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Throughout last week, after the announcement of the economic sanctions and the attempt of the Hague to realize its threat to, at least initiate a cease-fire, the press at home was speculating whether or not there will be an economic blockade, whether or not it is legitimate or possible, with the ridiculous conclusion that it cannot succeed. It is true that the economic sanctions won't suddenly cool down the nationalist tempers, but it is also true that they cost a lot

Knowing that the people are aware that the war has brought about an economic disaster, the republic governments are not even trying to inform the population about the variations on the theme - what else can happen to the living standard of the ones staying here, which is getting close to the poverty line. To be honest, it would probably at this time be impossible to balance out any kind of need or measure out the present level of shortage, since there are no adequate data to do it. The Croatian and the Serbian governments do not even know the number of inhabitants for whose daily livelihood they are responsible. It would be equally difficult to asses the kind of impact certain sanctions would have in certain industries, when two thirds of the economy is practically halted.

It would be impossible to come to a precise evaluation concerning the impact of the total trade embargo against Serbia. First of all, the Yugoslav firms are for now still closely linked, so Serbia cannot be the only one to be affected. It would be difficult to assess what the blockade will mean to the Serbian economy concerning the goods which are presently not being produced either in Serbia or Montenegro (if we adopt the ludicrous assumption that Bosnia and Herzegovina would like to and would be in a position to respect an embargo). Who could envisage what will the total block out of railways produce as well as the absence of steel, wire, pipes, paper, rice, skies, pencils and matches, various chemicals motorcycles and sewing machines. These are only the products which the two republics are not producing... You can't even find wool in the country where the sheep is to be found everywhere. We give to our readers a few statistical tables with the "pre-war" data (from 1989). Apart from the main table listing the use of energy in the most militant republics, we also offer the basic data on the import-export structure which shows that the theory on the differences between Croatia and Serbia regarding the foreign trade interests was largely based on prejudice. Serbia too is a significant importer of raw materials and other kinds of material, whereas Croatia exports less of the high processing products than the allegedly primitive Serbian industry (structurally and absolutely).

From the standpoint of the future of Yugoslavia, it is now not only important for the Milosevic's government to "lengthen the life-span of Yugoslavia", but also not to sacrifice the future of Serbia. Various economic sanctions come and go, but the strategic loss of the mid- European market after the breakdown of the Eastern European market can not be withstood.