April 3
- President Boris Yeltsin has urged
the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to make every effort to end NATO's
military operation in Yugolsvia and politically resolve the Kosovo crisis.
In a telephone linkup on Saturday, initiated by the German leader, President
Yeltsin repeated his call for the G8 foreign ministers to convene an emergency
meeting to discuss the problem. Yeltsin and Schroeder stressed the need
for maintaining close contact.
- The Russian Foreign Ministry has
described NATO's air raid on the centre of Belgrade as another barbarous
act in the Balkans. A statement to that effect was circulated on Saturday.
According to the statement, those who issued the criminal order, did not
bother to take into account that the rockets targeted facilities situated
in immediate proximity to a hospital complex, a day-care centre and apartment
blocks. In the face of the whole world, the statement says, NATO is encroaching
on international law and moral principles. What makes the operation look
more cynical, the statement says, is that it is carried out under the slogan
of preventing a humanitarian disaster.
- The Yugolslav Foreign Minister
Zhivadin Jovanovic has expressed indignation over the air raids against
Belgrade. In his words, it is hard to believe that the American people
can approve the bombardements of an ally in the struggle against the Nazis.
The Yugoslav Vice-Premier Vuk Drashkovic has described the air raids as
a crime against the people of Serbia. Mr.Drashkovic said the preliminary
reports say the air raids have caused a lot of casualties because the buildings
of the Yugoslav and Serbian Interiour Ministries they targeted are situated
30 metres from a hospital.
- Commenting on today's air raids
on the Yugoslav capital the Canadian TV company CBC said the attack shows
the extent of NATO's frustration over the fact that 10 days of bombardments
have brought no results.
- Russia continues to search for
a political settlement in Yugoslavia and believes that the possibility
of building up its naval force in the Adriatic will depend on the developments
in the Balkans. The announcement was made in an interview with the ITAR-TASS
news agency by the Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeev. According to
General Sergeev, a meeting earlier in the day chaired by Prime-Minister
Yevgeny Primakov discussed how to carry out President Yeltsin's proposals
to convene a conference of G-8 representatives to search for a negotiated
settlement.
- France has supported Russia's call
to convene a conference of heads of foreign ministry political departments
of the Contact Group and the G-8 leading industrialized nations. The announcement
was made earlier in the day by a French Foreign Ministry spokesman as he
was commenting on yesterday's telephone conversation between the French
Foreign Minister Uber Vedrin and his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov. According
to the spokesman, Mr.Vedrin told Mr.Ivanov that France considers it useful
to convene the conference. Paris, the French minister said, would maintain
a dialogue with Moscow in an effort to find a solution to the Kosovo crisis.
- Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov believes
that under certain conditions Russia should lift the embargo on weapons
supplies to Yugoslavia. Mr.Luzhkov believes that if NATO moves its ground
troops to Yugoslavia Russia must render military assistance to the country.
According to Moscow Mayor, the people of Russia will support a measure
of this kind since they are not indifferent to the future of brother Serbs.
- Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has said
NATO has been using nuclear missiles and bombs against Yugoslavia. In his
words, the alliance is droping obsolete missiles and bombs which are to
be destroyed. According to Mr.Luzhkov, this may result in an environmental
disaster. The RIA Novosti news agency says Moscow authorities have called
on the European nations to interfere and speak up against NATO's ecological
aggression.
- The agency ITAR-TASS quotes Deputy
Prime Minister Gennadi Kulik as saying the government, too, is rushing
supplies to help Serbia cope with the devastation caused by the NATO air
assault. These include medicines, medical equipment, household essentials
and building materials.
- According to a report in the London-based
Arabic-language paper AL-HAYAT, the Vatican has approached a number of
NATO countries including France, Italy and the US with a proposal for the
Alliance to call an Easter-time break in the bombardments if Belgrade agrees
to release three American soldiers captured near the border between Serbia
and Macedonia on Wednesday. The initiative is contained in a series of
personal messages from Pope John Paul the Second. The proposed let-up is
supposed to span both the Western Easter on Sunday the 4th and the Eastern
Easter a week later.
- Two of the NATO missiles fired
last night on Yugoslavia exploded 10 kilometres outside Tirana, the capital
of Albania. According to that country's Interior Ministry, both hits, recorded
at about 6 GMT, nearly missed the capital's main water treatment plant.
There are no reports of damage or casualties. It's the third such incident
in Albania since the start of the American-led air assault on Federal Yugoslavia.
The first NATO missile fell on Albanian territory on Thursday last week,
and the second one, exactly a week later. Fortunately, neither went off.
Similar incidents have been reported from Bulgaria and Macedonia.
- According to an ITAR-TASS report,
NATO aircraft delivered a strike on central Belgrade early this Saturday.
Powerful bombs went off near the news agency office. Bombs hit the buildings
of the Serbian and Federal interior Ministries, which are in the immediate
vicinity of a maternity home and a mental hospital. One missile exploded
20 metres away from the Obstetrics and Gynaecology institute. According
to Russian diplomats, blasts also rocked the environs of the Russian embassy
which is close to the Yugoslav General Staff.
