisis, the Council urged all concerned to work towards that aim consistent with the principles adopted by the G-8 Foreign Ministers -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Those principles include a call for an immediate and verifiable end to the violence and repression in Kosovo and a withdrawal of military, police and paramilitary forces. They also call for deployment of an effective international civil an security presence endorsed by the United Nations and establishment of an interim administration for Kosovo decided by the Security Council.

text of press release & resolution.