BRUSSELS, April 5 (AFP) - The number of displaced Kosovars is
>approaching one million, NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said here
>Monday.
>   The total number of people displaced from their homes in Kosovo
>"is now beginning to move up to a million people", and presently
>stands at 831,000, Shea said.
>   Shea said that 44,000 refugees left Kosovo on Sunday alone, and
>that "360,000 have now left Kosovo over the last two weeks."
>   The UN refugee agency for its part said Monday the number who
>have left since the NATO bombings of Yugoslavia began March 24 was
>nearly 390,000.
>   Shea added that NATO was moving ahead in its efforts to provide
>relief for the refugees, saying that "there is a lot we can do and a
>lot we are doing."
>   However, Shea admitted that the situation for the refugees, most
>of whom are in Albania and Macedonia, remains "precarious."
>   Tent camps were being set up and food, medicine and other
>supplies were being flown in, he said.
>   In addition, the advance team for a small NATO force was already
>in the Albanian capital of Tirana to lay the groundwork for an
>alliance-led relief effort in northern Albania, he said.
>   Greek, Italian and 35 US soldiers were there, installing
>equipment for the unloading of supplies, he said.
>
>


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>   PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, April 5 (AFP) - Moderate Kosovo Albanian
>leader Ibrahim Rugova said Monday that NATO "bombings should be
>halted" in Yugoslavia and called on Belgrade to be "more cooperative
>with the international community."
>   Rugova was speaking with reporters after a meeting with the
>Russian ambassador to Belgrade Yuri Kotov in his house in the Kosovo
>capital Pristina.
>   "There should be an end to the situation in Kosovo, the bombing
>should be stopped and monitoring put in," Rugova said in French,
>without elaborating further.
>   "I hope this will be discussed on the international level. This
>is not a question just for me. I am here without my people," he
>stressed.
>   Already last Wednesday, during a brief meeting with journalists
>in his house in Pristina, Rugova had called on NATO to stop the air
>raids and asked Belgrade to "cooperate."
>   Rugova said he had asked the Belgrade authorities to allow him
>to go abroad.
>   "I told Kotov that I am interested in leaving Pristina to go to
>Skopje (Macedonia) and other countries to contribute to the process
>and stop the actual situation, because I am here without my
>associates," Rugova said.
>   "I cannot work and contribute here in Pristina. I can do more
>outside Kosovo ... I told Serbian authorities of this request. I am
>waiting for a response," Rugova said.
>   Kotov said he had raised the issue with Yugoslav deputy premier
>Nikola Sainovic.
>   "Sainovic confirmed to me that your movements are free and that
>they (the Yugoslav authorities) are concerned about your personal
>security. I believe this situation will be solved," Kotov told
>Rugova.
>   Asked whether he actually met with Yugoslav President Slobodan
>Milosevic in Belgrade last Thursday -- a meeting shown on Serb
>television and whose authenticity has been questioned -- Rugova
>simply said, in English: "This is speculation. I was in Belgrade."
>   NATO officials had doubted that Rugova was at the meeting,
>saying that the footage shown by the Serbian state television may
>have been "two years old."
>   After Thurday's meeting, Milosevic and Rugova signed a joint
>statement in which they committed themselve to solving the problem
>in Kosovo by "political means," Serbian state television reported.
>   Rugova thanked the Russian ambassador for his "engagement on the
>Kosovo issue" in the current circumstances which "are very
>difficult."
>   "A solution should be found to this situation. It is very
>serious and I ask Belgrade to be more cooperative with the
>international community," Rugova said.
>   He reiterated that the problem should be tackled politically,
>adding: "Everything should be done to find a solution for all people
>in the Balkans region and Kosovo."
>   Kotov said that the "Russian position is well-known."
>   "The bombing should be stopped immediately and (one should)
>return to the political track, because ... the problem in Kosovo is
>too complicated and cannot be resolved, except by political means,"
>Kotov said.
>   "I am very satisfied that Mr Rugova shares this opinion," he
>said.
>   The Russian government, Kotov said, "has made an official
>decision to organise humanitarian aid to all the regions of
>Yugoslavia, to send a hundred trucks with purely humanitarian aid."
>   "We are positive that Kosovo inhabitants should return," he
>said, "but I also believe that returning under bombs, demands lot of
>courage."
>   Kotov expresssed admiration for Rugova's courage in choosing to
>remain in Kosovo.
>   Rugova's and Kotov's brief meeting with journalists was
>organised by the Serb Information center in Pristina. Some 15
>reporters, among them Greek, Turkish and Serbian television
>journalists, were present.
>   Serbian television broadcast footage of the meeting, with a
>brief report saying the Russian ambassador reaffirmed Moscow's
>position that "the bombing should stop immediately and political
>dialogue should be relaunched."
>   Kotov said "he was satisfied that Doctor Ibrahim Rugova has the
>same view," the TV reported.
>
>


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BETA OVERVIEW AT 11:02 PM

MONDAY, APRIL 5

BELGRADE - The general staff of the supreme command of the Yugoslav Army
(VJ) has advised that during the previous day and night more than 50
cruise missiles were fired at military and civilian targets in FR
Yugoslavia and that "approximately 250 sorties were flown exclusively by
the combat aircraft of the United States".

BELGRADE - The units of the Third Army have shown a high degree of
professionalism and caused the aggressor NATO forces "great losses in
manpower and state-of-the-art technology", the highest officers of the
Third Army of the Yugoslav Army (VJ) concluded on Monday.

PRISTINA - A convoy of approximately 100 personal automobiles with
Albanian refugees arrived on Monday in Pristina from the border crossing
at Djeneral Jankovic, Beta has been advised by Serbian sources in
Pristina.

BELGRADE - NATO air forces last night targeted parts of Belgrade and the
region of Raska, Kraljevo, Nis, Obrenovac, Leskovac and Kosovo.  At
approximately 4:20 a.m. the command headquarters of the Yugoslav Amry
Air Force and Air Defense in Zemun was hit. Two hours earlier, Rakovica
was targeted and one missile hit in the vicinity of Surcin at
approximately 2:15 a.m.  The Center for Information has reported that
among targets of the aggression were military buildings in Zvezdara.

BELGRADE - The Center for Information advised Beta that the Yugoslav
Army Air Defense division during the night from Sunday to Monday shot
down three NATO planes which were attacking the region of Belgrade.

BELGRADE - In the attack on Vranje two people were killed, and 23 people
sustained injuries, Serbian Radio Television reported on Monday evening,
quoting sources in the district staff office for civil defense of the
Pcinj region in Vranje.

NIS - In the attack of NATO forces against Nis on Monday morning school
and civil buildings in the city were damaged, reported the commander of
the staff of civil defense for the region of Nis, Jovan Zlatic, he said
that according to present information there were no casualties, reports
Nis television station TV 5.

PRISTINA - The Russian ambassador in Belgrade Yuri Kotov spoke on Monday
in Pristina with the leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo, Ibrahim
Rugova.  After the meeting, Rugova stated that a solution "for this
difficult and complicated situation" must be found, and asked Belgrade
to work more with the international community, reported the Pristina
Media Center.

PRISTINA - The Russian ambassador to FRY Yuri Kotov on Monday visited
the city stadium in Pristina and concluded that claims that this stadium
had been converted into a camp for civilians were false.

PRISTINA - The leader of the Democratic League of Kosovo, Ibrahim
Rugova, said on Monday that NATO bombing "should be stopped" and asked
the government in Belgrade to permit him to leave the country.

BELGRADE - The vice-president of the Yugoslav government, Nikola
Sainovic, and the leader of the Kosovo Albanians, Ibrahim Rugova, on
Monday expressed the desire to work together on the political solution
of the Kosovo crisis, reported state media.

MOSCOW - The Yugoslav ambassador in Moscow, Borislav Milosevic, stated
on Monday that since the beginning of NATO aggression against Yugoslavia
more than 300 civilians have been killed, and approximately 3,000
wounded.  In this evening's statement for Russian "Centar" television,
he stressed that the damage was great and noted that four bridges,
numberous roads, nurseries, schools and residential buildings were
destroyed.

ATHENS - The minister of foreign affairs, Jorgos Papandreu, stated on
Monday that the government of Greece "wishes and is working toward a
stop, as quickly as possible, of NATO attacks, war and 'ethnic
cleansing' in Kosovo".

ATHENS - The Greek government has a duty to secure stability, prosperity
and the interests of the country in an unstable environment, and that is
why its activities will be "in agreement with NATO and in contact with
the Serbs," premier Kostas Simitis stated on Monday evening.

PRETORIA - South African president Nelson Mandela stated on Monday that
he was not able to mediate the solution of the Kosovo crisis due to the
fact that he is preoccupied with problems in his own country.

TIRANA - The Albanian government refused on Monday to allow refugees
from Kosovo to be evacuated to other countries, said Albanian
information minister Musa Ulqini.

BELGRADE - The ministry of education of Serbia advised on Monday that
the Easter holiday in all schools in Serbia would be extended until the
ending of a state of war in the country when conditions of complete
security for students and teachers could be secured, reported Serbian
Radio Television.

MOSCOW - The meeting of the Contact Group will take place on Wednesday
in Brussels, reports Itar-Tass citing sources in the Russian ministry of
foreign affairs.

MOSCOW - The speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament, the
Duma, Genady Selezhnyov is travelling to Belgrade on Tuesday, where he
plans on speaking with Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, it was
announced in Moscow on Monday.

WASHINGTON - American defense secretary William Cohen stated on Monday
that US plans to add Apache helicopters to air operations against the
Yugoslav Army are not a prelude to the adding of ground forces to NATO
aggression against FR Yugoslavia.

MOSCOW - The leader of the Russian Communist party Genady Zhyuganov
assessed on Monday that the Russian government should formally announce
its intent to disregard the sanctions imposed by the international
community against FRY and state that it will offer FRY military
technical, humanitarian and medical assistance, as well as food.

BELGRADE - FRY president Slobodan Milosevic decorated many members of
the Third Army of VJ for their courage in combat against the enemy
forces of NATO.

PARIS - The Paris paper "Le Monde" writes on Monday that the supreme
commander of NATO, Wesley Clark, "dreams of marching into Belgrade at
the head of his tanks" and that the head of the Western alliance "made a
personal mission" of bringing down FRY president Slobodan Milosevic.

MOSCOW - The Communist parties of Belorussia, Moldavia, Russia, Ukraine
and Armenia decisively condemned on Monday "the criminal aggression of
NATO against FRY".

BELGRADE - In Belgrade's centrally located Republic Square on Monday the
ninth concert "Music keeps us alive" was held as a sign of protest
against NATO aggression against FR Yugoslavia.

NOVI SAD - In the center of Novi Sad on Monday another concert was held
called "NATO is killing Europe" as a sign of protest against the
aggression of NATO against FR Yugoslavia.  It was attended by several
hundred residents.

PODGORICA - Several tens of thousands residents of Podgorica gathered on
Monday for a concert in the center of that city to protest NATO
aggression against FR Yugoslavia.

BELGRADE - Effective Monday, the import and export of medicines can only
be carried out with the permission of the federal ministry of labour,
health and social welfare.

WASHINGTON - "The Washington Post" on Monday writes that during the
weeks preceding the beginning of NATO air attacks on FRY, American
generals were skeptical of the Clinton administration's approach to the
Kosovo crisis.

BELGRADE - FR Yugoslavia on Sunday requested an emergency meeting of the
Security Council of the UN because of NATO aggression against FRY as
well as due to the destruction by SFOR in BH of a part of the railway
Beograd-Bar on the territory of RS.

ROME - The head of Italian diplomacy, Lamberto Dini, stated that NATO
attacks on FRY cannot last indefinately if the Alliance does not achieve
its goals and that instead of this the West should consider a complete
blockade of Serbia.

BELGRADE - The vice-president of the federal government, Vuk Draskovic,
stated on Monday that the Kosovo crisis cannot be resolved as long as FR
Yugoslavia is being bombed.

BONN - During Easter holidays, approximately 50,000 people participating
in a traditional peace march throughout Germany, protested against NATO
aggression against FR Yugoslavia.

WASHINGTON - US president Bill Clinton stated on Monday that NATO would
continue its attacks against FR Yugoslavia "until it wins" and promised
American aid to refugees from Kosovo. He said that the weather was
turning in in the favour of NATO air forces carrying out attacks on
Yugoslav Army positions in Kosovo.