- The Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zhivadin
Yovanovic has said that NATO strikes on Belgrade are comparable with actions
by German Nazis in the Second World War. According to him, the bombing
of the Yugoslav capital centre is a blow at American democracy. Yovanovic
said it was impossible to imagine that bombing the capital of a European
state could be a show of will of the American people. According to Yugoslav
news media reports' the Yugoslav public is shocked by the barbaric bombing
of Belgrade's central part. The deputy Yugoslav Prime-Minister Vuc Draskovic
has described NATO's action as a collective punishment of the Serbs. He
stressed that if the alliance stopped its bombing raids' the Serbian side
would at once begin acting on a political settlement of the crisis with
the Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova.
- The Russian Foreign Minister Igor
Ivanov has described as positive on the whole the G-8 countries' first
reaction to President Yeltsin's proposal for a Contact Group Foreign Ministers'
meeting on a settlement of the crisis around Yugoslavia. Speaking at a
news conference in Moscow on Friday Ivanov stressed that Russia's initiative
had been prompted by a striving for reversing the ^tragic course of developments
around Yugoslavia and bring the settlement process to the negotiating table.
- Italian prime minister Massimo
d'Alema feels anything that gives a chance to a Yugoslav accommodation,
including the Russian call on the worlds seven most advanced Nations, must
be accepted with due attention. President Yeltsin suggested a short while
ago that the foreign ministers of the Big Seven and Russia meet to find
a solution to the Kosovo problem.
- As the heads of state of the Commonwealth
of Independent States met in Moscow they came out for an end to NATO's
use of force against Yugoslavia and said they wanted to help reach fair
settlement of the conflict. This came in a statement at the Commonwealth's
full-scale summit meeting on Friday by President Boris Yeltsin.
- Since NATO launched its military
operation in the Balkan NATO aircraft have flown 2000 combat missions.
500 cruise missiles have been fired at various targets on Federal Yugoslav
territory. The data were provided at a news conference in Moscow on Friday
by the first deputy Chief of the Russian General Staff Yury Baluevsky.
According to the Russian General Staff, Yugoslav antiaircraft defence units
have shot down up to 10 NATO warplanes, 3 helicopter gunships and several
dozen cruise missiles. General Baluyevsky pointed out that NATO commanders
admit that the bombings of Yugoslavia failed to attain the objectives set.
He also confirmed data about NATO plans to launch a ground operation in
the Balkans. To prepare such an operation, the General feels NATO may need
6 weeks.
- According to US Congress experts
and independent financial experts, the military operation in Yugoslavia
may cost the United States billions of dollar. Laser-guided aircraft bombs
are relatively cheap: - 40 000 dollars a piece, but then the average cost
of each "Tomahawk" missile of the US Navy and of each cruise
missile of the US Air Force is $ 1 000 000. Also quite expensive may prove
the funding of an upkeep of 43000 US servicemen that are to form part of
a NATO peacekeeping contingent in Kosovo. They would require an estimated
1 billion dollars every year.
- Representatives of the Serb community
of Hungary rallied Friday in front of the US Embassy in Budapest to protest
the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia. A statement by the Hungarian Serb
Association was read out at the rally. The statement urges all the Hungarians
to denounce the aggression and call for an end to the bloodshed. It says
all attempts to untangle the Kosovar knot by force of arms will only escalate
regional tension.
April 2
- Leaders of the Commonwealth of
Independent States at their meeting in Moscow on Friday called for as end
to NATO's military operation against Yugoslavia, and voiced readiness to
promote a just settlement of the conflict. The meeting was chaired by Russian
President Boris Yeltsin. Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov informed the participants
about his recent trips to Belgrade and Bonn, and about efforts being taken
by the Russian government to mediate a peaceful solution to the crisis.
- President Yeltsin's initiative
to convene an emergency meeting of the Big Sight, the former G-7 plus Russia,
at a foreign minister level is receiving broad international support. One
of the UN Security Council's permanent members - China, which has strongly
condemned NATO's air strikes against Yugoslavia, has backed Russia's proposal.
A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Beijing favoured a political
solution to the Kosovo conflict. India has welcomed Mr Yeltsin's initiative
aimed at stopping the aggression against sovereign Yugoslavia. A senior
Indian Foreign Ministry official stressed that Moscow may play a crucial
role in resolving the crisis. The initiative has also been approved by
Germany and a number of other countries. The US is virtually the only country
to reject Russia's proposal.
- Metropolitan Sergius who is managing
the affairs of the Moscow Patriarch's office, has denounced as blasphemy
war action on Holy Friday and the days that mark the passions and death
of Our Savior. Sergius offered comment. Earlier today, on last night's
bombing of the city of Vranje, of the Serbian province of Kosovo. He was
sorry the North Atlantic Alliance had refused to heed the voice of the
Russian Orthodox Church and disregarded the Vatican's call for the suspension
of war act on in the course of the Easter week.
- In Chicago, the Serbian Orthodox
Church of the United States has filed a legal suit against President Clinton.
It is pressing for an end to US participation in the Allied aggression
against Yugoslavia. The legal suit has been filed against President Clinton
because he is commander-in-chief of the US armed forces.
