The Voice of Russia

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May 7

This country wants yesterday's agreement on Kosovo among the G-8 to be cemented with a special resolution by the Security Council of the United Nations. In an interview with the agency INTERFAX today, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov believed such a resolution could lay a foundation for peace in Kosovo if NATO had the wisdom to call off its bombing campaign. Similar calls for a UN resolution on Kosovo came from the Russian presidential mediator for the Balkans Victor Chernomyrdin. The seven biggest power and Russia agreed their plan at a meeting outside Bonn on Thursday. Their proposals call for an end to violence in the southern Serbian province, the disarmament of the outlawed Kosovo Liberation Army, the safe return of all refugees, the granting of wide-ranging autonomy to Kosovo and the deployment of international peace-keepers there on permission from Federal Yugoslavia.
There are signs of growing international acceptance of the G-8 plan on Kosovo. The German Foreign Ministry describes it as an important step towards a just settlement of the Kosovo crisis. The Dutch Foreign Minister Ven Artesen says he is looking forward to an appropriate resolution by the UN Security Council within a week. The government of Finland praises the G-8 for putting the United Nations in overall charge of any future international peace-keeping in Kosovo. The Foreign Ministry of China points out that no initiative on Kosovo can go ahead without active cooperation from Federal Yugoslavia.
NATO meanwhile has been pressing ahead with its atrocious air assault on Yugoslavia. In Nis in southern Serbia, several shoppers were killed and dozens received serious injuries Friday when NATO planes dropped internationally banned cluster bombs on the city's central market leaving a number of buildings their riddled like chunks of Swiss cheese - a description given by an eyewitness of the attack. Also on Friday, three NATO missiles exploded outside the capital Belgrade. Several people were injured in an overnight air raid on a residential area in Novi Sad in northern Serbia. Elsewhere last night, NATO bombs fully destroyed a strategic bridge carrying rail traffic between Belgrade and Bucharest, the capital of Rumania. Over a thousand people in Yugoslavia have been killed and over 5 thousand, seriously injured in the 6 and a half weeks since the start of the American-led air assault. Yugoslav gunners have brought down over 50 NATO warplanes.
The Lower Danube and the Black Sea, as well as Yugoslavia, may feel, for years to come, the nazardous repercussions of the NATO bombing raids. The World Environmental Protection Foundation says various toxic substances have polluted the Danube river. They are going rapidly downstream and may do substantial damage to the man and wildlife. Ten million people take Danube water, the Foundation says, and rare kinds of birds and sturgeons consider the Danube delta their home.
A Russian aid relief plane has landed at the airport of the Bulgarian capital of Sofia. The payload- food , clothing, medical drugs and the other basic necessities-will be trucked via Macedonia to the Serbian province of Kosovo. This is the third shipment of humanitarian aid that Russia is sending, under the Russian-Greek-Swiss Focus program, to Yugoslavia.
Nearly three quarters of the Hungarians oppose the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. The Budapest-based independent daily Magyar Hirlap polled people as soon as at was announced Wednesday that 24 United States fighter-bombers had made it for Hungary. The warplanes are meant for combat action against Yugoslavia.
The Cypriot legislature has voted against moves to join and oil embargo on Yugoslavia. The oil embargo has been introduced by the North Atlantic Alliance. The Cypriot lawmakers have pointed out that such embargoes may only be introduced by the United Nations and that is has no legal force now that is has been introduced by NATO.