END


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BEIJING, April 5 (AFP) - NATO was "riding a tiger" in Yugoslavia
>and it would be even more difficult for it to get off, the Chinese
>army's journal warned Monday, predicting that a deployment of ground
>troops was practically unavoidable.
>   "Everything points to the fact that it will be very difficult to
>avoid deploying ground forces because otherwise it will be
>impossible to put an end to the war," the Liberation Army Daily
>commentary said.
>   NATO again Sunday ruled out sending ground troops into Kosovo
>without a viable peace agreement between Belgrade and Kosovo's
>ethnic Albanian population.
>   In another commentary, the army daily also stressed that an
>escalation in the conflict risked provoking serious dissent between
>the United States, which was only interested in its own "strategic
>global interests" and European nations concerned about playing "an
>independent role".
>   Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji blasted the NATO air campaign
>against Yugoslavia Saturday as an intervention in the internal
>affairs of a sovereign nation, warning that the attack could lead to
>a "world war."
>   "All the internal matters should be left for the country itself
>to resolve," he said during a trip to Canada, in an exclusive
>interview in the Saturday issue of Toronto's Globe and Mail daily.
>   Zhu called for an immediate halt to NATO air strikes, which he
>said almost caused him to cancel his trip to the United States.
>   "We do not think that we can possibly disregard the sovereignty
>of a country in the world," he said.
>
>


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BRUSSELS, April 5 (AFP) - The deployment of 24 AH-64 Apache
>combat helicopters from the United States in Albania poses problems,
>NATO diplomats here said Monday, explaining that the alliance's 19
>ambassadors have not yet authorised their presence.
>   The chief problem is the prospect of the helicopters' presence
>making Albania a target of Serbian attacks and thus expanding the
>conflict in the Balkans, according to a source close to NATO talks
>on the matter.
>   Yugoslavia's capacity to strike at Albania must be examined and
>the matter discussed with Albanian authorities, the source said.
>   The Pentagon said late Sunday that the Albanian government had
>already approved the deployment.
>   Questioned on the helicopters, which are designed to attack
>ground forces, NATO spokesman Jamie Shea welcomed the US offer, but
>said: "NATO hasn't yet approved the deployment of the Apaches in
>Albania."
>   He said the helicopters were "being made available at the right
>time, there is no doubt about that."
>   They would "significantly enhance our ability to go after those
>ground targets in Kosovo."
>   Asked if any of the NATO members were opposed to the
>helicopters, Shea said "there is no difficulty in the alliance but
>we have to respect obviously the procedures of consultation."
>   Two battalions of Apache helicopters are to be taken to bases in
>Germany then sent to Tirana to be in position within 10 day,
>Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said Sunday.
>   They are to be accompanied by a battalion of Multiple Launch
>Rocket System (MLRS) artillery, a mechanized infantry battalion with
>14 Bradley fighting vehicles for force protection, a military police
>company, a signals company and intelligence and other elements, he
>said.
>   US soldiers in northern Albania have started setting up landing
>zones but refuse to say what the preparations are for, western media
>reported.
>   US General Wesley Clark, NATO's military chief, was said to have
>asked for the helicopters, which fly relatively slowly and at low
>altitude, making them vulnerable to missile attack from the ground.
>   Their use would signify that the US government was ready to
>increase the risk to its pilots in order to increase Serb losses.
>
>


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MOSCOW, April 5 (AFP) - Russia geared up Monday to launch a
>million-dollar humanitarian aid effort for Yugoslavia beginning on
>Orthodox Easter Sunday with the arrival in Belgrade of over 100
>vehicles carrying food and medicine.
>   The vehicles bearing 900 tonnes of food and medical supplies
>will make the 2,250-kilometre (1,400-mile) trip from Moscow to
>Belgrade and bring relief to Kosovo crisis victims of all
>denominations, Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu said.
>   "The aid sent by Russia will be distributed to the entire
>population, regardless of nationality and religion," Shoigu said,
>adding that "120 trucks and vehicles will arrive on April 11 in
>Belgrade.
>   "We are coordinating with the Patriarchate. April 11 is
>Easter."
>   The aid is worth slightly more than one million dollars,
>financed by the state and the Orthodox Church, Shoigu said. Russia
>has itself received humanitarian aid to help the poor survive the
>country's economic crisis.
>   Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov earlier confirmed that the
>effort to prepare packages of medical supplies and foodstuffs such
>as sugar, salt, vegetable oil and baby food, was in full swing.
>   "We are not just planning to (organise aid shipments), we
>already are," Primakov told ITAR-TASS news agency.
>   Despite Russia's overt support for its traditional Slav friend
>Belgrade in its confrontation with NATO over Kosovo, Shoigu said
>that one aid shipment would be routed into Macedonia, where an
>estimated 115,000 Albanian refugees have fled from Kosovo.
>   Most Serbs and Macedonians are Orthodox Christians like
>Russians.
>   Another shipment will be routed through Belgrade to Montenegro,
>where around 30,000 refugees have fled since NATO air strikes over
>Yugoslavia prompted reprisals by Serb forces against ethnic
>Albanians in Kosovo province.
>   Russia has proven a vocal critic of the NATO air strikes, and
>Primakov again insisted on Monday that the Atlantic alliance reverse
>its "tragic mistake."
>   "The most important thing now is to end NATO's military
>campaign," Primakov said. "The barbaric attacks by NATO are a tragic
>mistake."
>   "They do not only fail to stabilize the situation in the
>Balkans, but lead to directly the opposite results," he said, adding
>that the attacks could put the security of all of Europe under
>threat.
>   Russia has signalled its displeasure at NATO's actions over
>Yugoslavia by dispatching a spy ship to the Mediterranean to monitor
>the escalating conflict, but has remained tight-lipped over reported
>calls from Belgrade for military aid.
>   In addition to the aid and the spy ship, Russian leftist
>parliamentarians were also due to head for the region in a second
>such mission in as many weeks.
>   State Duma speaker Gennady Seleznyov and Nikolai Ryzhkov,
>another leftist leader and former Soviet prime minister, were due to
>arrive in the Yugoslav capital on Tuesday, ITAR-TASS reported.
>   A previous delegation held talks with Yugoslav President
>Slobodan Milosevic on Friday.
>   Despite its traditional Slavic ties, not everyone in Russia is
>pulling behind Milosevic in his battle with NATO and the Kosovar
>Albanians.
>   A nationalist organisation in the Russian Moslem republic of
>Tatarstan has called for volunteers to enlist to go and fight
>alongside ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, the Interfax agency said.
>   Volunteer recruitment centres for Russians wanting to sign up to
>the Serb cause have been set up across the country since NATO began
>the operation on Yugoslavia on March 24.
>
>


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DAMASCUS, Syria, April 5 (UPI) -- Syrian President Hafez Assad and his
>Cypriot counterpart Glafcos Clerides have discussed the deterioration in
>the Balkan region.
>        Presidential spokesman Jibran Kourieh said today that Assad and
>Clerides held talks in the Syrian coastal city of Lattakia that focused
>on regional developments as well as bilateral, regional and
>international issues.
>        Kourieh said the talks tackled ``the dangers resulting from the
>deterioration in the Balkan region...and their (two leaders) evaluation
>was identical.''
>        The talks were attended by Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa.
>        In Khartoum, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Othman called for
>ending the NATO airstrikes on Yugoslavia and for finding a peaceful
>solution to the Kosovo crisis.
>        Othman said his country backs Russia's efforts in achieving a
>``peaceful settlement and restoring peace in the Balkans.''
>        Speaking after a meeting with the Russian ambassador in Khartoum
>Sunday night, he said the NATO airstrikes have harmed the Albanians in
>Kosovo and forced their exodus and at the same time resulted in the
>destruction of Yugoslavia.
>
>


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NEW YORK, April 5 (AFP) - Serbian acts in Kosovo do not
>constitute "genocide," despite the horrifying treatment of Kosovar
>Albanians, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel said in an
>editorial in Monday's edition of Newsweek.
>   "In my view, genocide is the intent and the desire to annihilate
>a people. This is not the case here," said Wiesel, who is also a
>Holocaust survivor.
>   "As early as 1992, media coverage of the war in Bosnia
>mistakenly compared Serbian "ethnic cleansing" to the Holocaust,"
>Wiesel said, referring to comparison between the prison camps in
>Banja Luka to the death camp in Auschwitz.
>   "The Holocaust was conceived to annihilate the last Jew on the
>planet. Does anyone believe that Milosevic and his accomplices
>serioulsy planned to exterminate all the Bosnians, all the
>Albanians, all the Muslims in the world?" he asked rhetorically.
>   "I saw the prison camps at Banja Luka; the conditions were
>deplorable and the prisoners terrified. But it was not Auschwitz,"
>the 1986 Nobel Prize winner said. "Victims were taken there to be
>turned into ashes."
>   The conflict in Kosovo "demands action, not comparison," Wiesel
>stated.
>   He called Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic a criminal who
>will be judged for crimes against humanity when the Kosovo war
>ends.
>   "Like all nightmares, this too will come to an end and then
>Milosevic's actions in Bosnia will also be remembered and he will
>appear before an international tribunal," Wiesel said.
>   "That hope must be part of his victims' victory," he concluded.
>
>


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WASHINGTON, April 5 (UPI) -- President Clinton downplayed but did not
>deny a report contending top Pentagon officials voiced deep reservations
>about his Kosovo policy, including his plan to rely on NATO airstrikes.
>        Questioned at a White House briefing today, Clinton acknowledged that
>Secretary of State William Cohen and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Hugh
>Shelton ``report to me faithfully the views of'' U.S. military planners.
>        ``They have performed that faithfully,'' Clinton said, ``so that when
>there is a difference of opinion, when there is even a nuance, they have
>let me know that, as far as I know, in every important matter.
>        ``Ultimately, after all, I am responsible for all these decisions and
>must bear the burden of them regardless,'' Clinton said.
>        The Washington Post quoted sources as saying that U.S. military
>chiefs, in the weeks before NATO launched its air campaign against
>Serbian targets, warned that bombing alone likely would not achieve U.S.
>political aims.
>        The Post said the Pentagon's senior four-star officers had argued
>that Clinton should use more economic sanctions and other non-military
>steps to force Yugoslavia to make peace in Kosovo before resorting to
>the bombing campaign.
>        It said they also complained about what they saw as the lack of a
>long-term vision for the Balkans, and said Shelton and other top
>commanders challenged the ``domino theory'' put forth by Secretary of
>State Madeleine Albright contending that the loss of Kosovo would spread
>political instability in Europe.
>        Clinton avoided commenting on such specifics, but he said,
>``Everybody's first choice was diplomacy'' and added, ``No one was blind
>to the difficulties of having to carry forward with any kind of military
>sanctions.''
>        He then paraphrased Albright's response during a weekend television
>interview, saying, ``We have a lot of tough questions to answer about
>this operation, and I am quite sure that we cannot answer every one to
>everyone's satisfaction.
>        ``But I would far rather be standing here answering these questions,
>with these people, talking about this endeavor,'' Clinton said, ``than I
>would to be standing here having you ask me why we are permitting a
>wholesale ethnic slaughter and ethnic cleansing and the creation of
>hundreds of thousands of refugees, and not lifting a finger to do
>anything about it.''
>        Clinton said that ultimately, ``everyone agreed that, while there
>were problems with the air campaign, including the weather, which all of
>you saw last week, that this was the best available option for us to
>maximize the possibility of achieving our mission of standing up against
>ethnic cleansing, fulfilling NATO's commitment, getting the refugees to
>be able to go back home, live in peace and security and have some
>autonomy.''
>        Clinton then walked from the podium and insisted any further
>questions on the matter be handled by Cohen, who said Pentagon chiefs
>``looked at the options'' and recognized the limits of air power.
>        But, Cohen said, ``They came to the conclusion unanimously that the
>only option available, other than sitting on the sidelines, was to
>pursue the air campaign, given its limitations.''
>        Cohen added, ``There was no doubt or division on that ultimate
>decision.''
>        The Post said the Pentagon chiefs worried that the American public
>was not adequately prepared to accept a prolonged air operation, and
>they were also wary of committing ground troops to an open-ended
>mission.
>        It said U.S. military leaders have been frustrated by the slow pace
>of the bombing, blaming it both on the bad weather and on the need to
>conduct the war by consensus among all 19 NATO members.
>
>


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>   BELGRADE, April 5 (AFP) - NATO bombings of two Yugoslav army
>barracks in the southern Serbian town of Vranje on Monday left two
>dead and 23 injured, the official Tanjug news agency reported.
>   Tanjug did not specify whether the victims were civilians or
>army personnel.
>   Eleven projectiles pounded Vranje in late morning, causing
>serious damage to the barracks, the DIV cigarette factory, a bus
>station and several houses.
>   Vranje also came under NATO attack on Friday.
>   The foreign ministry separately said in a statement that 29
>bodies were found in Kosovo on March 31 and April 1 in several
>villages.
>   The ministry accused "terrorists" of carrying out the attacks --
>Belgrade's code word for the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) fighters.
>
>


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BONN, April 5 (AFP) - Some 50,000 people took part in
>demonstrations in over 150 towns across Germany during the Easter
>weekend against the NATO attacks on Yugoslavia.
>   The pacifist "Easter Marches", which were strongly attended in
>the 1960s, 70s and 80s, and during the Gulf War, had been in decline
>in recent years.
>   However the war over Kosovo prompted an upsurge this year, with
>notably big demonstrations in Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Nuremberg,
>Cologne, Essen and Stuttgart.
>
>


