April 1
- The Russian President Boris Yeltsin
has suggested holding an emergency meeting on G-8 Foreign Ministers to
peacefully resolve the problem of Kosovo. The G-8 is made up of the 7 most
industrially developed nations and Russia. As he appeared on television
to deliver his urgent message Yeltsin said the military strikes on Yugoslavia
should be stopped and the Kosovo problem can and must be resolved at the
negotiating table. The President was speaking in the wake of a conference
in Moscow earlier on Thursday of the Prime-Minister Yevgeny Primakov, Foreign
Minister Igor Ivanov and Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev who on Wednesday
returned from a visit to Belgrade and Bonn to try to reach a political
settlement of the Kosovo problem. The Russian Ministers met the Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. According
to Yevgeny Primakov, the Yugoslav side has sent a signal that provided
there was a will, it could be taken as a signal to end the bombing.
- The Russian Foreign Ministry has
got down to acting on president Yeltsin's instructions for calling an emergency
meeting of G-8 Foreign Ministers to discuss a Kosovo settlement. This has
come in a statement to the ITAR-TASS news agency by informed diplomatic
sources. According to the sources, letters to this end will shortly be
sent to the Foreign Ministers of the G-7 countries.
- NATO leaders have admitted that
the alliance's air operation against Yugoslavia has been proceeding with
difficulty and is behind schedule despite NATO's plans to win a victory
in a matter of days. In an interview with the Belgian radio station "RTBF"
the NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana conceded the operation would take
weeks, not days. The British Defence Secretary George Robertson said in
a televised interview with Sky television that the operation would be continued.
He pointed out that this would be a hard and long operation. NATO launched
its airstrikes on Yugoslavia on the 24th of last month.
- The French Defence Minister Alain
Richard has told the French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur that Russia's
special ties with Yugoslavia and Moscow's political will could prove conducive
to unblocking the situation around Kosovo. According to him, Moscow could
make use of its special relations with to unblock the situation around
Kosovo. Richard feels this would be useful for the international community
and above all, for the Kosovo drama victims.
- The Pentagon has said that the
list of targets on Yugoslav territoty that NATO forces are delivering airstrikes
against is growing by the day. According to a statement by the Pentagon's
official spokesman Kenneth Bakon, NATO is seeking to inflict major losses
on the Yugoslav armed forces. He has failed to confirm or refute the reports
that some of the NATO targets are railway lines and bridges. Meanwhile
the NBC television network quotes some high-ranking Pentagon officials
as saying that NATO will shortly strike at sites in Belgrade, including
Government agencies and the TV center. Bombs and missiles have already
destroyed a bridge across the Danube and the water-supply system in the
city Novi Sad, the administrative centre of the Serb province Voyevodina.
And more than a 1000 civilians have died in the NATO airstrikes since the
alliance launched its aggression against Yugoslavia.
- In today's edition the British
The Independent newspaper says that NATO has not scored any significant
victory since it launched a war of aggression against Yugoslavia. The paper
stressed that 6 days of intensive bombing has not forced the union republic
of Yugoslavia to pull its forces out of Kosovo nor has it knocked out Yugoslav
integrated and modernizes air defence system. Italy which houses NATO's
main base is the most fretful and the enlargement of the bombing, campaign
called for most vigorously by the US and Britain has not occurred writes
the Independent. There's growing apprehension inside NATO over the possibility
of the complete collapse of the alliance's military strategy says The Independent.
- The so-called liberation army of
Kosovo has given one month to all Albanians to join its ranks failing which
all Albanian men aged from 18 to 50 years who have fled the Province would
be severely persecuted. In a statement circulated by the British press
on Thursday the KLA says that its military police would take action in
and beyond the province against those who refuse to volunteer for military
service. Reports from Kosovo received in London say that the liberation
army has halted a column of refugees from Kosovo fleeing from the fighting
and has forced both boys and men to join its ranks.
- A the Portuguese parliament has
demanded an immediate halt to NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia. In
a statement parliamentary chiefs say that NATO should renounce force for
the sake of stability on the European continent. NATO's military operation
against Yugoslavia is without UN authorization and it could set a dangerous
precedent, the parliamentary statement stressed. Most Portuguese people
share their lawmakers' view as shown by a public opinion survey conducted
by the catholic university in Lisbon. 48 per cent of respondents strongly
condemn NATO's aggression and only about 30 per cent support NATO.
- Belarussia has halted the work
of its representative office in NATO's headquarter in Brussels in protest
against military alliance's aggression against Yugoslavia. The press secretary
of the Belarussian foreign ministry Nikolai Borisevic has told a press
conference in Minsk capital of the republic that a similar step been taken
in respect of Belarussian participation in the so-called partnership for
peace programme. Belarussian communication officials in NATO's headoffice
have been recalled and moreover Belarussia has also suspended bilateral
military contacts with the US and other NATO members.