The G-8 foreign ministers agreed on a general strategy for a settlement in Kosovo when they met in Bonn on Thursday. The foreign ministers of Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and Russia approved the draft peace plan for Kosovo which provides for an effective international presence in the province with the approval of the United Nations. The document also calls for the immediate return of refugees to Kosovo and unhampered access for international humanitarian organizations. The ministers agreed that violence in Kosovo should be stopped and Serbian military and police units withdrawn. According to the plan there should be an interim administration in the province. The Kosovo Liberation Army should be disarmed and economic aid should be given to overcome the aftermaths of the crisis in the Balkans. The ministers promised support for an enlarged Kosovo autonomy while Yugoslavia's territorial integrity is preserved.
As the Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov summed up the Results of the Bonn meeting he said the participants were getting down to work on implementing the principles of the political settlement in Kosovo. He added that this would naturally require talks with Belgrade and co-ordination of positions of all the interested parties. Another participant in the Bonn-Meeting German Foreign Minister Joschka Fiacher described the results of the meeting as a major step forward, yet at a news conference he pointed out that much was yet to be done before NATO could consider the issue of ending the bombing of Yugoslavia.
UN secretary general Kofi Annan has welcomed the decision of the G-8 foreign ministers concerning the general principles of solving the Kosovo conflict. He expressed hope that all members of the UN Security Council would now show unity in attaining a political settlement in the Balkans.
NATO's secretary general Javier Solana has also welcomed the worked plan for a political settlement of the Kosovo conflict out by the foreign ministers of the United States, Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia. However in an interview for Czech television in Brussels on Thursday he said the stand and objectives of NATO remain the same. And the same day an official representative of the North Atlantic alliance Jemmie Shea said there is no reason so far for ending the military campaign in Yugoslavia.
NATO warplanes again hit missile and bomb strikes at Yugoslavia on Friday. According to the Tanyug news agency, there were air attacks on Nis, Novi Sad and the home city of president Slobodan Milosevic- Pozarevac, in the north of Serbia. A railway bridge near the village of Vatin on the Yugoslav-Romanian border was destroyed. A power supply station was also knocked out, leaving the village without electricity. There was a big explosion in the city of Sabac, 80 kilometers west of Belgrade. The sirens were sounded also in the capital. On Thursday there were missile and bomb raids on Novi Sad, the administrative center of Kosovo - Pristina and a number of other population centers. 1200 people were killed and about five thousand wounded since the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia began. A big number of schools, bridges, civilian institutions, and industrial enterprises were razed to the ground.
Belgrade has, agreed to having a UN humanitarian mission visit the Serbian province of Kosovo. Assistant secretary general for humanitarian problems Serhio Vieira de Mello said in New York on Thursaday that the decision of Yugoslavia's leadership was made known, by Yugoslavia's ambassador to the United Nations Vladlslav Yovanovic. He assured that the government of Yugoslavia would provide conditions for the normal work of the mission. Serhio Vieira de Mello said an advanced group of five men would leave for Yugoslavia at once.
The president of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic is is ready for a compromise in order to have NATO's aggression ended. This was stated on Thursday by a minister without portfolio in the Serbian government, a well known businessman Bogolub Karic. In an interview for Britain's BBC television, the minister who is believed to be one of those closest to Milosevic stressed that the president is ready for talks on such a compromise. The minister also pointed out that if an international mission under the aegis of the United Nations is necessary in Kosovo- it would be acceptable to have countries that are not involved in the conflict take part in it, such countries as Russia, Finland, Sweden, Ukraine or Belorussia.