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Christian Science Monitor

>Airstrikes prompt calls for aid to Serbs from some, closer NATO
>ties
>   inothers.
>   It took just two weeks of NATO airstrikes to achieve what Russia
>has desired for seven years: to woo Ukraine back into its bearish
>arms.
>   Since the Soviet Union broke up in December 1991, East and West
>madly courted the buffer country that so strategically borders Russia
>to the East and Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the West.
>   To gain the advantage, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
>Washington poured in money to the point that Ukraine is among the top
>recipients of US assistance.
>   But Kiev's traditional suspicion of Moscow has mostly evaporated
>with the bombing of fellow Orthodox Christian Slavs in Serb-dominated
>Yugoslavia.
>   It is sidling closer to Russia along the deep fault line that
>emerged among the Soviet Union's 15 former states.
>   ``The US never really had Ukraine,'' says Vadim Kortunov, president
>of the Russian Scientific Foundation, a research center in Moscow.
>``And now the positions of Ukraine and Russia are closer than
>before.''
>   Assistance to Serbs?
>   Where the 15 countries stand on Yugoslavia has become of increased
>importance in recent days, amid speculation that NATO may decide to
>send ground troops to Kosovo.
>   Then, Russia would most likely feel obliged to supply advisers or
>even equipment to the Serbs.
>   Siding with NATO
>   On a tally sheet, however, NATO so far is ahead in winning former
>Soviet hearts and minds.
>   The three Baltic states - Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia - are more
>eager than ever to join the military alliance, although they are
>keeping quiet in hope that the Russian giant next door doesn't notice.
>   A summit in Moscow last Friday of the other 12 former Soviet
>countries, now the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), showed
>just how loose that alliance is. The only mutual ground was a joint
>appeal for a peaceful resolution of the crisis in Kosovo.
>   But that's where the unity ends.
>   Russia can only hope for complete backing from fellow
>Slav-dominated Belarus, with whom Moscow has been moving toward closer
>unity. Belarus has taken the hardest line of all, calling for direct
>military assistance to the Serbs.
>   Russia could expect support too from tiny Muslim-dominated
>Tajikistan, where it has been aiding the secular government in a civil
>war against mainly Islamist insurgents.
>   However, a contrarian position has been embraced by Azerbaijan and
>Georgia, which long ago stopped believing that Russia was a guarantor
>of their territorial integrity.
>   Azerbaijan remains locked in a bitter territorial dispute with
>neighboring Armenia over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, while
>Georgia is trying to cope with internal separatist movements.
>   The duo, along with Uzbekistan have dropped out of the CIS security
>cooperation treaty.
>   Moreover, Azerbaijan has offered to send troops to NATO, while
>Georgian officials say President Eduard Shevardnadze will attend the
>alliance's jubilee summit later this month to show his country's
>support.
>   But the allegiance of Ukraine's citizens is arguably more valuable,
>because of its location.
>   Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma conferred with his Rus-sian
>counterpart Boris Yeltsin last week in Moscow to coordinate positions
>on Yugoslavia.
>   ``[Mr. Yeltsin and Mr. Kuchma] synchronized their watches
>concerning their steps,'' Sergei Prikhodko, deputy Russian
>presidential chief of staff, told reporters.
>   Both men are trying to act as go-betweens for NATO and Yugoslavia
>while resisting nationalist calls at home to get militarily involved
>in the conflict. Both countries are counting on IMF and other foreign
>money to avoid economic disaster.
>   Eye to elections
>   Kuchma is trying to keep relations good with NATO, leaving the door
>open to joining, while responding to grass-roots support for the
>Serbs. The pressure is intense, with general elections looming in
>October.
>   As in Russia, Yugoslavia has become a campaign issue on which the
>communist-led opposition is trying to capitalize - and this concerns
>Washington.
>   ``The Americans want to prevent Ukraine's alliance with Russia,''
>says Alexander Vakhrameyev, an analyst with the Center for Ethnic,
>Political, and Regional Research in Moscow. ``Ukraine isn't
>interesting for any other reason.''
>
>


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WASHINGTON, April 5 (UPI) -- Pentagon intelligence sources say
>(Monday) Yugoslav MiG-29s violated the airspace of Hungary and the Czech
>Republic this weekend, causing a U.S. aircraft conducting psychological
>operations nearby to divert from the area.
>        The sources said an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS)
>aircraft tracked the MiG-29s as the U.S. psychological operations, or
>``psyops,'' plane the Commando Solo moved away for fear of being
>attacked.
>        ``Psyops'' range from dropping leaflets to jamming or otherwise
>interfering with public communications in the target country.
>        Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said today he was unaware of the
>incident, but other officials, speaking on condition of anonymity,
>confirmed it happened.
>
>


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BELGRADE, April 5 (AFP) - NATO warplanes bombed the Serbian
>cities of Nis in the southeast and Novi Sad in the north late
>Monday, the official Tanjug news agency reported.
>   At least five projectiles pounded Nis and the surrounding area
>at around 9:30 p.m. (1930 GMT), the news agency said. The
>pro-government television station Politika reported that the Nis
>airport was hit.
>   Nis, Serbia's second city, is located about 230 kilometers (155
>miles) south of Belgrade.
>   Two projectiles exploded in the center of Novi Sad, located some
>70 kilometers (45 miles) north of Belgrade, at around 10:20 p.m.
>(2020 GMT), according to Tanjug.
>
>


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WASHINGTON, April 5 (AFP) - US officials say they still want a
>Kosovo peace deal, but they may not want a deal with the devil they
>now see in Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
>   Washington insists giving the Kosovars limited autonomy in the
>Serbian province is still a viable plan but admits the brutalized
>ethnic Albanian refugees may be loathe to return to Milosevic's
>rule.
>   There is also growing a view that Milosevic may be unfit for the
>negotiating table.
>   "We have seen this kind of evil conduct before in this century,"
>Clinton said Monday in a clear reference to Adolf Hilter.
>   "We know we are up against a dictator who has shown time and
>again that he would rather rule over rubble than not rule at all,"
>he said.
>   Concern here is also mounting that once Milosevic has made a
>significant land grab he will try to cut a new deal to ensure he
>keeps it.
>   Clinton warned him Monday, however, that if NATO does bomb
>Milosevic back to the bargaining table "more empty promises and
>token half measures won't do the job."
>   His vice president, Al Gore, has also engaged in the
>name-calling.
>   "This man is evil and we need to call it by its right name," he
>said on CNN Friday.
>   The official line Monday was to stick by the plan to see the
>Rambouillet peace agreement implemented while suggesting Milosevic
>may not be the one to do it.
>   "It's becoming increasingly difficult," White House spokesman
>Joe Lockhart said when asked about negotiating with Milosevic.
>   "But I'm not willing to stand here to say that we can't work out
>some sort of agreement," he added.
>   And this from the State Department's mouthpiece James Rubin: "It
>is harder and harder to see how we can sit down at the table with
>somebody who is at least politically responsible for these
>horrendous and barbaric acts."
>   But he too was reluctant to declare Rambouillet dead.
>   "I wouldn't want rule it out in the interest of achieving the
>peace," he said.
>   Though Washington has yet to brand Milosevic as a war criminal
>explicitly, Rubin said there is now evidence of crimes against
>humanity in Kosovo that will be turned over to the International War
>Crimes Tribunal in The Hague.
>    With the NATO air campaign appeared headed for failure and
>Clinton still insisting he won't deploy ground troops, calls are
>mounting here for Milosevic's ouster and hauling him before the war
>crimes court.
>   "It's time he made an appearance at the Hague," said Ken Allard,
>military expert with the Center for Strategic and International
>Studies.
>   But others caution taking Milosevic out is easier said than done
>militarily and perhaps not very effective diplomatically.
>   "Too simple by a long shot," former secretary of state Lawrence
>Eagleburger wrote in a New York Times editorial.
>   "Serb nationalism is the real ruler here. Whoever would follow
>Mr., Milosevic would certainly be just as bad," he concluded.
>   But the harsh US words may harden positions and paint the
>administration into a corner, said American University foreign
>policy expert Mitch Hammer.
>   "As the situation escalates and he becomes more demonized, it
>does become more difficult to look for peaceful options for a
>settlement," he said.
>   Hammer predicted Milosevic may still feel the sting of the NATO
>air strikes and bend.
>   "He will accept conditions that may not have been acceptable
>previously," he said.
>   Milosevic opposed the Rambouillet agreement drafted in February
>which the Kosovars signed, chiefly because it would deploy 28,000
>peacekeepers on Yugoslav soil.
>   And Hammer said Clinton should keep his diplomatic options open
>while pursuing its military aims.
>   "The United States will engage in a kind of a two-track approach
>which is to demonstrate resolve and at the same time offer an
>opportunity for dialogue that has to involve some face-saving
>mechanisms for both sides," he said.
>
>


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>   WASHINGTON, April 5 (AFP) - Intense pressure to "win" Kosovo has
>US President Bill Clinton scrambling to patch together a new, more
>effective NATO campaign -- and redefine exactly what victory is.
>   Stung on all sides by criticism after nearly two weeks of air
>strikes have failed even to slow Yugoslav President Slobodan
>Milosevic, Clinton  was on the defensive Monday.
>   "Everybody's first choice was diplomacy," the US leader told
>reporters when asked about the controversy. "When the talks failed,
>we had a series of difficult choices. In the end, everybody agreed
>that ... our military campaign was the best available option to show
>aggressive actions."
>   A Newsweek poll out Monday showed 55 percent think there is no
>clear US strategy and 60 percent said Clinton should have considered
>ground troops.
>   And the number and caliber of Clinton's critics swelled over the
>weekend to include even Clinton's own former secretary of state
>Warren Christopher.
>   In an implicit rebuke to Clinton for ruling out ground forces,
>Christopher, writing in a Washington Post editorial Sunday, called
>for stationing troops at the ready and to "make it plain that no
>option has been foreclosed."
>   The press is also flooded with grumbling leaks from the Pentagon
>that military aides were ignored when they warned against an
>exclusive air campaign.
>   But Monday Clinton insisted that while there was a debate, his
>military advisers were on board.
>   "When there is a difference of opinion, when there is even a
>nuance, they have to let me know that, as far as I know, in every
>important matter," he noted.
>   Defense Secretary William Cohen backed him up, pointing out that
>military chiefs "came to the conclusion unanimously, that the only
>option available, other than sitting on the sidelines, was to pursue
>the air campaign, given its limitations."
>   Clinton also restated US conditions for an end to the NATO air
>campaign, return of ethnic Albanian refugees to Kosovo, withdrawal
>of Serbian security forces, deployment of an international security
>force and self-government for Kosovo.
>   "Mr Milosevic has created a humanitarian disaster in Kosovo. He
>can end it today by stopping the killing. He could end the bombing,"
>he said.
>   Publicly Clinton insists he has no plans for ground troops, that
>the air strikes will work given more time and that the Rambouillet
>agreement for an autonomous Kosovo is still viable.
>   To that end, he has intensified the assault, targeting ever-more
>critical sites and adding two dozen Apache attack helicopters into
>the mix.
>   But the lawyerly president is still leaving his options open
>through carefully formulating his goals.
>   His objective has not been defeating Milosevic full stop but
>rather to "degrade" his military, a hazier and more achievable
>goal.
>   The script US officials are reading from says Clinton "has no
>intention" of deploying ground troops, signaling a possible change
>in plans if necessary.
>   Clinton, said to live and die by the polls, may be waiting to
>see whether the Serbs' capture of three US soldiers and the
>refugees' horror stories will make ground troops more palatable to
>the American public.
>   On Friday the president said for the first time the Kosovo peace
>deal may need renegotiating, hinting that the Kosovars may have to
>be repatriated through the use of force and not in the peaceful
>environment envisioned in the Rambouillet agreement.
>   A partitioning of the Serb province, as Bosnia was under the
>Dayton accord, experts say, may be just the kind of face-saving
>endgame Clinton is seeking.
>
>


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The Times,  April 5 1999

             Cook is accused of lying


   JOHN BRUTON, the former Irish Prime
   Minister, last night accused Robin Cook,
   the Foreign Secretary, of not telling the
   truth about the refugee crisis prompted by
   attacks on Yugoslavia.

   Mr Bruton, the leader of Ireland's Fine
   Gael main opposition party, said Mr Cook
   was "simply not making a truthful statement
   when he said no one could have foreseen a
   refugee crisis on the scale of the one now
   happening in the Balkans following the Nato
   decision to bomb Yugoslavia while refusing
   to commit ground troops under any
   circumstances".

   The former Dublin premier added: "He is
   wrong. The present refugee crisis was not
   only foreseeable, it was foreseen. It is
   profoundly dishonest to pretend otherwise."

   Mr Bruton said he had predicted the crisis
   before the bombing, and pointed to a
   prediction made in Berlin by the Swedish
   opposition leader and former Bosnia
   mediator Carl Bildt, who predicted one
   million refugees within two weeks of the
   start of bombing.


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The Independent, 4-6-99

War in The Balkans - Dying, as the
West bickers

By Marcus Tanner

REFUGEES FROM Kosovo are dying of
disease and exhaustion while Western
governments wrangle over plans to fly
victims from the war zone.

