May 06, 1999:
Sokol Rama
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06.05.99
20:24
NATO attacks reported as Serb officials remain defiant
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP)
NATO kept up its barrage against Yugoslav targets Thursday, hitting a
residential area in Serbia's second-largest city and several targets in
Kosovo, as world powers met to discuss a solution to the violence in the
province.
Four people were injured Thursday in Novi Sad, Studio B TV reported. The
bomb smashed windows in surrounding buildings and left behind a huge crater.
Detonations also were heard coming from nearby Mount Fruska Gora, state-run
Tanjug news agency said.
NATO also struck across Kosovo, where Serb forces continue to battle with
the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army. Four civilians were wounded when
the allies targeted Lipljan, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of the
provincial capital Pristina Thursday.
Elsewhere in Serbia, an explosion also was reported near the Ponikve in
central Serbia. Tanjug said NATO missiles struck a chemical factory near the
Danube River port of Prahovo in eastern Serbia on the border with Romania.
One person was reported injured.
Predawn strikes Thursday hit two fuel depots in a major industrial center
near Nis. A bridge near Novi Pazar in southwestern Serbia and a military
airfield near in central Serbia were also destroyed late Wednesday,
Montenegrin radio reported.
In Belgrade, where power supplies were still patchy following Sunday's
bombings of two power plants, air raid warnings sounded several times but
there no reports of any strikes on the city.
Thursday's attacks came as foreign ministers of the Group of Eight nations
meeting in Germany, announced a seven-point plan calling for the deployment
of «effective international civil and security presences» in Kosovo «capable
of guaranteeing the achievement of the common objectives.»
The plan must be endorsed by the U.N. Security Council.
In an interview with the Austrian daily Kurier on Thursday, Yugoslav Foreign
Minister Zivadin Jovanovic said his country would agree to a U.N.-led force,
but made no stipulations on whether it would be armed.
«We accept an international presence, a U.N. mission,» he told the paper.
«The mandate, structure and number of troops should be agreed upon between
Yugoslavia and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.»
The plan was mentioned only in the 27th minute of the main state Serbian TV
news, which stressed the alleged Russian demand that NATO troops could not
be deployed in Kosovo without Yugoslavia's consent. The report also said the
peacekeeping mission must be negotiated directly between Yugoslavia and the
United Nations.
Milosevic has repeatedly rejected NATO demands any peacekeeping force in
Kosovo must be well armed and robust.
Jovanovic refused to comment on whether or not the force would be armed,
calling it only «a U.N. mission ... made up of neutral states, not including
those who are participating on the aggression against Yugoslavia.»
NATO launched airstrikes against Yugoslavia on March 24 in an attempt to
stop atrocities against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Since then more than
one-third of Kosovo's 2 million population have now fled the province,
mostly into Macedonia and Albania.
Macedonia's border remained closed Thursday, one day after authorities cut
off the refugee flow, arguing the country can't accept more than the
200,000, or about one-tenth its normal population, already there.
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06.05.99
19:02
NATO says its winning the war, but losing against ethnic cleansing
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP)
- NATO said Thursday it is well on its way to pounding Serb forces in Kosovo
into ineffectiveness, but at the same time acknowledged it has failed to
stop President Slobodan Milosevic's ethnic cleansing campaign.
«We have all but entirely pinned them down,» Maj. Gen. Walter Jertz told
reporters at a NATO briefing. «They can no longer move with impunity. Recent
intelligence indicates that they now have little option but to dig in and to
protect their equipment. They can only move furtively and with great fear.»
Nonetheless, Milosevic's forces have succeeded in driving out 675,000
people, the vast majority ethnic Albanians, since the air campaign began
March 24, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Hundreds of
thousands more remain and live under terrible conditions.
«It's true, we have not been able to succeed in what was our initial
objective, stopping the ethnic cleansing,» said chief NATO spokesman Jamie
Shea. «Then it's all the more reason to go for the next logical objective,
which is to say, fine, we couldn't stop it happening, but my God, we are
going to make that man pay a price for what he's done. A very heavy price.»
Strategically, NATO says it has isolated Milosevic's forces in Kosovo, the
southern province of Serbia whose original population of 2 million was 90
percent ethnic Albanian, cutting them off from supplies and communication
with Belgrade.
According to Jertz, a German two-star general, the alliance has cut off the
Yugoslav army and special police units in Kosovo by:
- Destroying all but three bridges over the Danube River and attacking 31
other bridges around the country.
- Closing the two main railroads from Serbia into Kosovo and closing the two
main road routes into the province. Two other, minor roads have been
severely damaged.
- Destroying all refining petroleum refining capacity in the country.
Seventy percent of military stocks of fuel are gone, as is one-third of fuel
storage capacity.
- Progressively destroying Serb communications.
The principal goal is, however, taking out the Serb forces in Kosovo itself
to protect the population and allow the return of refugees.
When the campaign began last month, bad weather was an inhibiting factor.
But the past three weeks have been better and the allies have been able to
intensify their campaign, hitting a sophisticated network of command posts,
anti-aircraft missiles and guns, tanks, artillery pieces, armored personnel
carriers, supply convoys, ammunition and petroleum storage points, and Serb
army and special police units themselves.