May 6

According to a France Press report, at a meeting in Bonn on Thursday the G-8 Foreign Ministers agreed their common strategy of a settlement in Kosovo. The Foreign Ministers of Great Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and Russia approved the draft peace plan for Kosovo that provides for a UN authorised effective international presence there. The agreement also calls for an immediate return of refugees to Kosovo and for unhindered access by international humanitarian organisations. The Foreign Ministers are agreed that it's indispensable to stop violence in Kosovo and pull military and police units out of the province. The plan provides for setting up an interim administration in Kosovo, for disarming the Kosovo Liberation Army and for economic aid to cope with the aftermath of the crisis in the Balkans. The Foreign Ministers pledged support for wide self-government in Kosovo and for territorial integrity of Yugoslavia. The Bonn-agreed peace settlement principles are to be approved by the United Nations Security Council.
As the Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov summed up the results of the Bonn meeting he said the participants were getting down to work on implementing the principles of a political settlement in Kosovo. He added that this would naturally require talks with Belgrade and coordination of positions of all the interested parties. Another participant in the Bonn meeting, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer described the results of the meeting as a major step forward, yet at a news conference he pointed out that much was yet to be done before NATO could consider the issue of ending the bombings of Yugoslavia. He recognized the fact that Russia and the West differed on the issue. The participants in the Bonn meeting instructed the political directors of the G-8 Foreign Ministries to prepare a relevant draft resolution for the UN Security Council to consider and also a list of more measures to implement a political settlement in Kosovo. China's leaders will be briefed on the principles that underlie this settlement and that have been agreed on in Bonn.
Earlier this Thursday in the Kremlin the Russian President Boris Yeltsin met his special envoy to the Balkans Viktor Chernomyrdin, who briefed him on the results of his US-held talks with American leaders and also the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Boris Yeltsin pointed out that Viktor Chernomyrdin had managed to cope with the task of bringing closer together the positions of NATO and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. After the meeting Chernomyrdin said one of the basic objectives he sought to attain was to bring to a halt the nuclear and bomb strikes on Yugoslavia and also to have refugees returned and guarantee that the country would remain undivided.
The Russian Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev said this Thursday that following NATO celebrations in Washington the North Atlantic Alliance doubled the intensiveness of its strikes on Yugoslavia. 300 aircraft fly on a combat mission every day. According to the Russian Defence Minister, the correlation of NATO strikes between military and civilian facilities is 50:50. Igor Sergeyev was speaking with journalists in Sevastopol, Ukraine, where he'd arrived to attend celebrations of the 55th anniversary of the liberation of the Hero-city from the Nazi invaders. He said that the first thing to be done was to put an end to the bombings, or else one shouldn't expect any progress in the efforts to reach a settlement. Igor Sergeyev pointed to the similarity of assessment by the Russian and Ukrainian leaders of the continued NATO aggression against Yugoslavia.
The Spanish Foreign Minister Juan Abel Matutes has ended his two-day working visit to Russia. On Wednesday he had talks with his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov to discuss a Balkan crisis settlement. The two ministers also took up preparations for a visit to Russia on the 16th through the 19th of this month by the Spanish Prime-Minister Jose-Maria Aznar. Early this Thursday Mr Matutes met the Russian President's special envoy in charge of Yugoslavia Viktor Chernomyrdin to discuss the situation in the Balkans and ways to reach a settlement there.
The Russian Armed Forces are prepared to send peacekeeping units to Kosovo as soon as the national leadership takes a decision to this end. This has come in a statement to the ITAR-TASS news agency in a comment by the Russian General Staff on a likely sending to Yugoslavia of "blue berets" under the aegis of the United Nations.
The Albanian Information Minister Musa Ulkini has said that the Government of Albania has invited the Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova to visit Albania for political consultations. The invitation was extended after Rugova left Yugoslavia Wednesday for Rome where he had talks with Prime-Minister Massimo d'Alema. Tonight d'Alema and Rugova are expected to hold a joint news conference. Meanwhile the US mediator in the Balkans Christopher Hill has left for Rome for a talk with the Kosovo Albanian leader. Earlier Rugova denounced NATO bombings of Yugoslavia and began direct talks with the Yugoslav leaders on the issue of Kosovo autonomy. The fighters of the illegal Kosovo Liberation Army, who volunteered to from a "human shield" to help a NATO force invade Kosovo have sentenced Rugova to death.

On Thursday night NATO aircraft delivered more air strikes against Yugoslavia. According to the Yugoslav news agency, the main target for the attack was the industrial zone in the town of Nish in the country's south where eight explosions resounded. Two oil storages were burnt down to the ground and apartment houses near-by were damaged. Three missiles were dropped on the town of Prakhovo on the Dunabe River where there are plants of the state oil company YUGOPETROL and a chemical plant. One missile exploded in the airport of the Serbian town of Kralevo. Several bombs fell on the town of Uzhitse, 120 kilometers to the south-west from Belgrade. Air alarms resounded last night in the Yugoslav capital and in the city of Chachak. Since the beginning of the NATO aggression in Yugoslavia 1200 people died and another 5000 were injured.. 300 schools, 3 television and radio centers and a great number of civil plants and bridges have been ruined.
A special envoy of the Russian president on the Balkans, Victor Chernomyrdin, will inform today president Boris Yeltsin about the results of his trip to the United States. Viktor Chernomyrdin conducted talks on the situation round Yugoslavia with the American president Bill Clinton to whom he handed in president Yeltsin's message, the US Vice-president Albert Gore, the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and the Japanese Prime Minister Keidzo Obuti. In an interview with the Russian ITAR-TASS news agency, Viktor Chernomyrdin said on Wednesday night that a peace settlement of the Yugoslav conflict was the matter of top priority for Russia.
In Bonn a session of foreign ministers of eight most industrial countries will be held today to discuss the situation round Yugoslavia. It is convened at the initiative of the Russian president Boris Yeltsin. The British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said that the aim of the session was to work out common approaches to the principles of a peace settlement round Kosovo. NATO leaders, a NATO official, Jamie Shea, said on Wednesday hoped that Russia would support the West's demands to Belgrade. In his turn, the Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said on that same that he did not think any break-through could be reached during a Bonn session. He hoped, however, that even a small progress could contribute to the process of a peace settlement round Yugoslavia.
US President Clinton says NATO is going to sharply intensify its bombing of Yugoslavia and will continue the assault as long as it takes to bludgeon Slobodan Milosevic into full compliance with the Alliance's demands. Speaking at an American airbase near Spangdalem in Germany on Wednesday, he said NATO was after punishing acts of cruelty in the Balkans. Yugoslavia meanwhile has announced it has lost 12 hundred lives in the six weeks of the NATO war against it. Over five thousand people have received injuries in the air raids. Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic told this to the CNN in an interview on Tuesday. He said his country has also lost nearly 300 schools, three public broadcasting centres, a number of bridges and dozens of civilian manufacturing facilities.
Macedonia has closed the border with Yugoslavia to stop the influx of refugees from Kosovo. A spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency, Paola Ghedini, made the announcement on Wednesday. Police have blocked the border - crossing Blace at which nearly fifteen hundred refugees have arrived. The Macedonian authorities explain their decision by an extremely difficult situation in the country as a result of the influx of 200 thousand ethnic Albanians from Kosovo.
An aid convoy from Greece came under NATO bombardment as it was travelling from Macedonia to Kosovo on Wednesday afternoon. The Greek branch of MEDECINES SANS FRONTIERS, which dispatched the aid consignment, says there were no casualties or damage in the attack. NATO planes dropped bombs on the 4 Greek trucks in the convoy moments after they emerged from a road tunnel.