More than 30 bodies were taken from
the squalid refugee camp on the
Macedonian frontier yesterday as
border guards donned gas masks to
shut out the sickening stench from
packed crowds waiting to leave
Yugoslavia. Last night 85,000
refugees were still marooned in two
cold, muddy stretches of no-man's
land. Many are succumbing to disease.
"We need to get these people out,"
said an UNHCR spokeswoman. "It is
terrible there."

With the total number of Kosovo
refugees close to 850,000 - of whom
more than 360,000 have fled since
Nato strikes began 12 days ago -
there are clear signs of panic in
Western capitals over the scale of
the disaster. Governments met in
Geneva yesterday and agreed to move
refugees out of the region by bus and
plane, but Clare Short, the Secretary
of State for International
Development, said talk of a huge air-
lift of refugees was irrelevant.

Speaking after touring refugee camps
in Macedonia, she said: "Thousands
and thousands of people on the other
side of the border are not being fed,
babies are being born, people are
becoming sick. If everyone is in a
tizz in London talking about getting
people out of the region, it's
irrelevant to the crisis we have
here."

The European Union aid commissioner,
Emma Bonino, agreed, warning that
planes could not take more than a
fraction of the refugees to safety
and might clash with Nato's need to
keep the airspace open for bombing
raids.

Western leaders are scrambling to
co-ordinate a three-pronged policy on
refugees, flying out a few, keeping
most close to home and continuing the
air campaign in an effort to force
Belgrade to let the refugees return
home.

Nato pledged to step up the air
campaign last night after hitting air
force, army and police headquarters
near Belgrade at dawn yesterday.

But clear differences have emerged
between the United States, which
strongly backs airlifts, and the
Europeans. The French Foreign
Minister, Hubert Vedrine, has said
evacuating large numbers would be "a
victory" for Belgrade, while Germany,
which housed 350,000 refugees during
the Bosnian war, has made clear it
does not want a repeat. Italy, which
took in large numbers of refugees
from Albania's own civil unrest, also
wants to limit the flow.

Kosovo Albanian nationalists have
complained that if refugees were
dispersed across the world, pressure
on Serbia to allow them back would
evaporate. Albania said it would
refuse to let refugees leave, as that
would show complicity in "ethnic
cleansing".

Yesterday Washington finally pushed
humanitarian aid up the order of its
priorities and announced the
formation of a special group to
co-ordinate the US effort. President
Bill Clinton said the group would
lead a concerted US aid effort, to be
codenamed "Sustained Hope".

Talk of airlifts is directed partly
at restive Macedonia, where the local
Slav majority bitterly resents the
Albanian influx and wants guarantees
that the refugees will be moved on.
The Skopje government said it would
not accept any more unless it knows
they will be found shelter elsewhere.
But Robin Cook, the Foreign
Secretary, needs to placate Macedonia
if his plan to set up a safe haven or
"sanctuary" for 100,000 refugees,
patrolled by Nato troops, is to get
off the ground.

Last night saw the first of six
planes bound for Corlu airbase in
western Turkey leave Skopje airport,
Macedonia. About 155 refugees were
dispatched on the first flight, in
reportedly chaotic scenes.

Until the aircraft took off for
Turkey, Skopje airport was largely
idle yesterday, leading Macedonia to
accuse the West of reneging on its
promises.

"The air bridge did not start
functioning because the countries
which promised to accept the refugees
did not issue permits for the planes
to land," one official said. UN
workers in Skopje said they feared
that the operation may take days to
prepare. By then the numbers may have
rocketed. By the end of today the UN
expects the number of refugees to
climb from 360,000 to 430,000.


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The independent, 4-6-99

War in The Balkans - China accepts
high-risk role

By Teresa Poole in Peking

China's Prime Minister, Zhu Rongji,
flies to the United States today,
with Peking vehemently opposed to
Nato action in Kosovo and criticising
interference in Yugoslavia's internal
affairs. In the run-up to his
departure to California, Mr Zhu
warned that military intervention set
a "very bad precedent. All internal
matters should be left for a country
itself to resolve," he said. "If we
should refuse to recognise a
country's sovereignty, I'm afraid
that would lead to a world war."

The mouthpiece of China's army, the
Liberation Daily, threw its weight
behind China's strongly pro-Serbian
coverage of the crisis yesterday.
"Nato will soon learn how hard it is
to dismount when riding a tiger," it
said, "and may compound error upon
error until it finally sends in
troops."

Media coverage has concentrated on
the suffering of the Serbs, blamed
Nato for the refugee crisis, and
ignored Serb "ethnic cleansing" of
the Kosovars. The situation has
parallels with China's difficulties
over Taiwan and Tibet and possible
future US involvement in any conflict
between Peking and Taiwan. China has
never relinquished its right to use
military force to secure
reunification with Taiwan.

China considered cancelling Mr Zhu's
trip in protest over Kosovo, but
decided to go ahead given the already
sour state of Sino-US relations. Even
before, ties were mired in acrimony
over alleged Chinese nuclear spying,
a crackdown on mainland dissidents
and the burgeoning trade deficit. Up
until recent days, hopes had been
pinned on a breakthrough in
negotiations over China's entry into
the World Trade Organisation, but
last-minute talks failed to secure a
deal.

"The US domestic political climate is
so hostile right now to China that he
is walking into a snakepit," said
Professor David Shambaugh, a China
specialist at George Washington
University. He described Mr Zhu's
visit as "high risk. He is going to
be dogged by demonstrations across
the country and depending on how he
answers questions on sensitive issues
such as Tibet, human rights, Taiwan,
those demonstrations may grow."


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The Independent, 4-6-99

War in The Balkans - Catch 1999: 'If
you bomb, Milosevic is stronger; if
you stop, he will have won'

By Robert Fisk in Belgrade

If you want to talk to the free press
in Belgrade, hold your breath. The
cigarette smoke in Radomir Diklic's
cluttered office is as thick as fog,
great swirling blue wreaths of it
that have the ladies banging open the
windows for air above Srpskih Vladara
street. Mr Diklic smokes himself, of
course, a small agitated man with a
pot-belly and uncombed hair who
breathes through his cigarette until
I am coughing over my notes. But
there is a lot to cough about.

"We had our friends from the Western
embassies here," he says. "We had a
lot of contacts and we warned them
that the day the first bomb drops,
they could count on the fact that
everyone will be for the defence of
their country. When our country is
attacked, we must defend it - that's
how we are educated. We told the
diplomats this before the war and
they reported this back to their
governments. But they said their
advice was overruled by their
governments. And you people - Nato -
did a good job for Slobodan
Milosevic. It was the best present he
could be given. For ordinary people,
Milosevic is now a god; when you
bombed, he became a symbol of our
country - which is awful."

Mr Diklic stops for breath; we all do
as we sit round the heavily scratched
round wooden table in the "Beta" news
agency office, virtually the only bit
left of Yugoslavia's free press. A
new cigarette flips into the Diklic
mouth, a new cloud moves over his
face. "Look at Milosevic's position
now. If there's no bombing of
civilian targets, he says 'That's
good for me'. If there are no Nato
ground troops, he says 'That's good
for me'. If there's only bombing with
'collateral' damage, well he says,
'That's quite good for me - and it
will give me space to solve the
problem of the KLA.' That's it, do
you see? You bomb and we can 'clean'
out the south and push out the KLA."

Mr Diklic is a cynical man - he
deserves to be - and believes the
Americans are bad partners for Europe
in solving European problems,
especially in the Balkans. "They took
the side of the KLA after the KLA was
almost destroyed last year. They
created [KLA chief Hashem] Thaqi.
They recreated the KLA and pushed
aside [Kosovo political leader
Ibrahim] Rugova. And when the
Americans went to Rambouillet, there
was cheating. [US Secretary of State
Madeleine] Albright gave a piece of
paper to Thaqi saying, 'The Americans
will have nothing against a
referendum after three years', and as
for the disarmament of the KLA, [US
envoy Christopher] Hill said America
would consider the KLA had disarmed
'if we cannot see your arms' . The
moment the first bombs dropped and
the KLA attacked the Serbs under the
bombs, they were a Fifth Column - and
there is no mercy for fifth
columnists."

The Diklic view of Kosovo is
comparatively simple. President
Milosevic did a favour to Rugova by
almost destroying the KLA and now he
is putting Rugova back in the saddle.
"Milosevic needs Rugova - because
Rugova signed the Rambouillet
agreement and Rugova is now making
appeals for peace. Officially, for
the Albanians, Rugova is still
'president' of Kosovo. And he met
Milosevic last week - that film of
his meeting was real. He signed a
document. Nato is not telling the
truth about this being old film. Back
in October, Rugova sat on the right
of Milosevic. This time, he was
sitting on the left. Rugova was
here."

Diklic does not regard Rugova as a
corrupt man - more a tool. Had Rugova
not vetoed Albanian participation in
elections, Milosevic would have lost
23 Kosovo Serb deputies in
parliament. "If the Albanians had
voted, they would have got Milosevic
out - with 1,200,000 Albanian votes,
they would have been able to create
the government of Serbia, with an
opposition."

Betrayal is a word that often crops
up in Diklic's thoughts. Vuk
Draskovic, the leader of the Serbian
Renewal Party (SPO) and one of the
heroes of the opposition revolt two
years ago, is condemned through the
cigarette smoke as both vain and
prepared to deal with Milosevic in
return for the post of
vice-president. "Milosevic destroyed
his potential enemies inside the
opposition by keeping the SPO and the
Radicals in a permanent fight while
Vuk entered a coalition government
'to save Serbia'."

No, Diklic says, Nato is not winning
its war. "The Yugoslav army are quite
professional - remember that our
country under Tito was prepared for
50 years for attacks. They know how
to defend every single stone in this
country and we learnt the lessons of
the Iraqis - we kept our radars
switched off. These buildings and
barracks that Nato bombs are all
empty. The Americans cannot imagine
soldiers who do not go back to their
barracks to wash and eat each night.
Our soldiers can sleep for a month in
the woods - we are not a very
hygienic country."

Diklic grins. But he has little to
smile about. Since the B-92 radio
station was closed down by Milosevic
- on the spurious grounds that its
transmitters were stronger than
agreed under licence - the staff of
"Beta" news are waiting for
government lawyers to turn up at
their smoke-shrouded offices. Diklic
wants an end to the bombing. "If this
goes on, all the small roots of
democracy here will be completely
destroyed and Yugoslavia will become
a kind of little Korea, although
we'll never starve. There will be no
peace in the Balkans unless there is
a democratic Serbia. And with the
bombing, there can be no democracy."

But if it ends? "If it finishes
quickly, Milosevic will have to agree
on something over Kosovo. And when
the war stops, all of us who think
differently to Milosevic, we will
start to fight again. One day,
someone will have to explain how and
why all this happened."


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The Independent, 4-6-99

War in The Balkans - In exile,
Pristina's officially dead have come
alive

By Gjeraqina Tuhina in Skopje

When I arrived from Kosovo, I
expected to find the Macedonia I have
always known, the Macedonia I saw on
my last visit a few weeks ago. But
instead I saw Pristina. Literally,
throughout Macedonia, Tetovo,
Gostivar, Kicevo and especially
Skopje, the capital of Kosovo, the
people of Kosovo are now in
Macedonia.

Everywhere I went I saw friends from
home, some I hadn't seen in a week,
some I hadn't seen in a long time.
The streets belong to another town,
but the feeling was that you were
walking in the middle of Pristina. At
first, it looked wonderful, and it
seemed, despite the horrific
situation of those trapped on the
border, that people were even having
fun. The cafes were full, with
everyone you knew. I saw many of my
friends.

And the people in Macedonia - that
is, the Albanians in Macedonia - are
so welcoming. The Macedonians talk
about "changing the demographics" of
the country, and are in a bad mood:
you can feel the tension. But the
Albanians - they offer the Kosovars
so much hospitality it hurts. Most of
all it is a time when we can be sure
who is alive. We don't speak about
the dead yet, because nothing can be
confirmed. But least we know who is
alive, because we have seen each
other.

For me, the best was seeing many of
my journalist colleagues, whom I
hadn't seen for at least a week. And
of these, the most important was
BatoN Haxhiu, the Koha Ditore editor
whom everyone thought was dead. I
first saw him in the huge queue at
the border. I recognised his car and
his registration plate, seven
kilometres back within Yugoslav
territory. But I never thought it
would be him. Of course, he was still
officially dead, so obviously he was
terrified, and wanted to hide. There
were a lot of rumours about Serbian
agents and no one felt safe until
they got through the border. When I
finally recognised him I went crazy.
I wanted to jump and kiss him. But
the look from his eyes was clear: you
didn't see me.

The next day, when we finally met
again, we just cried and cried. He
just smiled.

But just below this sense of
carnival, people cry in PristinaWe
are still in shock. We are too proud
to admit that we are refugees. People
are using new expressions, like
"deportees". Anything to avoid
admitting what has really happened.

