May 14
- At least 100 civilians died and
scores of other were wounded in a night air attack on the village of Korisha
in southwestern Kosovo, nor far from the border with Albania. The official
Yugoslav news agency TANYUG reports that 8 cluster bombs, banned by international
conventions, were dropped on the village. The majority of casualties are
women and children. In the past 24 hours Yugoslavia suffered the biggest
NATO air strike since the beginning of the aggression in late March. A
statement spread in the alliance's headquarters in Brussels says NATO aircraft
carried out 679 combat flights. Last night NATO planes again used graphite
bombs, which explode over electric power stations and power lines, causing
short circuits. Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis and other Yugoslav cities were
left without electricity. Several airfields, bridges and oil terminals
were bombed. In Kosovo explosions could be heard in Pristina, Pec and Uroshevats.
- Moscow denounces the new NATO attack
on Yugoslavia, which claimed many lives in the village of Korisha. The
Russian foreign ministry says the death of several dozen civilians in Kosovo
proves, once again, the aggressive nature of what the North Atlantic Alliance
is doing in Yugoslavia.
- Yugoslav defense minister Pavle
Bulatovic says the NATO plans to destroy the military potential of his
country have fallen through. Bulatovic said, in an interview with the Greek
newspaper "Eleftherotypia" that the North Atlantic Alliance had
failed to inflict serious damage on the Yugoslav armed forces. As many
as 70 NATO planes, 10 helicopters and 180 missiles had, he said, been downed
in the sky over Yugoslavia in the 50 days of the war actions.
- An unmanned reconnaissance plane
of the North Atlantic Alliance was downed Thursday night by Yugoslav antiaircraft
defense forces. The Yugoslav news agency says the plane crashed near the
city of Uroshevats. The North Atlantic Alliance has confirmed the Yugoslav
report. Yugoslav sources say, however, that one more unmanned plane was
downed somewhat later near Pristina.
- The world's seven most advanced
nations have drawn up a Security Council resolution on Kosovo, which is
to be discussed with Moscow next Monday. The Russian news agency ITAR-TASS
has quoted official London-based sources as saying the draft document,
to be known as a Road Map for Peace, presents a western view of diplomatic
ays to settle the Kosovo crisis.
- Russia's acting defense minister
Igor Sergeyev feel the NATO action against Yugoslavia and Iraq call for
the revision of the Russian security and defense doctrines. Sergeyev says
the defense ministry has already received appropriate instructions from
President Yeltsin and is already doing what it has been instructed to do.
- NATO warplanes again used graphite
bombs in the raids on Thursday night. When blowing up over high voltage
transmission lines and power sub-stations they cause a short circuit. Belgrade,
Novi Sad and Nis are now short of electricity. In Belgrade, alone 250 chronic
patients have to have blood transfusion every three days to survive and
electrical devices are needed to do that. Over a hundred babies are placed
in special incubators and they too need electrical instruments to help
keep them alive.
- A special representative of the
Russian president for settling the situation around Yugoslavia, Victor
Chernomyrdin met with the president of Finland Martii Ahtisaari in Helsinki
on Thursday and discussed the Kosovo crisis. Earlier the Russian representative
met in Moscow with America`s undersecretary of state Strobe Talbott and
the president of France Jacques Chirac. Both of them earlier met with Finland's
president who acts as a mediator in settling the conflict in Kosovo. In
an interview for the Russian news agency " Novosti", Victor Chernomyrdin
said that in the next few days he and president Martii Ahtisaari could
fly to Belgrade for talks with the president of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic.
- Russia's ambassador to the United
Nations Serguei Lavrov said in New York on Thursday that no resolutions
on a peaceful settlement in Kosovo could be approved by the Security Council
as long as NATO continues to bomb the territory of Yugoslavia. Speaking
at a news conference at the UN headquaters the Russian diplomat pointed
out that until the bombing is ended no political settlement is possible.
- The United States should at once
take concrete action in response to China's just demands made in connection
with NATO warplanes attacking China's embassy in Belgrade. The Russian
news agency " Novosto" reports from Beijing that such a statement
was made on Thursday by an official representative of China's foreign Ministry
Chu Bantsao. He stressed that Washington should not try to avoid responsibility.