- Three US servicemen captured Wednesday
by Yugoslav troops, are about to be court-martialed in Yugoslavia. The
Serbian military administration of Kosovo says the three American spies
were captured in Kosovo.
- The capture of three US servicemen
in Serbia's province of Kosovo has immediately swayed public opinion in
the United States. An opinion poll conducted by the CNN, CBS and ABC TV
companies shows the number of those who support what the North Atlantic
Alliance is doing in Yugoslavia has dropped to 50 per cent. About 10 per
cent of the polled listed themselves as undecided.
- The Russian President Boris Yeltsin
has suggested holding an emergency meeting of the G-8 Foreign Ministers
on Kosovo to resolve the problem by political means. G-8 comprises the
7 more industrially developed nations and Russia. As the Russian leader
appeared on television he said the bombings of Yugoslavia should be stopped
and that the Kosovo problem could and must be resolved at the negotiating
table.
- NATO circles assess highly the
initiative of Russia's president Boris Yeltsin on holding a meeting of
the foreign ministers of the G-8 countries and support fully all international
diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the conflict around Kosovo. NATO's secretary
general Javier Solana said that when answering a question of an ITAR-TASS
news agency correspondent. Support of the initiative of the Russian president
was expressed by foreign minister of the Federal Republic of Germany Joschka
Fischer and leaders of a number of other countries. And only the United
States actually rejected Russia's peace proposal. This was made clear by
a representative of the State department James Rubin when speaking at a
briefing in Washington on Thursday.
- Moscow has welcomed the resumption
of contacts between the Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and the Kosovo
Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova. When the two met in Belgrade on Thursday
they came out for a political solution to the conflict around Kosovo. A
source in the Foreign Ministry in Moscow has said that the Belgrade meeting
acquires special importance in view of the fact that the two sides share
a commonposition.
- Yugoslavia's air defences shot
down two NATO planes and two helicopters on Thursday. Serbian television
says the American stealth F-117 was seriously damaged and made a forced
landing in Zagreb, Chroatia. Another plane and two helicopters were downed
over the Tara mountain, 200 kilometers south-west of Belgrade. Reports
from Belgrade say there were 50 servicemen on board the helicopters.
- NATO is extending the scale of
air raids on Yugoslavia, including strikes at civilian sites. The North
Atlantic Alliance has threatened to hit at targets in the center of Belgrade,
including government buildings. There were air attacks at the outskirts
of Pristina, the administrative center of Kosovo, where there are no military
facilities. Rocket dropped near the village of Gracanica where a monastery,
built in the 14th century, is situated. Over a thousand civilians have
died since the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia began.
- NATO rockets and bombs have destroyed
or damaged in Yugoslavia over 120 child-care centers, orphanages, schools,
colleges and other educational establishments. This has been reported by
the Russian news agency Novosti, quoting education minister of Yugoslavia
Iovo Todorovic. That does not include similar facilities in the Kosovo
province since the situation there prevents getting accurate information.
The biggest damage to educational establishments was done in the region
of Leskovac, in the south-east of Serbia, in Belgrade and in two other
big cities of the republic - Nish and Novi-Sad. NATO Salvoes at Yugoslavia
could be a farewell salute at the funeral of the United Nations. Deputy
foreign minister of Russia Vasili Sredin said that when speaking in Geneva
on Thursday. Addressing the annual session of the UN Human Rights Commission
he stressed that today an attack is directed against Yugoslavia but to-morrow
it could be any other country.
- Russia, the diplomat said, qualifies
NATO's action as an open aggression, as a crude violation of the UN Charter
and of the Russia-NATO Founding Act. The United States and NATO are seeking
to establish in the 21st century an order where fate of the people would
be decided from Washington.
- The Orthodox Christians, other
churches and international organizations of the Christians are repeatedly
urging NATO to end the aggression in Yugoslavia. NATO, however, rejects
calls to save peoples’ lives. When opposing the acts of military violence,
many religious leaders appeal to the Christian conscience of those who
give orders to bomb and those who obey them, they recall the coming of
such big events as Good Friday and Easter. The World Council of Churches
in its Easter address, called on believers to pray on Easter for those
people in Yugoslavia and other places where human life has been shocked
by war. Earlier Pope John Paul the Second and the head of the Russian Orthodox
Church patriarch Alexei the Second called for suspending the air raids.
In response to those calls of the Christians, a NATO representative Jeimi
Shea said in Brussels on Thursday that there will be no break in the bombing
of Yugoslavia during the Easter holidays.
- The Russian reconnaissance naval
ship Liman sailed today to the Mediterranean, to the region of the Yugoslav
conflict. Russia's defence minister Igor Sergeev has set the crew the task
to study concretely the situation in the zone, so the Russia could better
ensure its security. The ITAR-TASS news agency says that six more naval
ships of the Black sea fleet will sail soon to the Mediterranean. That
includes the " Admiral Golovko" cruiser, the big anti-submarine
ships "Kerch" and “Sderjanni”, patrol ships and a troop landing
craft.
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