In many of the cafes, people are
seriously talking about how they will
be back in their homes within two
weeks. They believe that Nato will
continue and win the war, and they
will then be able to go back. They
are even impatient.

But really all they have is this hope
- for me, I'm afraid, a too hopeful
hope, a dream. They want these two
weeks to be something temporary,
itself a dream. They want to pretend
that it didn't happen and that it can
all be reversed. Even though we have
no organisation anymore. Even though
many are dead. Even though we arehere
in Macedonia. To remember, it's
enough just to spend half an hour
back at the border. To see the huge
numbers of refugees trapped there and
waiting in the cold, you feel sick.
And when you actually sit with people
at the cafes and talk to them, the
stories are all the same: the
policemen, the expulsions, the
trains.

Others have even tried to call home.
I spoke to seven or eight friends who
rang up their houses. Again, always
the same. Someone answers speaking
Serbian. They ask, "Is this the house
of family so-and-so." The reply is
clear: "I don't know whose it was
before, but it's mine now."

So despite the atmosphere in the
streets, something is wrong.
Something doesn't fit. We know what
it is. But we don't want to think
about it.

* Gjeraqina Tuhina is a journalist
for the Institute for War & Peace
Reporting. IWPR's Balkan Crisis
Reports are available at:
www.iwpr.net


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BETA DAILY NEWS April 5

NATO Hits Downtown Belgrade, Two More Bridges, at Least Four Civilians Killed
-- SFOR Blows up Part of Belgrade-Bar Railway Leading through Bosnia --
Yugoslav Government Calls for Urgent Session of U.N. Security Council -- Five
Western Countries Issue Joint Statement on Kosovo -- Belgrade Court Appoints
New Director of Radio B92

FR Yugoslavia

NATO BOMBS DOWNTOWN BELGRADE, HITS TWO MORE BRIDGES. Over
the weekend NATO forces carried out the most large-scale and strongest air raids
against Yugoslavia thus far. Central Belgrade was hit for the first time since
the
beginning of NATO's bombardment of Yugoslavia, two bridges in Vojvodina
province were destroyed, and at least four civilians were killed between April 3
and
April 4 in air raids throughout the country.

In the night between April 2 and April 3, at roughly 12:45 a.m., NATO cruise
missiles struck the Serbian and federal interior ministry buildings located in
downtown Belgrade. These buildings are located near Belgrade's main hospital
center and maternity hospital.

Sloboda Bridge in Novi Sad was destroyed by NATO bombs on April 3, at around 8
p.m. According to current data, the bombing killed no one, but seven people were
injured. The bridge across the Danube at Backa Palanka that connects FRY to
Croatia was damaged.

The main heating plant in Belgrade, which provides heating for virtually all of
this
city of two million and is located near residential areas, was bombed in the
night
between April 3 and April 4. The blast killed a worker who was on duty, and
wounded several people.

Also bombed was a Jugopetrol storage facility in Belgrade's Cukarica suburb,
near
the popular sports and recreation center of Ada Ciganlija, and the Police
Academy
building in the suburb of Banjica. The explosions shattered windows on the
Military
Hospital in Belgrade.

A Beopetrol storage facility in Bogutovac near Kraljevo was hit on the same
night,
wounding three people.

The heating and power plant in Pancevo located near an oil refinery was bombed
as
well, killing two and injuring four people.

The Sloboda home appliances factory in Cacak, totally destroyed on March 28 and
March 30 by NATO bombs, was bombed for a second time. According to state
television, the blast killed a 73-year old woman and several people were
wounded.

NATO aircraft attacked the city of Smederevo for the first time, bombing
Jugopetrol facilities and the city's industries. According to the Pristina Media
Center, NATO targeted civilian and military installations in Gnjilane and two
cruise
missiles landed near two villages in Podujevo municipality.

In the night between April 1 and April 2, NATO also hit other targets south of
Belgrade. A NATO projectile hit a house near Kursumlija killing one man and
wounding another. Army barracks in Vranje were bombed, as were numerous
military targets throughout Kosovo.

YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT CALLS FOR URGENT SESSION OF U.N.
SECURITY COUNCIL. On April 4, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia called for an
urgent session of the U.N Security Council, over the several days long NATO
aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, as well as over the fact
that
the international peace forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina-SFOR mined a section of
the Belgrade-Bar railway passing through the territory of Bosnia and
Herzegovina.

The Yugoslav Foreign Ministry described the SFOR acts as the most flagrant
violation of the Dayton Accords in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the
relevant
resolutions of the U.N. Security Council, the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation
reported.

By that act, the SFOR has become completely involved in the NATO aggression
against Yugoslavia, which represents a flagrant violation of international law
and
norms of behavior of the peace forces participating in peace missions, the
statement
of the Yugoslav Foreign Ministry emphasized.

Concerning this incident, the president of the Bosnia and Herzegovina
presidency,
Zivko Radisic, on April 4, sent a letter to the U.N. Secretary General, the
chairman
of the U.N. Security Council and the High Representative for Bosnia and
Herzegovina, calling for an urgent session of the U.N. Security Council, the
Contact
Group, and the Committee for the implementation of peace in Bosnia and
Herzegovina.

FIVE WESTERN COUNTRIES ISSUE JOINT STATEMENT ON KOSOVO. The
foreign ministers of Germany, France, Britain, Italy, and the U.S. adopted on
April
4, a joint statement which indicates that the these five countries have de facto
abandoned their previous requests for a deployment of solely NATO troops in
Kosovo, as well as for Belgrade to sign the peace agreement offered in
Rambouillet.

The portion of the statement related to the Kosovo crisis is as follows:

"The foreign ministers of Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, and the U.S.
have
engaged in regular consultations over the past several days on the situation in
Kosovo and the surrounding region.

In these consultations we agreed that the goal of our governments is a peaceful,
multi-ethnic, and democratic Kosovo where all its inhabitants can live.

This goal can be achieved only if all refugees return and international security
forces
are deployed, followed by a withdrawal of Serbian military, police, and
para-military
forces and the creation of a political framework for Kosovo based on the
Rambouillet agreement."

CONTACT GROUP AND GROUP OF EIGHT TO MEET NEXT WEEK

MILOSEVIC MEETS WITH MINISTERS OF AGRICULTURE AND GOVERNOR
OF NATIONAL BANK OF YUGOSLAVIA

MILOSEVIC TALKS WITH STATE TOP OFFICIALS

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT APPEALS TO ALBANIANS TO STOP NATO

GENERAL PAVKOVIC ABREAST OF PREPARATIONS FOR DEFENSE FROM
POSSIBLE GROUND AGGRESSION

PROTEST CONCERTS OVER NATO AGGRESSION CONTINUE IN BELGRADE

ATTACKS AGAINST SECURITY FORCES IN REGION OF PEC

YUGOSLAV ARMY ACCUSES NATO OF USING CLUSTER BOMBS

BABURIN CONDEMNS ATTACKS AND ANNOUNCES RUSSIA'S ASSISTANCE

MOSCOW RECEIVES PARTS OF STELTH, MILITARY ASSISTANCE TO FRY
POSSIBLE

ATTACKS AGAINST BELGRADE MONSTROUS ACT SAYS STOJILJKOVIC

MONTENEGRIN LEADERSHIP DEMANDS END TO NATO AGGRESSION

MONTENEGRIN LEGISLATURE NOT TO CHANGE ITS STATUS OF
REPUBLIC

BOZIC SAYS THREE U.S. SOLDIERS NOT TO GO TO TRIAL

MORE THAN 350,000 PEOPLE FLEE KOSOVO SINCE THE OUTSET OF NATO
AIR RAIDS

THACI MOBILIZES REFUGEES IN ALBANIA

ALL POLITICAL PARTIES CONDEMN LATEST NATO ATTACK

SERBIAN INFORMATION MINISTRY ON BOMBING OF MEDIA

BELGRADE COURT APPOINTS NEW DIRECTOR OF RADIO B92

DEMOCRACY FALLS VICTIM OF BOMBARDMENT SAYS VERAN MATIC

TV CACAK, OZON RADIO SHUT DOWN

Bosnia-Herzegovina

SFOR BLOWS UP PART OF BELGRADE-BAR RAILWAY LEADING THROUGH
BOSNIA

REPUBLIKA SRPSKA SUPREME DEFENSE COUNCIL CONDEMNS
DESTRUCTION OF BELGRADE-BAR RAILWAY

RS GOVERNMENT TO FINANCE REPAIR SECTION OF BELGRADE-BAR
RAILWAY

DAMAGED PLANE FLIES OVER BANJALUKA

PROTESTS OVER NATO ATTACKS IN REPUBLIKA SRPSKA

Macedonia

GLIGOROV PROMISES TALBOTT MACEDONIA WILL NOT CLOSE
BORDERS FOR REFUGEES

BUSINESS

RMC GROUP SUPPORTS BEOCIN CEMENT FACTORY

AIR BOSNIA LOSES US$250,000 PER MONTH DUE TO NATO ATTACKS

PRESS REVIEW

POLITIKA--MEETING BETWEEN MILOSEVIC AND RUGOVA INTIMATES
PEACEFUL SOLUTION

POLITIKA EKSPRES--PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE OF CLINTON

NOVOSTI--POWERFUL MAYBE, BUT NOT OMNIPOTENT

EVENTS OF THE DAY FOR APRIL 5.

BELGRADE - 11:00 a.m. At Federation Palace, press conference of UNICEF
Belgrade office deputy chief, Dragoslav Popovic, who will present the operative
plan for providing assistance to children under state of war conditions.

BELGRADE -- Noon -- Democratic Party of Serbia press conference.

WEATHER FORECAST FOR APRIL 5

Continental parts of Yugoslavia will see morning fog, with clear skies and light
western winds during the day. Morning temperatures will range between 0 and 6
degrees Celsius inland, with about 10 degrees on the Adriatic coast.

Daytime highs are expected to range between 15 and 20 degrees Celsius.

(END)


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www.Beograd.com

[TRANSLATION]
APRIL 5, 1999 11:40 P.M.
MASSACRE IN ALEKSINAC...

SCORES OF DEAD AND LARGE NUMBER WOUNDED - ALL CIVILIANS

NEARBY THE CIVILIAN QUARTER THERE IS NO ONE MILITARY OBJECT

UNSEEN CRIME AGAINST CIVILIAN POPULATION

IN A FEW HOURS PHOTOS...

THREE MISSILES HIT CIVILIAN QUARTER

HELP IS COMING FROM ALL NEARBY PLACES

BRIDGE IN NOVI SAD TO BOGUJEVO DESTROYED, ANOTHER DAMAGED...

REPETITOR (COMMUNICATION NODE) AT COT DESTROYED

TODAY NO TARGET WAS MILITARY

IF YOU DON'T GET NEXT NEWS, IT WILL MEAN WE ARE HIT TOO....





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[BTW, this information has been confirmed by others able to make contact
with the Decani Monastery over the past few days.  Thank you, God.]


-----------Forwarded Message--------------
>Dear Listmembers,
>Fr. Sava has authorized me to forward his message which I received
>personally from my friend who was in Crna Reka monastery with Fr. Sava a
>
>few days ago.
>
>Sincerely
>Branislav Skrobonja
>
>---------------------------------------------
>Crna Reka Monastery
>April 1, 1999
>
>Dear friends,
>
>I am sorry I am not able to send messages these days. At the moment I am
>
>in Crna Reka Monastery, in the mountains of Southern Serbia where there
>is no telephone (and internet) line and am trying to devote more to
>prayer which we all need so much in these difficult moments.
>
>Therefore various rumors that monks have left Kosovo or similar things,
>thank Lord, are not true and I simply cannot understand how they
>appeared at all. I am in this little hermitage only temporarily,
>according to my personal wish and blessing of my bishop to spend more
>time in prayer and silence which I need in these difficult times. Now I
>cannot imagine what else I could do but pray and be what I am - a monk.
>
>Through various sources I remain in contact with all our monasteries and
>
>our Bishop who is in Prizren at the moment. My brethren in Decani are
>all well as well as all other monastics in Kosovo and Metohija region.
>
>We are all still active in humanitarian help and our Monastery in Decani
>
>remains a safe haven for about 100 refugees for which the brotherhood
>cares.
>
>Of course I regret so much that all this happened. Our bishop and me
>have always been saying that everything should have been done to prevent
>
>the war. But now there are so many suffering people in our country.
>Bishop Artemije has made a very strong appeal to stop the war and
>violence and we all remain firm in our prayers to the Lord to stop the
>war in this part of Europe. Now all we can do is to pray to the Lord to
>enlighten the hearts of the mighty of this world. I assure you that our
>Church remains deeply in compassion with all who suffer in this
>difficult time but we are absolutely not in position to make any
>significant influence on the course of events. I remember well when
>Bishop and me talked to Secretary Albright earlier in February we stated
>
>quite clearly that air raids on Serbia would be a tragic mistake which
>would only make things worse. But wherever we were no one was ready to
>listen to our arguements.
>
>Unfortunately I also cannot tell you any first hand news from the ground
>
>because from my mountain sanctuary I cannot learn anything directly.
>
>I kindly ask you to keep in your prayers all suffering people of this
>country and wish you all the best for the Glorious and Lifegiving Feast
>of Christ's Resurrection.
>
>Let us hope that God's peace and justice will prevail over the forces of
>
>darkness and evil.
>
>I also remain deeply grateful to all of you, my dear friends, for your
>words of support, for your prayers. This only shows that there are many
>people in this world who prefer peace to war and destruction.
>
>CHRIST IS RISEN - TRULY IS RISEN!
>
>In Christ
>Fr. Sava
>
>PS. Since I will not be reading my e-mail for some time, one of my
>friends in Belgrade will receive my messages for me. I would kindly ask
>all journalists who want to make an interview or get a statement that it
>
>is not possible at this moment. I hope you will be able to understand
>this and support us all more with your prayers. My friends on the list
>will continue our work. As soon as it is God's will that I join in again
>
>you will get messages from me too.
>
>I feel obliged to say once again that the views expressed in the news
>reports and messages posted to the Lists are those of the authors and do
>
>not necessarily represent the policy or position of the Serbian Orthodox
>
>Church. Quoting is allowed only if the source of the information is
>specified. Any news or official statements on the list expressing the
>position of the Serbian Orthodox Church are authentic only if I
>personally approve of them.
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------
>END
>
>
>
>--
>Branislav Skrobonja
>Draze Pavlovica 13
>11000 BEOGRAD, SERBIA
>tel (fax) +381 11 766669
>E-mail: yuger@...
>
>
>
>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>eGroups Spotlight:
>"Kosovo-Reports" - Direct reports from Kosovo/Serbia/Yugoslavia.
>http://offers.egroups.com/click/252/0
>
>eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/list/decani
>Free Web-based e-mail groups by eGroups.com
>
>