May 5

NATO air raids have caused power blackouts in parts of Yugoslavia for the second time in three days. Belgrade, eyewitnesses say, suffered 30 minutes of complete nighttime outage after bombs struck one of Serbia's main overhead power lines. The previous blackout early on Sunday affected 70 per cent of the country's territory. On Tuesday night, NATO bombs and missiles fell on the cities of Novi Sad, Valevo and Pristina, causing damage to a number of civilian installations there. According to Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic, NATO's air raids have killed 12 hundred and seriously injured around 50 hundred people.
Yugoslav gunners grounded two more NATO planes on Tuesday. On came down near the Serbian city of Valevo, and the other, outside the Kosovo capital Pristina. Smoldering remains of an American A-10 ground attack aircraft that ploughed into a field there were briefly shown on Serbian TV. Since the start of its aggression against Yugoslavia 6 weeks ago, NATO has lost over 50 planes and some 200 cruise missiles to Yugoslav flak. An American APACHE helicopter gunship crashed into the ground 75 kilometers northwest of the Albanian capital Tirana this morning killing both airmen on board. According to the Pentagon, the craft was on a training flight. It's the second APACHE gunship to have crashed in Albania. The first one came down just outside Tirana on April the 26th. The APACHE helicopter is known for its ability to knock out enemy tanks. The Pentagon deployed 23 such gunships in Albania as part of preparations for a ground operation against Federal Yugoslavia.
The Russian presidential mediator for the Balkans Victor Chernomyrdin insists that the war in Yugoslavia must be stopped at all costs. He says this country also demands an end to violence in Kosovo and firm guarantees for all refugees from the region to return to their homes in complete safety. Mr Chernomyrdin was speaking after returning to Moscow from the United States where he discussed the Kosovo crisis at the White House in Washington and the UN headquarters in New York. He said President Slobodan Milosevic is willing to accept an international implementation force in Kosovo but there remains considerable disagreement over the nature and composition of any such force. All these differences, however, may be ironed out before the end of this week, Mr Chernomyrdin believed.
President Bill Clinton is in Germany on a mission to inspect two American airbases involved in the air campaign against Federal Yugoslavia. He arrived there from Belgium where he discussed Kosovo at the NATO headquarters in Brussels. Among other things, he briefed top officials there on the outcome of his Washington talks with Victor Chernomyrdin.
The American Defense Secretary William Cohen doesn't rule out the release of two Serbian servicemen captured by militants of the Kosovo Liberation Army and handed over to NATO forces. The minister was speaking to reporters on the US air base in Spangdalem where he had arrived together with President Clinton. Mr.Cohen said he would advise NATO officials to release the captives. The release, he said, must not be considered as a return good will gesture towards the Yugoslav authorities who recently released three American servicemen.
Britain's MI-6 has begun to investigate facts testifying to a link between Kosovo Liberation Army and international mafia. According to the London-based Daily Telegraph, since Albania's political isolation ended the rapidly-growing Albanian diaspora abroad has been stepping up efforts to dispute the positions of Sicily's mafia in control of the illegal business in the West.
The Russian cargo jumbo Ruslan carrying humanitarian assistance to Kosovo refugees in Macedonia has arrived in Sophia. A Russian Emergencies Ministry convoy is leaving for Macedonia tomorrow.
The lower house of the Belorussian parliament has supported a decision taken by the Yugoslav parliament to join the Union of Russia and Belorussia. According to the ITAR-TASS news agency, the MPs asked the president and government of Belorussia to consider in detail international, political, economic and legal issues connected with the decision.