Three persons were killed and several dozen wounded in NATO's bombing raid
on China's embassy.
- The first transport convoy with
humanitarian aide under the Russia-Greece-Switzerland initiative Focus
has arrived in Kosovo. Six trucks have brought from Macedonia 20 tons of
food and medical supplies for the hospitals in Pristina. Newsmen were told
that in Geneva by the head of the federal foreign affairs department of
Switzerland Joseph Daiss and member of the "Focus" coordinating
committee Walter Fust. He said this was the first test and it showed that
it is possible to act and the work will continue.
- Delegates to the special Congress
of the Germany party of the Greens held in Bilefeld approved on the whole
the policy of the country's coalition government in the Kosovo crisis.
Their resolution also demand suspending NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia to
make it easier to work out a political solution of the conflict.
- Yugoslavia's troops began pulling
out from Kosovo on Thursday line with Belgrade's peace initiative, in the
presence of Serbian and foreign newsmen. As a condition, for ending the
bombing of Yugoslavia, the West demand the withdrawal of Serbian troops
from Kosovo and the return of Albanian refugees under the protection of
international forces. The commander of the Pristian corps, general Vladimir
Lazarevic said the pullout of the troops is going on slow because of continuing
NATO bombing.
- Greece has called for ending at
once NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia and settling the Kosovo crisis by peaceful
means only. Such a statement was made in Athens on Thursday by a representative
of the government Dimitris Reppas. Earlier the prime-minister of Greece
Kostas Simitis said he notified his British counterpart Tony Blair about
the demand to end the war in the Balkans.
May 13
- The Russian President Boris Yeltsin
has reaffirmed that Moscow will have to re-consider its participation in
the Kosovo negotiation process if NATO continues to bomb Yugoslavia. He
made the statement during his talks with the French President Jacques Chirac
in Moscow today to discuss a settlement of the crisis around Yugoslavia
and the world situation. The two leaders said they were at one about the
need for a political settlement of the Kosovo crisis, but the discussion
of settlement details revealed that France and Russia largely differed
on the problem. Yeltsin and Chirac said they were convinced that their
differences should be bridged through negotiation, and agreed to agreed
to have a bilateral working group set up for consultations on a political
settlement in Kosovo. The French President spoke highly of the efforts
Russia has been making to settle the crisis, and stressed that it was impossible
to resolve the problem without Russia. When the two Presidents took up
the international situation, they came out in favour of building a multipolar
world. They were at one about the need for the two countries to pool efforts
to attain this objective.
- President Yeltsin's Balkans envoy
Viktor Chernomyrdin was meeting in Moscow on Thursday with the visiting
US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott. Mr.Talbott arrived in Moscow
from Helsinki where he was consulting with Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari.
Mr.Chernomyrdin, who will later also be heading to Helsinki, earlier said
he might join Mr.Talbott in a trip to Belgrade. Mr.Chernomyrdin has already
met there twice with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
- The United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights Mary Robinson has quoted the Yugoslav Foreign Minister
Zhivadin Yovanovic as saying that more than 1,200 civilians have been killed
and over 5.000 injured in the 50 days of NATO's bombardment of Yugoslavia.
She was speaking at a news conference in Belgrade. According to the Yugoslav
Foreign Ministry, the number of Kosovo Albanian refugees has reached one
million, which means that now there are actually no Albanians in Kosovo,
since there had been some 917,000 of them before the war had broken out.
- The Yugoslav conflict has no military
solution and must only be resolved by negotiation. Greek Foreign Minister
Georgios Papandreu told a news conference in Athens on Thursday that in
the next few days he planned visits to several European nations, including
Russia, and would also go to the United States and China to seek a political
way out of the crisis.
- Meeting with the visiting German
Chancelllor Gerhard Schroeder in Beijing on Thursday, Chinese President
Jiang Zemin said that an immediate end to NATO's airstrikes against Yugoslavia
held the key to resuming the broken-off talks on Kosovo. The Chinese leader
also said that any draft political solution should be coordinated with
Yugoslavia.