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Dear Listmembers,
Fr. Sava has authorized me to forward his message which I received
personally from my friend who was in Crna Reka monastery with Fr. Sava a

few days ago.

Sincerely
Branislav Skrobonja

---------------------------------------------
Crna Reka Monastery
April 1, 1999

Dear friends,

I am sorry I am not able to send messages these days. At the moment I am

in Crna Reka Monastery, in the mountains of Southern Serbia where there
is no telephone (and internet) line and am trying to devote more to
prayer which we all need so much in these difficult moments.

Therefore various rumors that monks have left Kosovo or similar things,
thank Lord, are not true and I simply cannot understand how they
appeared at all. I am in this little hermitage only temporarily,
according to my personal wish and blessing of my bishop to spend more
time in prayer and silence which I need in these difficult times. Now I
cannot imagine what else I could do but pray and be what I am - a monk.

Through various sources I remain in contact with all our monasteries and

our Bishop who is in Prizren at the moment. My brethren in Decani are
all well as well as all other monastics in Kosovo and Metohija region.

We are all still active in humanitarian help and our Monastery in Decani

remains a safe haven for about 100 refugees for which the brotherhood
cares.

Of course I regret so much that all this happened. Our bishop and me
have always been saying that everything should have been done to prevent

the war. But now there are so many suffering people in our country.
Bishop Artemije has made a very strong appeal to stop the war and
violence and we all remain firm in our prayers to the Lord to stop the
war in this part of Europe. Now all we can do is to pray to the Lord to
enlighten the hearts of the mighty of this world. I assure you that our
Church remains deeply in compassion with all who suffer in this
difficult time but we are absolutely not in position to make any
significant influence on the course of events. I remember well when
Bishop and me talked to Secretary Albright earlier in February we stated

quite clearly that air raids on Serbia would be a tragic mistake which
would only make things worse. But wherever we were no one was ready to
listen to our arguements.

Unfortunately I also cannot tell you any first hand news from the ground

because from my mountain sanctuary I cannot learn anything directly.

I kindly ask you to keep in your prayers all suffering people of this
country and wish you all the best for the Glorious and Lifegiving Feast
of Christ's Resurrection.

Let us hope that God's peace and justice will prevail over the forces of

darkness and evil.

I also remain deeply grateful to all of you, my dear friends, for your
words of support, for your prayers. This only shows that there are many
people in this world who prefer peace to war and destruction.

CHRIST IS RISEN - TRULY IS RISEN!

In Christ
Fr. Sava

PS. Since I will not be reading my e-mail for some time, one of my
friends in Belgrade will receive my messages for me. I would kindly ask
all journalists who want to make an interview or get a statement that it

is not possible at this moment. I hope you will be able to understand
this and support us all more with your prayers. My friends on the list
will continue our work. As soon as it is God's will that I join in again

you will get messages from me too.

I feel obliged to say once again that the views expressed in the news
reports and messages posted to the Lists are those of the authors and do

not necessarily represent the policy or position of the Serbian Orthodox

Church. Quoting is allowed only if the source of the information is
specified. Any news or official statements on the list expressing the
position of the Serbian Orthodox Church are authentic only if I
personally approve of them.

-----------------------------------------------------------
END



--
Branislav Skrobonja
Draze Pavlovica 13
11000 BEOGRAD, SERBIA
tel (fax) +381 11 766669
E-mail: yuger@...


------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Dear Listmembers,
Fr. Sava has authorized me to forward his message which I received
personally from my friend who was in Crna Reka monastery with Fr. Sava a

few days ago.

Sincerely
Branislav Skrobonja

---------------------------------------------
Crna Reka Monastery
April 1, 1999

Dear friends,

I am sorry I am not able to send messages these days. At the moment I am

in Crna Reka Monastery, in the mountains of Southern Serbia where there
is no telephone (and internet) line and am trying to devote more to
prayer which we all need so much in these difficult moments.

Therefore various rumors that monks have left Kosovo or similar things,
thank Lord, are not true and I simply cannot understand how they
appeared at all. I am in this little hermitage only temporarily,
according to my personal wish and blessing of my bishop to spend more
time in prayer and silence which I need in these difficult times. Now I
cannot imagine what else I could do but pray and be what I am - a monk.

Through various sources I remain in contact with all our monasteries and

our Bishop who is in Prizren at the moment. My brethren in Decani are
all well as well as all other monastics in Kosovo and Metohija region.

We are all still active in humanitarian help and our Monastery in Decani

remains a safe haven for about 100 refugees for which the brotherhood
cares.

Of course I regret so much that all this happened. Our bishop and me
have always been saying that everything should have been done to prevent

the war. But now there are so many suffering people in our country.
Bishop Artemije has made a very strong appeal to stop the war and
violence and we all remain firm in our prayers to the Lord to stop the
war in this part of Europe. Now all we can do is to pray to the Lord to
enlighten the hearts of the mighty of this world. I assure you that our
Church remains deeply in compassion with all who suffer in this
difficult time but we are absolutely not in position to make any
significant influence on the course of events. I remember well when
Bishop and me talked to Secretary Albright earlier in February we stated

quite clearly that air raids on Serbia would be a tragic mistake which
would only make things worse. But wherever we were no one was ready to
listen to our arguements.

Unfortunately I also cannot tell you any first hand news from the ground

because from my mountain sanctuary I cannot learn anything directly.

I kindly ask you to keep in your prayers all suffering people of this
country and wish you all the best for the Glorious and Lifegiving Feast
of Christ's Resurrection.

Let us hope that God's peace and justice will prevail over the forces of

darkness and evil.

I also remain deeply grateful to all of you, my dear friends, for your
words of support, for your prayers. This only shows that there are many
people in this world who prefer peace to war and destruction.

CHRIST IS RISEN - TRULY IS RISEN!

In Christ
Fr. Sava

PS. Since I will not be reading my e-mail for some time, one of my
friends in Belgrade will receive my messages for me. I would kindly ask
all journalists who want to make an interview or get a statement that it

is not possible at this moment. I hope you will be able to understand
this and support us all more with your prayers. My friends on the list
will continue our work. As soon as it is God's will that I join in again

you will get messages from me too.

I feel obliged to say once again that the views expressed in the news
reports and messages posted to the Lists are those of the authors and do

not necessarily represent the policy or position of the Serbian Orthodox

Church. Quoting is allowed only if the source of the information is
specified. Any news or official statements on the list expressing the
position of the Serbian Orthodox Church are authentic only if I
personally approve of them.

-----------------------------------------------------------
END



--
Branislav Skrobonja
Draze Pavlovica 13
11000 BEOGRAD, SERBIA
tel (fax) +381 11 766669
E-mail: yuger@...





------------------------------------------------------------------------
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The Times, April 5 1999


    British wife tells of shame at Nato 'lies'

            FROM TOM WALKER IN BELGRADE


   THE British wife of a Yugoslav national
   trapped in Nato's bombardment of Belgrade
   yesterday said that she felt so "torn up
   and ashamed" of her country's role in the
   airstrikes that she had only just
   re-emerged in public.

   But Janice Mrdjenovic said that since
   showing her face again in the Zvezdara
   suburb, her home for the past 13 years, she
   had been "very deeply touched" by the
   reactions of neighbours. "You can't be in
   Belgrade and not start to feel some
   admiration for these people," she said,
   attaching an anti-Nato tag to her dog,
   Bonnie.

   She said the bombing campaign had cleared
   up any lingering identity crisis for her
   eldest son, Branko, 16. "He has absorbed
   this feeling from his friends over the last
   week or so about being a Serb. If he ever
   had difficulty over his identity, then over
   the last week he has solved it."

   Her youngest child, Stevan, is nine, and
   the middle boy Marco is 13. Despite wanting
   to keep them all safe, evacuation costs
   were too high. So for the past ten days she
   and her artist husband, Dusan, have
   arranged a temporary bomb shelter in the
   basement of their detached house, and hoped
   that Nato's technology is as accurate as is
   claimed.

   "I didn't believe that we'd ever be in this
   position with a British Government. They
   say they're not bombing the Serb people,"
   said Janice, who was born in London. "Well,
   it's very difficult to say that to someone
   lying in hospital missing a leg at this
   moment."

   While her two eldest boys were coping well
   with the stress, she said she was worried
   about Stevan.

   "I heard him mumbling in his sleep 'you're
   killing me' - he could have got it from his
   Bond game on his Nintendo or it could have
   come from the situation we're in. There's
   bound to be some effect." And she was
   thankful that Branco's Yugoslav military
   service was still at least a year away.

   Smoking constantly, and watching as Dusan
   played with Bonnie and the boys in the
   garden, she showed her diary about Nato's
   nightly airstrikes.

   Janice's writing reflects upon the
   differences of being English and Serbian.
   "I think maybe the English are more in love
   with their Englishness than their homeland,
   and the Serbs are more in love with their
   homeland than being at ease with
   themselves."