The Special representative of Russia's president for the Balkans Victor Chernomirdin has ended his trip to the United States. In Washington he met with US president Bill Clinton. After the discussions in the White House and talks with US vice-president Albert Gore, Victor Chernomirdin said a step has been made towards a diplomatic solution of the crisis. However, he added, work should continue with hope for success. In New York on Tuesday the Russian mediator visited UN headquarters and held talks with UN secretary general Kofi Annan. Later he said the United Nations is determined to take part in settling the Yugoslav crisis .As for Russia it is ready to help the United Nations in that respect. Victor Chernomirdin pointed out that in order to speedily end the crisis in the Balkans there should be political will on the part of both Belgrade and NATO. He told newsmen he intends to Make another trip to Belgrade and to " other countries", as he pat it and is determined to conduct the talks until the conflict is settled.
Russia's prime-minister Evgeni Primakov has again condemned the barbarous bombing of Yugoslavia . In an interview for the newspaper " Komsomolskaya Pravda" ho said he is deeply indignant with what NATO is doing in Yugoslavia. He said the West is now taking decisions that actually annul the entire post-war structures of the world order which even in the years of the cold war make it possible to avoid clashes with each other. In the opinion, of the prime-minister there will be no NATO ground operation-in Yugoslavia. Such on operation, he warned, would inevitably escalate the conflict, The head of Russia's government assessed highly the courage of the people of Yugoslavia and added that they know how to fight when upholding their independence.
The Representatives of the Group of Seven plus Russia have agreed to put the United Nations in charge of the settlement of the Kosovo crisis According to the Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Avdeyev, this decision was taken at the conference in Bonn that was held there by the heads of the political departments of the foreign ministries of the Group of Eight which includes seven most industrialized countries and Russia. Alexander Avdeyev says that/it is for the first time that the participants in the conference reached agreement, confirming that the international presence in Kosovo will be carried out under the United Nations' auspices. The Russian diplomat has made it clear that this opens up the way for stopping NATO's bombings of Yugoslavia and also for a political settlement of the Kosovo problem.
NATO warplanes have been able to knock out one main high-voltage transmission lines in Serbia and many regions were again left without electricity. In some parts of Belgrade this created a very difficult and often crisis situation at some of the enterprises, on the transport and hospitals. At a maternity home in Belgrade., close to which NATO missiles once foil, only an emergency electricity supply unit helped save the lives of l20 babies placed in incubators. In seven weeks of NATO's aggression Yugoslavia lost 1200 people. And about five thousand were seriously wounded This was Made known by Yugoslavia's foreign minister Zhivadin Iovanovic when interviewed by the CNN company. 300 school buildings were destroyed and also three TV and radio centers and a big number of industrial enterprises and bridges.
Yugoslavia's air defenses shot down two planes of the aggressors on Tuesday. One of them was downed by anti-aircraft gunners in Pristina. The wreckage of the American A-IO plane was shown on Serbia's central television. The other air pirate was shot down over the city of Valevo. According to official reports published in Belgrade NATO lost over Yugoslavia more than 50 plane since the aggression began March 24th. About 200 cruise missiles were also shot down.
The Pentagon has confirmed that an American Stealth F-117 was seriously damaged by a Yugoslav anti-aircraft missile but was able to return to its base in Germany. This latest and Most expensive American warplane is practically invisible for radars, Earlier the Pentagon had to admit the loss of an F-117 plane which was shot down during a raid on Belgrade at the end of March.
On Tuesday the US Senate voted down granting President Bill Clinton powers for carrying out a granting operation in Kosovo. 78 senators have voted against and Only 22 for the resolution that would grant Bill Clinton that right. Earlier the House of Representatives of the American Congress refused to support NATO's airstrikes against Yugoslavia, voicing their doubts about the US administration's policy in the Balkans.