«We have planes circling, awaiting the call to strike from other aircraft
flying forward air control, or what we call spotter missions,» said Jertz.
In Kosovo itself in the past six weeks, according to the general, NATO has:
- Struck eight important battalion-brigade command posts;
- Destroyed an estimated 50 percent of ammunition storage;
- Struck more than 300 individual pieces of military equipment including
tanks, artillery pieces, armored personnel carriers and trucks.
About 200 of those were heavy equipment, representing about 20 percent of
the estimated Serb heavy equipment in Kosovo.
The majority of that has been hit in the past three weeks.
«Milosevic's forces in the field are being taken apart bit by bit, faster
and faster,» said Jertz. «Their ability to operate effectively, let alone
carry out acts of brutality, is further reduced with each day that passes.»
He added, however: «This does not mean that all Serb military actions
against the Kosovar people have stopped. But this trend would suggest that
the opportunity for persecution on a large scale is diminishing.»
Theory says that the effectiveness of military units is, for all intents and
purpose, eliminated at around 50 percent destruction. «At that stage, the
forces concerned focus on survival rather than fighting,» Jertz said.
«We all hope Milosevic will see reason well before we reach those levels of
damage. But if he does not and if we have to prosecute this campaign until
we break the will to fight of Serb forces in Kosovo, we are prepared to take
them all out.»
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KLA spokesman demands Rugova must support NATO airstrikes
TIRANA, Albania (AP)
Jakup Krasniqi, a spokesman for the Kosovo Liberation Army, on Thursday
urged Ibrahim Rugova, the main pacifist Albanian politician, to publicly
support NATO's air campaign against Yugoslavia.
He also made clear that the KLA, contrary to what a document signed by major
world powers Thursday stipulated, the Kosovo rebel force, is not prepared to
disarm.
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic surprisingly allowed Rugova and his
family to travel to Italy on Wednesday after he was believed to have been
under virtual house arrest in Pristina, the Kosovo capital.
Reading a statement of the so-called Kosovo temporary government, Krasniqi
said that Rugova must:
- declare clearly and openly his support for NATO actions against
Yugoslavia;
- fulfill his obligations resulting from an agreement unilaterally signed by
Kosovo Albanian leaders in France;
- declare himself openly in support of the total withdrawal of the Serb
forces from Kosovo and the dispatch of NATO troops as a peacekeeping force
in Kosovo.
In the statement, the KLA also demands from Rugova to publicly explain all
the events that have taken place during his stay in Pristina and Belgrade
«as a hostage.»
Answering questions by reporters, Krasniqi said that «after what has
happened in Kosovo in the last month, the disarmament of the KLA can not
even be discussed.»
«Circumstances which would make possible the disarmament of the KLA do not
exist and are unlikely to exist in the Balkans,» he added.
It was unclear whether Krasniqi knew the text of a statement released
earlier in Bonn by a meeting of G-8 leaders, including the United States and
Russia.
That document, among other political aims, stipulated the «demilitarization»
of the Kosovo Liberation army.
He claimed that the KLA now numbers 60,000 people.
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06.05.99
18:43
Rugova calls for NATO force in Kosovo
ROME (AP)
In his first public comment since leaving Yugoslavia, Kosovo's best-known
ethnic Albanian leader called Thursday for an international peacekeeping
force including NATO to be sent to the province.
Ibrahim Rugova also called for the withdrawal of Serbian forces from his
homeland and said that ethnic Albanians must be able to return there.
«We need above all to create security in Kosovo people can return,» Rugova
told a news conference in Rome.
Speaking alongside Rugova, Italian Premier Massimo d'Alema said that
«Certainly peace is near,» cautioning, however, that it was not going to
happen tomorrow.
Rugova arrived in Rome on Wednesday from Yugoslavia, where he has been kept
under virtual house arrest since the NATO bombing campaign began on March
24.
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06.05.99
17:37
Serbian opposition leader flees to Montenegro
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP)
Serbia's top opposition leader Zoran Djindjic has fled to Yugoslavia's
pro-Western republic, Montenegro, sources close to his party said Thursday.
Sources close to the Democratic party leadership in Belgrade confirmed
Djindjic had left Serbia for Montenegro. Djindjic, a former Belgrade mayor,
was considered the main opposition to hardline Yugoslav President Slobodan
Milosevic.
The reasons for his departure were not immediately clear.
Yugoslavia is made up of dominant Serbia and small Montenegro.
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06.05.99
17:19
NATO pounds Yugoslavia as diplomats work on outline of peace
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP)
As NATO pressed its attack on Yugoslavia, Russia and Western powers took a
step forward Thursday in efforts to settle the Kosovo conflict, agreeing on
a common approach that includes terms for an armed international force in
the province.
Foreign ministers of the Group of Eight countries meeting outside Bonn,
Germany, settled on a seven-point plan to be endorsed by the U.N. Security
Council.
The draft plan calls for the deployment of «effective international civil
and security presences.» To assuage Russia, Yugoslavia's primary ally, it
would make no mention of NATO's role in the security force.