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The Times, April 5 1999

William Rees-Mogg

The Serbian endgame

Over last weekend the President of the United States, the Prime Minister of
Great Britain and the Nato authorities have all repeated their assurances
that there will be no invasion of Yugoslavia by Nato ground troops. Why were
they able to do so with such confidence? Not because the Nato bombing will
force President Milosevic to the conference table; he has always intended to
go there. Not because the bombing can prevent the continued, and terrible,
expulsion of the Albanian population.
There will be no Nato invasion of Kosovo, if only because such an invasion
would take months to mount; by the end of this month, the Serbian campaign
in Kosovo will be over. What will then have to be decided is not whether to
invade, but the negotiation of the peace terms that President Milosevic will
offer, after having created the situation he wanted on the ground.
Tony Blair's article in yesterday's Sunday Telegraph shows that he is well
aware of the situation Nato is going to face. He used the article to lay
down the peace terms as he would see them. They represent Nato's negotiating
position. "Milosevic must be made to do the following before we stop. He
must cease his campaign of ethnic cleansing; withdraw his troops; and agree
to an international force that can guarantee that the dispossessed of Kosovo
can return in safety now and for the future, under a proper plan that
ensures that their rights are respected."
By the end of April, four weeks from now, the first condition will already
have been met. The campaign of ethnic cleansing will be completed; it will
have been taken to whatever point President Milosevic thinks most
advantageous to Serbia. It will then stop.
Mr Blair is not insisting that the "international force" which will
supervise the return of the dispossessed Albanians must be a Nato force.
That was the intention at Rambouillet, but the bombing has made that
impossible for Yugoslavia. Presumably it will be a UN peacekeeping force,
probably with a Russian presence, possibly backed by potential Nato
strength.
Nato has already recognised that the Albanians will not return to Kosovo if
they are going, once again, to be governed by the Serbs. In theory, that
might mean that Nato was committing itself to an independent Kosovo, or a
Kosovo protectorate on the present boundaries. That would obviously not be
compatible with the Serbian war aims, but could be achieved only after
victory in a ground war against Yugoslavia. It would take that to reverse
Serbia's ethnic cleansing by force. Fortunately, there is the alternative of
partition; it is not a perfect alternative, but it has been the 20th-century
solution to ethnic conflict in many countries, including Cyprus, India,
Ireland, Palestine and, most notably, Bosnia.
If we assume that President Milosevic's policy in Kosovo has throughout been
based on his experience in Bosnia, it becomes much easier to understand.
When he rejected the Rambouillet terms, he must have calculated that Nato
would feel forced to implement the long-delayed threat of bombing, however
reluctantly. He was prepared to use the Nato bombing as an opportunity to
change the balance of population in Kosovo in Serbia's favour. Months of
preparation must have gone into the lightning campaign of ethnic cleansing.
He would have calculated that Nato would be under strong pressure from the
hundreds of thousands of refugees. He knew he would have Russia's diplomatic
support. He presumably assumed, from the beginning, that Kosovo, like
Bosnia, would eventually have to be partitioned. The purpose of this limited
war, from his point of view, would have been to improve the terms of the
partition which had become inevitable.
So far everything has gone to plan, to Milosevic's plan. Nato did start the
bombing and it has provided diplomatic cover for Serbian national support
for the ethnic cleansing campaign. Serbia has by now achieved the expulsion
of a large part of the Albanian population of Kosovo. The bombing, not
surprisingly, has raised Milosevic's status as the leader of his own Serbian
people. Russia has given diplomatic support, and Russian public opinion is
strongly pro-Serbian. Nato has not invaded, nor taken a decision to invade;
Nato is not at present able to stop, let alone reverse, the ethnic
cleansing. The bombing has so far done relatively minor long-term damage to
the economic infrastructure of Serbia, and presumably Nato does not intend
to inflict total damage.
The choice that will be offered to Nato is, in effect, an offer it cannot
refuse. Nato can have a Russian-brokered peace settlement on terms quite
close to Tony Blair's, if it is prepared to accept the partition of Kosovo
along the lines of the partition of Bosnia. The refugees would then be able
to return to an Albanian sector of Kosovo, however that might be determined,
where they would enjoy autonomy under UN protection. This will not be a
defeat either for Nato or Yugoslavia. Both sides will have made concessions,
but will have achieved much of what they wanted. At the price of the
partition of Kosovo, Milosevic will have consolidated the boundaries of an
ethnically united Serbia, and Nato will have limited the Kosovo conflict and
restored the refugees, if not completely. From the humanitarian point of
view, a great evil has already been committed; this settlement would improve
the condition of the refugees, but ground war would make it even more
desperate.
Nato does, of course, have the other option, of war. Not just war in the
air, but war on the ground, an invasion of Kosovo, a war against Yugoslavia.
That is still not inconceivable, if Milosevic does not now follow his own
exit strategy. In some months' time, if there were no sign of serious peace
talks, Nato would almost certainly have to build up the threat of ground
war, just as it built up the threat of bombing. If that threat did not
produce a peace settlement, an invasion might even have to be carried out.
There will, therefore, be staff plans, and deliberate leaks of staff plans,
for full-scale ground war. But that will be a last resort; it will only
actually happen if Milosevic forces it on Nato.
Milosevic is a ruthless war criminal, but so far he has followed a
consistent but limited objective, the consolidation of a strong Serbian
national state out of the ethnic break-up of Yugoslavia. That could only now
be secured by a successful peace negotiation. It is in his interest to
achieve that negotiation.
Nato has equally strong reasons to want a settlement. No one knows what to
do for the dispossessed Kosovans; they are too great a burden for the poor
neighbouring states. No Nato power wants to welcome them in large numbers as
permanent refugees. War would not get them home, but would cause immense
further suffering, and risk a wider Balkan conflict. It would also require a
massive military effort and involve heavy casualties.
The war decision would be taken in the United States, which would have to
provide a substantial proportion of the troops, and an even higher
proportion of the technology. Even if Nato could be held together on such a
policy, United States opinion is against a ground war and is likely to
remain so. Americans remember the Vietnam disaster, let alone Somalia.
The United States is prepared, in the last resort, to go to war to protect a
major American interest, to resist aggression, or to bring to an end an
intolerable crime against humanity. That is the reason for the Nato bombing.
If President Milosevic, with Russian support, offers peace terms, the United
States will not risk heavy losses, or the creation of a second Vietnam in
the Balkans, in order to take revenge on the undoubted wickedness of
Serbia's ethnic-cleansing policy. In the Second World War, the policy of the
United States was "unconditional surrender". This is not the Second World
War. Kosovo - however tragic - is one of the limited wars which have
followed the ethnic break-up of Yugoslavia, and both Nato and Serbia, as
well as the Russians, are already planning on the assumption of a negotiated
peace.


----- End Included Message -----


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NEWS OF 5/4/1999

  INTERNET ENGLISH UPDATE
  -----------------------
  Athens, Greece,05/04/1999 (ANA)

  NEWS IN DETAIL
  --------------

  PM Simitis to address nation on Kosovo

  Prime Minister Costas Simitis will address the nation on Monday
  evening on the latest developments in the Kosovo crisis. On Tuesday,
  Simitis will have successive meetings with opposition party leaders,
  starting with main opposition New Democracy leader Costas Karamanlis
  and Communist Party of Greece secretary-general, Aleka Papariga.
  Following these talks, the premier will have separate meetings with
  former prime ministers. Also on Tuesday, Simitis will meet with
  Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos to discuss the country's ongoing
  armaments programme and on Wednesday with the government's economic
  team.

  FM sees difference of opinion with U.S. on Kosovo

  Foreign Minister George Papandreou said on Monday after talks
  with US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott on the Kosovo crisis
  that there was not an identity of views between the two sides.
  Papandreou said he had a "frank" discussion with Talbott during which
  he expressed Greece's views and conveyed the sentiments of the Greek
  people concerning NATO military strikes against Yugoslavia "and the
  need for a speedy end to the war there". He stressed that Greece was
  close to all the Balkan peoples and regarded Serbs, Albanians and
  Kosovans as friends. Papandreou also referred to Greece's special
  position as a NATO and European Union member but also a Balkan
  country very close to the crisis, "which allows us to play a
  mediating and peacemaking role". Papandreou said he had impressed
  upon Talbott the need for the EU to exercise a comprehensive
  development policy in the Balkans based on certain fixed principles,
  such as respect for existing borders and the fostering of democratic
  institutions.

  Greek troops only to participate in humanitarian missions

  Foreign Minister George Papandreou reiterated that Greece would not
  send troops to take part in NATO's military operations against
  Yugoslavia but was willing to participate in peaceful operations
  aimed at protecting refugees and other missions of a humanitarian
  nature. He stressed also that Greece attached "the utmost importance"
  to the security and territorial integrity of the Former Yugoslav
  Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), saying that any solution which may
  eventually be reached for Kosovo should respect existing borders.
  Asked by reporters whether the US continued to insist on
  implementation of the Rambouillet agreement, Papandreou replied: "The
  basic principles of Rambouillet remain in effect as far as the
  international community is concerned and of course the United States.
  This means wide-ranging autonomy for Kosovo within the borders of
  Yugoslavia and the deployment of a multinational force to implement
  the peace accord." Papandreou clarified that such a force would not
  be made up of NATO troops alone but would also be from other
  countries, including Russia, intimating that the US have now agreed
  to this.

  Greece reiterates appeal for temporary Easter ceasefire

  Foreign Minister George Papandreou said he had reiterated to Talbott
  the proposal for a temporary ceasefire during the Orthodox Easter
  this weekend, without any response from the US official. Asked
  whether, after his talks with Talbott, he saw any end in the near
  future to NATO's military operations, Papandreou replied "NATO is
  awaiting some move from (Yugoslav President Slobodan) Milosevic on
  the basis of the basic principles which have been set".

  Athens: political settlement only way out of impasse

  Government spokesman Dimitris Reppas said that Greece insisted that
  the problem in Kosovo could not be resolved through military means,
  but only through political dialogue. "(We need) a peaceful solution
  which will aim at wide-ranging autonomy for Kosovo in the framework
  of the borders of Yugoslavia," Reppas said. He said support for the
  position that no border changes be made was increasing among the
  Allies.

  Cypriot FM in Athens on Tuesday to discuss relief efforts

  Cypriot Foreign Minister Yiannakis Kassoulides will be in Athens on
  Tuesday to discuss Nicosia's contribution to the aid effort. Greece
  is also looking at how to provide humanitarian aid to Kosovo,
  Montenegro and Serbia, Reppas said. However, he said Greece would not
  under any circumstances agree to refugees being sheltered in the
  Turkish-occupied areas of Cyprus, as proposed by Turkish Cypriot
  leader Rauf Denktash. Greek and US delegations headed by Alternate
  Foreign Minister Yiannos Kranidiotis and Assistant Secretary of State
  for Population, Refugees and Migration Julia Taft, respectively, also
  held talks on Monday. According to diplomatic sources, Kranidiotis
  raised the issue of recent threats by Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf
  Denktash to settle 5,000 Kosovan refugees in Turkish-occupied
  Famagusta and Taft gave the assurance that the US would do everything
  possible to prevent this.

  Greece strongly protests travel advisories

  The Athens government is protesting to France, Italy and the US over
  the inclusion of Greece in travel advisories issued by those
  countries for the region and urged that the warning be revoked in
  reference to Greece. Foreign ministry sources told ANA that Foreign
  Minister George Papandreou last night instructed Greece's envoys
  accreditted to those countries to lodge the relevent protests to
  exclude Greece from the travel advisories issued due to the Yugoslav
  crisis. "Greece is a force of stability in the region and its role
  should be strengthened and not undermined," government
  spokesman Dimitris Reppas said.

  Athens, Ankara to make joint NATO proposal on refugees

  Greece and Turkey will make a joint proposal to NATO that Alliance
  members share the financial burden of sheltering refugees from
  Kosovo, diplomatic sources said late on Sunday. The sources said the
  gist of a telephone conversation between Turkish Foreign Minister
  Ismail Cem and his Greek counterpart George Papandreou was that each
  Alliance member take in a proportional number of refugees. The
  financial burden, according to the sources, should be shared, again
  in proportion, by all NATO members. The two ministers were in touch to
  coordinate efforts to relieve the refugee crisis and provide
  humanitarian aid.

  Athens prepared to take small number of Kosovo refugees

  Foreign Minister George Papandreou said Greece would be willing to
  receive a number of refugees in order to contribute to helping
  resolve the enormous problem which has been created, but only if
  there was some understanding and "proportional distribution among the
  partners". Papandreou said it should also be taken into account that
  Greece had already taken in some 500,000 Albanian refugees, following
  previous crises in the neighbouring country, and was in addition
  hosting a large number of refugees from other countries. He added
  that the issue would be discussed and most likely settled at the
  extraordinary meetings of EU interior ministers on April 6 and
  foreign ministers on April 8. The government on Sunday gave three
  Turkish transport planes permission to cross Greek air space to
  deliver aid to Skopje and Tirana on Sunday afternoon.

  Local authorities rush to prepare for refugees

  Greece's plans to provide refuge to about 1,500 displaced Kosovo
  Albanians in the Ftiotida region of central Greece has caught local
  authorities unawares, according to an ANA report from Lamia. The
  Fthiotida prefect said after an urgent meeting called to coordinate
  action on Monday that there were "serious problems" that would
  complicate the efforts to provide shelter to such a large number of
  refugees. He cited these problems as being a lack sanitary and health
  care facilities. He said there were concerns the local Lamia Hospital
  would not be able to meet the specific health needs of the refugees.
  He also expressed the view that the tourist region of Kamena Vourla
  was not the best placed to shelter the refugees.

  Thessaloniki may be transit point for U.S. missiles

  It is highly likely that ground-launched tactical missiles and
  rockets which the United States has said it will send to the Balkans
  to back operations against Serbian forces will be transported to the
  Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) via Thessaloniki, an
  ANA despatch from the northern port city said on Monday. A military
  source told the ANA that the city's port would most likely be used
  rather than the airport, since the cost of sending the modern weapons
  systems by air would be much higher. The Pentagon said on Sunday it
  would send the missiles, rockets and 24 Apache helicopters to help
  NATO destroy Serb armoured forces. The new missiles, to be deployed in
  FYROM, will be accompanied by a force of some 2,000 troops, which
  will join the approximately 13,000 NATO soldiers already in FYROM.
  The new strike force will comprise anti-artillery Multiple-Launch
  Rocket Systems (MIRS) and long-range, surface-to-surface Army
  Tactical Missile Systems (TACMS).

  Left Coalition leader to meet Milosevic in Belgrade

  Coalition of the Left and Progress (SYN) leader Nikos Constantopoulos
  left today for Sofia, the first stop on a tour of Balkan countries.
  Inthe Bulgarian capital, he will hold talks with Socialist Party
  (BSP) leader Georgi Parvanov and European Left Party president
  Alexander Tomov. Constantopoulos will go to Belgrade tonight, for
  talks Tuesday morning with the Serbian and Yugoslav leadership. A
  meeting has been planned with Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic, but
  the time has not been released. Before departing for Sofia,
  Constantopoulos said his visit to Belgrade was intended to express in
  action SYN's concern and support for the Yugoslav people and its
  opposition to the war. He expressed concern that the refugee problem
  could be used as a springboard for the involvement of NATO ground
  troops in the region. "This is a nightmarish scenario in which Greece
  must explicitly state it will not take part, and which it must oppose
  in the strongest way," Constantopoulos said.