- Some refugees, 300 or so, from
Kosovo, mostly old people and children have reached Belgrade capital of
Yugoslavia. Among them are Serbs Turks and other non-Albanians. The refugees
say that they are fleeing from NATO's bombardment as well as from Kosovo
Albanian terrorists. The Belgrade city authorities say that arrangements
are being made to receive about 200 Albanian children from Kosovo in the
near future.
- The Russian President - Boris Yeltsin,
has given instructions to the government to make further efforts to get
an end to the aggression of NATO against Yugoslavia and to get a resumption
of talks. The President has received a report on the trip by Prime Minister
Yevgeny Primakov to Belgrade and Bonn for talks with the Yugoslav President,
Slobodan Milosevic, and the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder. On his
return to Moscow on Wednesday morning Mr Primakov said that President Milosevic
had given a signal for an end to the bombardment, while NATO had continued
a line on escalating the air attacks. He described the decision of NATO
as a tragic mistake. Mr Piimakov denied that the Serbian authorities committed
genocide of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. He said Kosovo Albanians were fleeing
from NATO air attacks and one tenth of the region's population had already
fled.
- The French President, Jacques Chirac,
has hailed Russia's efforts aimed at achieving a political solution to
the Kosovo crisis. In a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Primakov
on Wednesday President Chirac said that the trip by the Russian Delegation
led by Mr Primakov to Belgrade showed Russia's real contribution to achieving
a peace settlement in the Blakans. A high assessment of Russia's diplomatic
efforts to achieve a peaceful resolution of the Kosovo crisis was also
given on Wednesday by the Czech President, Vaclav Havel, the Canadian Foreign
Minister, Lloyd Axeworthy, and the former special representative of the
European Union for Yugoslavia lord David Owen.
- The Russian Foreign Minister, Igor
Ivanov, has said that the aim of the aggression against Yugoslavia is not
the prevention of a humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo but the establishment
of American supremacy in the Balkans. He told a news-conference after the
trip to Belgrade and Bonn with Prime Minister Primakov that the United
States sought to establish a one-polar world and wanted to impose its will
on the international community.
- More NATO cruise missiles hit the
outskirts of the capital of Kosovo - Pristina on Wednesday night and Thursday
morning. Eyewitnesses say there were powerful explosions near the walls
of the Gracanica monastery which is protected by the United Nations agency
for culture, UNESCO, as a cultural monument. NATO warplanes have also dropped
bombs on the outskirts of the town of Uzhitse in Southern Serbia.
- The ethnic Albanian leader in Kosovo,
Ibrahim Rugova, has demanded that NATO bombardment of Yugoslavia be stopped.
Speaking at a news-conference in the Kosovo capital, Pristina, on Wednesday
night he urged Belgrade, the European Union, the International Contact
Group and Russia to co-operate in the interests of a diplomatic solution
to the Kosovo crisis.
- The general headquarters of the
so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, the KLA, has declared a general mobilization.
According to Albanian television all men from 18 to 60 years are being
mobilized for the participation in the liberation of Kosovo. Reports say
mobilization is being carried out among refugees arriving in Albania from
Kosovo. Western newsmen report that KLA fighters are taking young men from
the columns of refugees in the Albanian town of Kukes.
- The government of Yugoslavia has
called upon the residents of Kosovo of all nationalities not to leave the
region and urged those who have left to return home. The appeal was made
at an emergency meeting of the government on Wednesday evening.
- Two Albanian politicians, well-known
in Kosovo and proclaimed victims of Serbian purges by NATO, are alive and
fit and sound. United States' diplomatic sources in Brussels and Albanian
sources in Kosovo confirmed Wednesday night that Fekhmi Agani, a member
of the Kosovo delegation at the recent talks in Rambouillet and Baton Khaksiu,
the editor-in-chief of the Kosovo-based Albanian newspaper Kokha Ditore
continue their political activity. The message of their alleged execution
last week came from a NATO official David Wilbi who was speaking at a news-conference
in Brussels on Monday.
- An official of the United States'
Defense Department said in Washington on Wednesday that an American reconnaissance
group was missing on the border of Yugoslavia and Macedonia in the vicinity
of Kosovo. Unites of the US regular army supported by helicopters continue
a search of the missing armored-troop carrier, and the crew of three soldiers.
In Macedonia NATO has deployed a 10,000-strong contingent which is expected
to be used for implementing a peace agreement on Kosovo.
|