May 4

An umbrella organization representing associations of ethnic Serbs in the Netherlands has petitioned the International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague to bring NATO to justice for its aggression against Federal Yugoslavia. The submission lists civilian casualties and damage there after nearly six weeks of NATO air raids. The development comes two days after Yugoslavia itself took steps to initiate lawsuits against the ten NATO countries who are contributing in the air campaign against it. The Yugoslav government, though, does not put much trust in the International Court of Justice in The Hague where the cases are to be heard. A senior official of the Yugoslav Embassy to the Netherlands has accused the court of exercising bias and dancing to the tune of the US.
Head of the Hungarian union of journalists Isztvan Wisinger has strongly condemned NATO for its attack on the main building of Yugoslavia's national television ten days ago. In a statement on World Press Freedom Day on Monday, he criticized attempts to justify the attack as hypocrisy. He said it requires a merciless stretch of imagination to classify a television facility as a legitimate military target.
Finland is concerned by the drawn-out military action of NATO against Yugoslavia and wants the Council of Europe to play a bigger role in Balkan settlement. A statement to this effect was made by foreign minister Tarya Khalonen on Monday. As a result of the NATO actions, according to her, force decisions will dominate, while political conclusions will be made later. This merely aggravates the crisis, the Finnish minister said.
Bulgaria won't prevent Russian from delivering humanitarian aid to Yugoslavia. This was stated in Sofia by a spokesman for the foreign ministry upon the arrival in Bulgaria on Monday, of a Russian plane with aid on aboard. Farther on, it will be transported by land. A few days earlier, Bulgaria announced its decision to close the border with Yugoslavia. Yet, according to the spokesman for Bulgarian foreign ministry, there won't be any obstacles to the transportation of humanitarian cargo.
In order to settle the Kosovo crisis there should be a meeting between the presidents of Russia and the United States. This opinion was expressed by South African president Nelson Mandela. As he said at a press-conference devoted to the results of his visit to Hungary, Boris Yeltsin and Bill Clinton should meet and agree on ending the conflict peacefully. Prior to Hungary, Mandela visited Moscow where he met with the Russian president.
A group of Indian public leaders has urged the government to initiate a session of the UN Security Council end the NATO aggression in Yugoslavia. Their message was published on behalf of the "Social development Council" which unites prominent public figures in Delhi. In their opinion, India should cooperate on a broader scale with the other non-aligned countries and also with Russia and China in order to stop the NATO airstrikes.

May 3

British reports quoting the Serb information centre in the Kosovo capital Pristina say a NATO rocket has hit one more passenger vehicle there killing at least 10 people. The attack destroyed a coach carrying refugees on a road just outside the town of Pec. Yesterday, Kosovo mourned the death of 60 people who died in a NATO air attack on a commuter bus early on Saturday. On the 12th of last month, a NATO jet struck a passenger train on a bridge on NATO's hit list. On the 14th, British and American bombers pounded a convoy of Kosovo refugees leaving 75 of them dead. NATO routinely shrugs off such incidents as regrettable misses.
The Russian presidential mediator for the Balkans Victor Chernomyrdin is due in Washington later today with fresh proposals on how to end the crisis over Kosovo. These are contained in a letter from President Boris Yeltsin to Bill Clinton which he is carrying with him. Mr Chernomyrdin announced before departure he would also see UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and then carry his mission to Belgrade, London and Paris. Last week, he conducted intensive consultations in Bonn and Rome after talking with President Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade. Mr Chernomyrdin keeps saying NATO must end its bombing campaign before there can be progress towards peace in the Balkans. Parallel reports from London say Foreign Secretary Robin Cook is nursing an initiative for NATO to call a day-long suspension of the bombardment so that Serbia could start pulling out its forces from Kosovo.
Big Serbian cities including Belgrade have suffered several hours of massive power cuts after NATO planes dropped graphite bombs designed to cause short-circuiting in grids. TV stations were off the air, telephones were silent and running water degenerated to a trickle because of dead pumps. According to a NATO spokesman in Brussels, the Alliance wanted to demonstrate it can leave Yugoslavia without power at any moment of its choice. In Novi Sad in northern Serbia, overnight air attacks struck a television transmitter and an oil depot, which had already sustained 11 nights of heavy bombardments. A woman was killed in Sremska Mitrovica northwest of Belgrade. Rockets destroyed several houses in a residential area in the town of Velevo nearby. Over 1 thousand people in Yugoslavia have been killed, and more than 4 thousand have received injuries since the start of the American-led air assault. NATO has lost over 50 warplanes, two of them yesterday, one crashed into a field in western Serbia, and the other falling into the Adriatic Sea after an unsuccessful attempt to touch down on the deck of its carrier ship.
Senior diplomats from the 8 most powerful industrialized democracies are meeting near Bonn today to pave the way for their foreign ministers to put heads together on Kosovo. In doing so, they are acting on a recent initiative by Russia, which holds a seat on the big powers club.