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ATHENS NEWS AGENCY

                             ENGLISH BULLETIN

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------

  ANA Athens reiterates its intent to alleviate Kosovo refugee problems

  Athens 05/04/1999 (ANA)
  Athens said yesterday it would do its best to contribute to any
  efforts at alleviating problems arising from the Kosovo crisis.
  "We shall be present, in the best and most efficient way, to
  contribute to the tackling of problems that have been created due to
  the crisis in Kosovo. We shall be present so that, simultaneously with
  our responsible options and best handling of the sit uation, we may
  guard our national interests," government spokesman Dimitris Reppas
  said after a meeting of the Government Council for Foreign Affairs and
  Defence (KYSEA) yesterday.
  Sources said the Greek government was examining, at an initial stage,
  the prospect of reinforcing the Greek contingent in Albania within the
  framework of a broader NATO operation to provide humanitarian aid to
  the Kosovar refugees fleeing to that country.
  The same sources said the Greek military contingent in Albania has
  been praised by all sides involved for its contribution in providing
  humanitarian assistance for the refugees, while Non-Governmental
  Organisations (NGOs) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
  (FYROM) have also been prai-sed for similar work.
  As a result of the Greek assistance, the same sources added, the
  accommodation of 20,000 refugees had been made possible in FYROM.
  KYSEA convened yesterday for three hours, under the chairmanship of
  Prime Minister Costas Simitis, to discuss ways in which Greece could
  contribute to the problem of refugees abandoning Yugoslavia due to the
  ongoing crisis.
  Greece's contribution was in in the framework of consultations and
  discussions taking place at an EU level, Mr. Reppas said, adding that
  the refugee problem should be tackled in accordance with each
  country's abilities.
  "Greece will not tackle the problem alone. In that framework, the
  government is examining the prospect of Greece taking in a few
  thousand refugees," the spokesman said.
  Other sources said any possible refugees allowed into Greece could
  possibly be hosted in central and southern Greece.
  On his part, Mr. Reppas said Greece would also be present in efforts
  to ease the refugees problem, and also in the creation of conditions
  for a political solution to the crisis, so as to safeguard its
  national interests.
  Athens News Agency

  Tsohatzopoulos criticism of Yugoslav leadership of Kosovo strategy

  Athens 05/04/1999 (ANA)
  National Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos on Saturday was
  categorical in his condemnation of Yugoslav President Slobodan
  Milosevic, charging that ethnic cleansing in Kosovo aims at changing
  borders in the region and making all the Balkan peoples host age to
  the problem.
  Speaking to reporters in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia's
  (FYROM) capital of Skopje, Mr. Tsohatzopoulos further char-ged that
  the policy of ethnic clean-sing began before the NATO bombings
  started, saying that it now seemed that Mr. Milosevic did not wish to
  accept a solution, because he possibly had a different future form of
  Yugoslavia in mind.
  Asked about the NATO air strikes against downtown Belgrade on Saturday
  Ð the first since the Nazis bombed the Yugoslav capital in April 1941
  Ð he responded: "It doesn't matter what I believe, but that NATO has
  decided on the operations with an aim of putting an end to the
  humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo and a return to the negotiating
  table."
  He also stressed that Greece was "entitled" to make such charges,
  citing the mass persecution and "ethnic cleansing" practised by the
  Turks against ethnic Greeks in the Black Sea region and Asia Minor in
  1922 and on Cyprus in 1974.
  Then too, he continued, the objective was to change existing borders.
  "The Yugoslav leadership must take a position about how to bring an
  end to this situation. The Balkan peoples will not be held hostage to
  the plans promoted by Yugoslavia," he added.
  He repeated this position several times, accusing Belgrade of wanting
  "to make all countries part of the Kosovo problem," but stressing that
  "we are not willing to accept it and for this reason we shall react".
  The Greek minister also spoke of those "continuing the disastrous
  policy they began with the dissolution of Yugoslavia," in apparent
  reference to the Yugoslav president.
  Mr. Tsohatzopoulos stressed the urgent need for humanitarian aid to be
  sent to refugees leaving Kosovo and commented ironically on the fact
  that European Union services were closed yesterday because of the
  Easter holiday in Catholic and Protestant countries.
  "The bombing couldn't stop for Easter, but they have a public holiday
  when it comes to humanitarian aid," he said.
  Mr. Tsohatzopoulos reiterated his opposition to any use of NATO ground
  forces in Kosovo.
  "Not one NATO soldier will go to Kosovo. Only through diplomatic and
  political means can a solution be found. NATO operations are the means
  to stop the uprooting of Kosovars and to bring everyone back to the
  negotiating table," he argued.
  Opposition reaction : The defence minister's remarks in Skopje were
  strongly criticised by several Greek opposition parties.
  "The despicable statements by the defence minister, with which he
  attributes responsibility to the leadership of New Yugoslavia for the
  war, absolves NATO and the EU, the real culprits, of their
  responsibility for the crime being committed," the Communist Party of
  Greece (KKE) said in a statement.
  KKE said Mr. Tsohatzopoulos' statements "confirm that Greece has an
  extremely dangerous government, which is participating in the
  slaughter of the neighbouring people while at the same time
  hypocritically and cravenly maintaining the opposite."
  The Coalition of the Left and Progress (Synaspismos) in a statement,
  expressed its deep concern "that we are at the beginning of a new
  period in the Balkans, in which the problem of borders may arise at
  any moment and the problem of minorities may worsen."
  Addressing Synaspismos' central committee, party leader Nikos
  Constantopoulos charged that the Greek government bore heavy
  responsibility for the situation "because it added its signature at
  all the stages so far of the NATO operations.
  Democratic Social Movement (DHKKI) leader Dimitris Tsovolas described
  Mr. Tsohatzopoulos' references to "ethnic cleansing" as "unacceptable"
  and "abject".
  "Contrary to what the government and Prime Minister Costas Simitis
  were hypocritically declaring in public until just yesterday, (the
  minister's statements) in effect provide complete justification for
  the inhumane NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and our friends, the Serb
  people, which completely violates all rules of international law," Mr.
  Tsovolas said.
  Athens News Agency

  Top US diplomat Talbott arrives for talks

  Athens 05/04/1999 (ANA)
  US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott is scheduled to hold talks
  with Foreign Minister George Papandreou and Alternate Foreign Minister
  Yiannos Kranidiotis this morning.
  Mr. Talbott, who arrived in Athens yesterday afternoon, is on a Balkan
  tour and will be going on to Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of
  Macedonia (FYROM), Bulgaria and Romania. Diplomatic sources said he is
  enunciating Washington's official positions regarding all aspects of
  the Kosovo conflict. The US official has also asked to meet with PM
  Costas Simitis.
  Athens News Agency

  Canadian FM Axworthy's visit postponed

  Athens 05/04/1999 (ANA)
  Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy's scheduled talks in Athens
  with Greek foreign ministry officials has been postponed, it was
  announced yesterday.
  Ministry sources said Ottawa requested a postponement of Mr.
  Axworthy's meeting here today with Greek officials as an unforeseen
  obligation had arisen for the Canadian FM.
  Athens News Agency

  Constantopoulos in Belgrade today

  Athens 05/04/1999 (ANA)
  Coalition of the Left and Progress (Synaspismos) leader Nikos
  Constantopoulos is scheduled to meet Yugoslav leaders in Belgrade
  today, including President Slobodan Milosevic.
  Mr. Constantopoulos, who is beginning tour of the Balkans, will remain
  in the Yugoslav capital for two days.
  Winding up sessions of the his party's central committee, the
  Synaspismos leader strongly condemned NATO attacks on Yugoslavia,
  calling on the Greek government to clearly state its disagreement
  regarding the planned escalation of military operations in the
  Yugoslav provice. "The war transcends Kosovo, it is a crime against
  humanity," he stressed.
  Athens News Agency


  Athens reportedly sets condition for accepting Kosovar refugees

  Athens 05/04/1999 (ANA)
  The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has officially
  asked the Greek government to accept about 20,000 Kosovo refugees now
  in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), sources said
  yesterday.
  The request was made during a telephone discussion between UNHCR head
  Santago Ogata with Foreign Minister George Papandreou, who reportedly
  responded in the negative. According to the same sources, Mr.
  Papandreou told Ms Ogata and his German counterpart Joschka Fischer,
  with whom he also spoke, that Greece would accept refugees only within
  the framework of a decision for allocating them among NATO and
  European Union countries.
  Athens News Agency

  Athens march,other protests against NATO bombing

  Athens 05/04/1999 (ANA)
  The Italian and US embassies, as well as the EU Commission's
  representation in Greece were the target of protesters yesterday
  during another march against the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia.
  The protest march began at Syntagma Square and ended outside the US
  embassy.
  According to reports, a handful of mostly youthful protesters entered
  the Italian embassy's premises causing minor damages. Vandalism of
  several banks and automobiles along the protest route was also
  reported.
  Meanwhile, serious incidents were reported outside the Souda naval
  base, near Hania, Crete, and the NATO regional headquarters at
  Tyrnavos, central Greece, when protesters attempted to deliver
  petitions.
  More than 3,000 people took part in the Hania protest march, which
  developed into a pitched battle with police when demonstrators were
  denied access to the base's gate. Police used tear gas and the crowd
  responded by throwing stones.
  Several police officers and protesters were injured.
  In Tyrnavos, protesters broke through a police cordon and painted
  slogans on the walls of the enclosure.
  Earlier, Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Secretary General Aleka
  Papariga charged that the war was being carried out by NATO on the
  pretext of minority rights, while Greece was part of the Balkan
  problem with "the criminal attack against the Yugoslav, Serbian, and
  Albanian people", as she noted.
  "No minority has been a cause of war. Any problems with minorities can
  be solved in the context of the respective countries," she added.
  Athens News Agency

  Messolonghi exodus commemorated as statements point to Yugoslavia
  crisis

  Athens 05/04/1999 (ANA)
  President of the Republic Kostis Stephanopoulos yesterday said he was
  "deeply saddened" over the bloodshed in neighbouring Yugoslavia,
  expressed bitterness over the international community's stance.
  Speaking at an event in the western city of Messolonghi to mark the
  173rd anniversary of the "Exodus of the Free Besieged" - as the town's
  heroic inhabitants came to be known during the 1821 War of
  Independence - the Greek president expressed sadness over the victims
  of the conflict and the uprooting of thousands of unarmed civilians,
  adding that "the international community hesitates to be moved."
  On Saturday night, speaking at a similar event, Archbishop
  Christodoulos of Athens and All Greece called for an end to the war in
  Yugoslavia and for the prevalence of peace, as "no one has the right
  to kill unarmed civilians and harm or violate territor ial integrity".

  The prelate of the Autocephalus Orthodox Church of Greece said the
  nation was a "victim of the powerful of the earth", although it is
  "always in favour of justice, of liberty".
  The government was represented at Saturday's event by Development
  Minister Evangelos Venizelos.
  The Sunday commemoration began with a te Deum at the Aghios Spyridon
  Cathedral, which was followed by a march to the Tomb of Heroes.
  On his part, main opposition New Democracy leader Costas karamanlis
  said the sacrifice of the "Free Besieged" should inspire all Greeks,
  calling for national unity regarding the Yugoslav crisis.
  Athens News Agency

  Protests against NATO bombings continue across N. Greece

  Athens 05/04/1999 (ANA)
  Thousands of northern Greece residents gathered at the Evzoni border
  post on the Greek-FYROM frontier yesterday to protest the NATO air
  strikes against Yugoslavia.
  Initially protesters gathered in Thessaloniki yesterday morning and
  formed a convoy of cars that wound its way to Evzoni.
  Waving Greek and Serbian flags, pennants of the Orthodox Church and
  holding flowers, protesters lined up along the Greek side of the
  border for a concert also attended by local mayors, prefects and
  deputies of various political parties.
  Local officials addressed the crowd, calling for peace, and
  protestors, after observing a minute of silence for the victims of the
  war in Yugoslavia, threw the flowers up into the air.
  The flowers, an organiser said, would remain strewn on the border road
  along which NATO military vehicles carrying supplies destined for the
  Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia would pass.

  A makeshift explosive device exploded early Saturday morning outside a
  branch office of the ruling PASOK party in the Athens suburb of
  Galatsi, causing some damage to the building but no injuries.
  The bomb, which had been placed just outside the entrance of the
  office, consisted of a small quantity of dynamite, a detonator, two
  clocks and a battery.
  No warning was given prior to the blast and no group has yet claimed
  responsibility.
  Officers of the anti-terrorist squad said, however, they suspected the
  "November 17" terrorist group was behind the attack. The officers
  based their suspicions on the way the bomb had been wired.
  PASOK's headquarters in downtown Athens were the target of a failed
  rocket attack on Thursday morning, which also bore the hallmarks of
  the elusive "November 17" organisation.
  Athens News Agency/END


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