At a news conference, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer called it «a
considerable step forward.»
Meanwhile, thousands of ethnic Albanians trying to flee Kosovo were left
stranded in a border village Thursday after Macedonian authorities blocked
the refugee exodus in an apparent move to force more international
assistance.
There was no immediate response from Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic
to the statement of G-8 foreign ministers.
But in a sign Yugoslavia wouldn't agree to any proposal that isn't
negotiated by the U.N. Security Council, the speaker of the ruling Serbian
Socialist Party, Ivica Dacic, told reporters in Belgrade an international
presence in Kosovo can only be agreed through direct talks between
Yugoslavia and the United Nations.
Such talks, he said, would define the character and time frame of the
mandate of a U.N. mission to Kosovo.
After hitting fuel depots and airfields overnight, NATO jets continued
pounding Yugoslav targets during daylight hours Thursday despite the new
diplomatic initiatives.
Allied jets targeted a district in Novi Sad, Serbia's second-largest city,
with three missiles Thursday afternoon, the state Tanjug news agency
reported. Three missiles fell on the residential district, it said.
Detonations also sounded from Mount Fruska Gora south of the city, and
Yugoslav army air defense fired back, Tanjug said. Earlier during the day,
NATO hit a target near Lipljan, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of
Kosovo's capital Pristina. Serbian TV said four civilians were wounded.
Earlier, Yugoslav media reported attacks late Wednesday against two fuel
depots _ one oil and the other gas _ setting off a huge fire near Nis, a
major industrial center and the country's third-biggest city located 200
kilometers (120 miles) southeast of Belgrade.
Secondary explosions shook the area and the private Beta news agency said
intense heat could be felt hundreds of meters (yards) away.
Elsewhere, Tanjug said NATO missiles struck the area around the Danube River
port of Prahovo in eastern Serbia on the border with Romania. Fuel depots
and a chemical factory were hit. One person was reported slightly injured.
In Kosovo, impacts were heard early Thursday around the provincial capital
of Pristina at Mount Goles and the outskirts of Grmija, Tanjug reported. An
explosion was also reported around 2:30 a.m. (1230 GMT) in the area of the
Ponikve airfield northwest of the central Serbian town of Uzice.
The latest attacks occurred as Clinton comforted victims of ethnic cleansing
in Kosovo, promising refugees at a processing center in Ingelheim, Germany,
on Thursday: «You will go home again in safety and in freedom.»
Despite the intensified air campaign, diplomats were seeking a formula to
end the conflict. The main obstacle is what kind of peacekeeping force would
protect returning ethnic Albanian refugees.
Milosevic has offered to accept a small, lightly armed U.N. force and
insisted that some 11,000 Serb troops remain in Kosovo. Tens of thousands
are there now and stand accused of brutal «ethnic cleansing» of ethnic
Albanian civilians.
NATO has demanded the withdrawal of all Serb troops and insists on a
well-armed military force to protect the refugees and maintain order.
In an effort to bolster the peace moves, foreign ministers of the United
States, Russia, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada met
Thursday.
A major aim of those talks was to start moving toward a U.N. mandate for any
military force to secure the return of Kosovo Albanian refugees and for an
interim administration for the Yugoslav province.
U.S. officials have hoped Russia will approve using an armed military force
to protect ethnic Albanians returning to Kosovo once the NATO airstrikes
end. Russia has been aligned with Belgrade in opposing peacekeepers in
Kosovo equipped with anything more than light arms.
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Russia, Yugoslavia's prime
ally, «now accepts all five NATO principles,» including a withdrawal of Serb
forces and basic terms for a «robust» military force to protect ethnic
Albanians returning to Kosovo _ a key sticking point.
«The Russians have now come on board,» she said at a news conference.
But it was unclear whether the move would lead to a settlement.
The ministers also expected to hear a report from Italian Foreign Minister
Lamberto Dini about the surprise arrival in Italy Wednesday of Kosovo's most
prominent ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova.
A day after the crash of a U.S. Apache helicopter on a training maneuver in
Albania that killed two aviators, the U.S. Army said Thursday that training
flights had been halted for a day Wednesday to honor the victims and provide
a pause for the pilots.
But a spokesman for Task Force Hawk outside Tirana, Capt. Jeff Settle,
denied Thursday that there had been a standdown and said the crash _ the
second in nine days involving one of the vaunted anti-tank helicopters _
would not delay or hinder NATO plans to use the Apaches in combat.
An estimated 700,000 mostly ethnic Albanian refugees, about a third of
Kosovo's population, have poured out of Kosovo since NATO airstrikes began.
Many were expelled by Serb forces into neighboring Albania and Macedonia,
which effectively closed its border to all but a handful of ethnic Albanians
on Wednesday after more than 200,000 refugees had poured in from Kosovo _ a
tenth of its population _ since the airstrikes began.
Macedonia said it would only accept as many new refugees as are flown out
each day to other countries.
On Thursday, the few people crossing the border said thousands had tried to
enter Macedonia Wednesday night, but were forced back and spent the night in
the homes of residents of Djeneral Jankovic, the closest Kosovo town to the
border.
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