In compliance with an agreement between the Russian and American Presidents, Bill Clinton will receive the Russian leader's special representative in charge of a settlement in Yugoslavia Viktor Chernomyrdin in Washington later today. Chernomyrdin is leaving for the US capital on instructions from and with a special message by President Yeltsin. According to the Russian President`s press service, on Sunday Yeltsin phoned up and had a conversation with Bill Clinton to discuss the situation around Kosovo and the efforts that should be made to put the conflict on the basis of political negotiations. During their conversation the two leaders reached agreement on Chernomyrdin's visit to Washington. The Russian presidential press service also points out that following his talks with Clinton, Chernomyrdin will meet the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
The three American servicemen that the Yugoslav authorities have set free arrived at the US Air Force base "Ramstein", Germany, from Zagreb on Sunday. All leading American TV companies broke their broadcasts to show the landing of the plane at the base. The three servicemen`s relatives are expected to arrive at the base shortly. The servicemen were seized in Kosovo on the 31st of March by Yugoslav borderguards. And as President Slobodan Milosevic announced their release on Saturday, he said Belgrade did not see them as enemies but as "victims of militarism and war". The US public figure and clergyman Jesse Jackson, whom the released servicemen had been handed over to, said that this move by Belgrade should be seen as a starting point for peace talks on Kosovo to get underway.
On Sunday the United States Administration said the latest proposals by the Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic couldn't serve as a basis for ending the bombings of Yugoslav territory. According to the spokesman for the US National Security council Jake Seaware, President Clinton in a telephone conversation with the Russian President Boris Yeltsin on Sunday reaffirmed his Administration's positions that the Union Republic of Yugoslavia would continue to be bombed until Milosevic met NATO demands.
During their raids, on Sunday night and Monday morning, NATO aircraft plunged the 2 million resident Belgrade, both the city centre and the environs, into darkness. The NATO Air Force used new arms and managed to destroy most of Serbia's power supply system. They bombed out, among other things the electric power station in the town of Obrenovac, a station that supplied Belgrade with electric power. Most in Serbia have no power supply because local power-generating stations and circuits have been destroyed. According to reports from Belgrade, the capital city authorities have been bending every effort to restore electric power supply.
On Sunday the US "A-IO" - "Thunderbolt" plane made a forced landing at the Skopje airport in Macedonia. The plane has a wing damaged, possibly by a shell hit. This has come is a report by the NBC television network, which claims the US and NATO use this type of planes to strike at Yugoslav armour. The damaging of the "Thunderbolt" is the third incident that's occurred over the past 24 hours.
The province of Kosovo is observing a day of mourning for 60 people who died when a NATO rocket hit a passenger coach they were travelling in on a bridge 20 kilometres outside the provincial capital Pristina on Saturday afternoon. The NATO headquarters in Brussels has confirmed the hit but declined to acknowledge civilian deaths in the incidents It's the sixth such miss admitted by NATO. On April the 5th, NATO bombs destroyed a number of houses in the town of Aleksinac, and on the 9th, in a residential area in the Kosovo capital Pristina. On the 12th, a rocket hit a passenger train as it was crossing a bridge. On the 14th, NATO planes bombed a convoy of Kosovo refugees killing at least 75 people.
In Finland the Ministry of Trade and Industry Erkki Tuomioia has levelled criticism at NATO for the aftermath of NATO's strikes on Yugoslavia. Speaking in the town of Kotka he said that one couldn't remain silent in the face of what was going on there. One should name those responsible for the grave errors made in the course of the military campaign. The Finnish Minister feels that it is wrong to believe that the airstrikes will overwhelm Yugoslavs, help find a solution to the Kosovo problem and defend Kosovo Albanians. This is the first time NATO has come under criticism from a Finnish leader. Prior to that Finland was known to agree that the basic reason for all problems in Yugoslavia was "Milosevic's stubbornness".

May 2

At least 23 people were killed on Saturday afternoon when NATO warplanes knocked out a bridge some 20 kilometers north of the Kosovo capital Pristina. According to a France Presse correspondent reporting from the site of the tragedy, the bombs struck just as a commuter bus was crossing the bridge. Earlier, the official Yugoslav news agency Tanjug reported attacks on the towns of Novy-Pazar in southern Serbia and Bajina-Pasta on the Bosnian border. On Saturday morning Pristina was also bombed by the alliance warplanes and a hospital was seriously damaged in Pancevo town near Belgrade when a NATO rocked slammed in early in the day. A ser4ioes of explosions were also reported in the towns of Sombor along the Hungarian border and in Subotica in the north. NATO has invcreasilgy been switching to conventional bombs because its inventory of smart weapons is running dry fast. This has lead to more civilian victims and wider destruction of non-military sites. More than a thousand people have died and 5,000 more injured since the Alliance launched the airstrikes more than five weeks ago. More than 11,000 tons of explosives have already been dropped on Yugoslavia and a NATO spokesman said in Brussels on Saturday that, in the past 24 hours the alliance warplanes had flown more than 600 sorties.
NATO Secretary General Javier Solana is expecting a speedy end to the alliance air campaign in Yugoslavia. In an interview with Der Spiegel magazine on Saturday he said that NATO's military operation in the Balkans had entered its "final phase".
On May 1 President Boris Yeltsin congratulated the people with the International Labor Day as thousands took to the streets across the nation in rallies organized by trade unions, the Communist party and other political movements. In a show of solidarity with the victims of NATO bombings in Yugoslavia demonstrators in Moscow, St.Petersburg, Siberia and the Far East lambasted the airstrikes and in Vladivostok protesters burned a US flag in front of a US Consulate General. Protesters in Novosibirsk and Irkutsk demanded Russian military assistance to the Balkans and supported the idea of a union of Russia, Belorussia and Yugoslavia.
NATO warplanes continued their airstrikes on Yugoslavia on Monday hitting at a civilian airfield near the Kosovo capital Pristina. There were no immediate reports of injuries after a missile struck a park between a police building and a hospital in Pancevo town near Belgrade. Powerful explosions also ripped through the town of Sombor near the Hungarian border and in Subotica town in the north. Air raid sirens sounded in the cities of Nis, Cacak and Rragujevac and eight people were killed and injured when NATO aviation destroyed a bridge in Montenegro. 11,000 tons of explosives have already been rained down on Yugoslavia killing 5,000 people and injuring thousands more peaceful civilians since the Alliance launched its air campaign more than five weeks ago.
At least 10 civilians, hald of them in Montenegro, died in the past 24 hours of NATO airstrikes on Yugoslavia. Three adult Montenegrins and three children were killed when alliance bombs destroyed a bridge across the Lima River near the town of Berane. Another four peaceful civilians died in Kosovo during a Friday night airstrike against two ethnic Albanian villages some 15 kilometers away from Pristina. One man died and 17 others were injured when NATO warplane bombed out a bridge across the Western Morava River. It often happens that the Alliance pilots who are not allowed to return to base with unused bombs, indiscriminately get rid of their lethal cargo on their way back from a failed sortie.

May 1

The Russian President's special envoy to the Balkans Viktor Chernomyrdin has expressed content with the results of his talks with the Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. Speaking in Belgrade on Friday night he said proposals had been worked out for a peaceful settlement of the Kosovo crisis. They include an end to NATO bombings of Yugoslavia, a return of refugees and deployment in Kosovo of "an international force representing the countries that will manage to guarantee the refugees' security". The official statement about the Chernomyrdin - Milosevic meeting lays emphasis on the importance of joint Russian-Yugoslav efforts for a peaceful settlement of the Balkan crisis. The parties to the talks agreed to continue negotiations. On Friday night Viktor Chernomyrdin returned to Moscow and today he will report to President Yeltsin about the results of his visit to Belgrade and also about the results of the talks he had earlier in Bonn and Rome.
NATO has rejected the peace proposals that President Slobodan Milosevic has outlined in an interview with the American news agency UPI. They include an end to all hostilities, withdrawing NATO troops from the Yugoslav borders, reduction of the Serbian military contingent in Kosovo, a return of all refugees to the province and deploying in Kosovo a United Nations peacekeeping force, armed with defensive weapons. Meanwhile NATO's spokesman Jamie Shea has told a news conference in Brussels that "Yugoslav proposals fail to meet the demands of the international community and therefore could be given no serious consideration".
On Friday night NATO delivered more airstrikes on Yugoslavia. But the cloud conditions prevented the bombings from being as intensive as on Thursday. According to the Yugoslav news agency TANJUG, the town Pancevo, near Belgrade, came under attack, with one missile going off between a police station and hospital. Powerful explosions tore through the town of Sombor, near the Hungarian border, and Subbotica, - in the North of Serbia. Air-raid warning sirens sounded in the towns of Nis, Cacak, and Kragujvac. On Friday night 8 people were killed when NATO planes bombed a bridge in Montenegro. Since NATO launched its aggression against Yugoslavia, it dropped 11,000 tones of explosives of Yugoslav territory. More than a thousand civilians have been killed and 5,000 have been injured.
American Congressmen have brought legal action against President Clinton over the US involvement in the military operation against Yugoslavia. 17 House members point out in their suit statement that Clinton broke the Constitution when he failed to seek an approval by Congress of committing US troops to action at least 60 days before the start of hostilities. The Congressmen hope that the court will order the President to pull the American troops out of the Balkans.

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