- Today President Yeltsin is meeting
with his French counterpart Jaque Chirac who arrived in Moscow last night.
The two sides will discuss prospects for bilateral relations and a number
of international issues with the focus on the crisis in Yugoslavia. According
to a spokesman for the French president, the two leaders are expected to
devise a plan of action to transfer a settlement process to the United
Nations Security Council. President Chirac is also expected to have a talk
with Russia's special envoy to the Balkans Viktor Chernomyrdin.
- Russia's Balkans envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin
is in Helsinki discussing a Kosovo settlement with the Finnish President
Martti Ahtisaari. The American Assistant Secretary of State Strobe Talbott
is in Helsinki too after yesterday's talks in Moscow with Mr. Chernomyrdin.
The talks will continue. According to the Russian envoy, the two may travel
to Belgrade together. Moscow talks resulted in the two sides calling for
a negotiated settlement of the conflict in Kosovo.
- NATO aviation has carried out another
night of air raids on Yugoslavia buffeting the Belgrade and Novi Sad areas
early on Thursday. Wednesday, the 50th day of NATO air strikes, saw a great
number of missiles hitting civilian facilities in Yugoslavia. Four schools,
a gerontology institute and several factories are reported to have been
destroyed in the city of Nis the residents of which spent the day in shelters
for fear of cluster bombs which may explode at the approach of people.
15 missiles were dropped on the city of Parachin destroying a student dormitory,
8 railway bridges and damaging a lot of buildings. More than 6 thousand
people are reported killed or wounded since the bombing campaign began
on March 24th. The damage inflicted has been estimated at 100 billion dollars.
- According to the Yugoslav ambassador
to the United Nations Vladislav Iovanovic, the humanitarian disaster in
Yugoslavia results from the Security Council's inability to condemn the
NATO aggression. In his letter to the Security Council Chairman Mr. Iovanovic
pointed out that NATO's air raids have destroyed a number of areas in Belgrade,
Novi Sad, Panchevo, Nis, Chachak and Pristina. The aggressors, the letter
says, have been using internationally-banned cluster bombs, weapons containing
depleted uranium and graphite bombs. The Yugoslav ambassador demanded an
immediate end to the aggression.
- The head of the United Nations
Commission For Human Rights Mary Robinson has accepted a proposal of the
Yugoslav leadership to examine the results of NATO's bombardments of a
number of cities in Yugoslavia. The former Irish president left for Nis
on Wednesday to see for herself the destruction caused by the use of cluster
bombs. 22 people were killed and 43 wounded when one of the bombs exploded
at a local market last Friday. Ms Robinson, however, failed to reach Nis
because of another air raid. Reports say she returned to Belgrade.
May 12
- President Yeltsin warns of an end
to dialogue with the West on Yugoslavia in case Western powers continue
to ignore Russian initiatives on how to find a diplomatic way out of the
crisis over Kosovo. Speaking from the chair of the National Security Council
today, he said this country has interests of its own in the Balkans and
is not prepared to act as a simple errand boy for carrying papers between
other parties involved. He also issued fresh instructions to his Foreign
and Defence Ministers on how to deal with the situation in Yugoslavia.
The crisis there forms the main topic of discussion between Foreign Minister
Igor Ivanov and US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott in Moscow today.
It will also figure between Mr Yeltsin and his French counterpart Jacques
Chiac at a Moscow summit starting this night.
- NATO air force destroyed 8 more
bridges in Yugoslavia in overnight raids. One of these bridges, near Vladycin
Han, a young couple was killed. Internationally banned cluster bombs fell
on Kosovo, killing a 4-year-old girl in the town of Lipljan. One person
died and several others received injuries in raids on the city of Nish
on southern Serbia, where a NATO rocket hit residential area last Friday
killing 16 people and injuring over 70. Yugoslavia has lost over 100O lives
in the seven weeks of the American-led aggression against it. More than
5 thousand people have been injured in the attacks. NATO has lost about
50 planes, the latest of which came down last night.
- The German Chancellor Gerhard Shroeder
has offered an apology to China for NATO's bombardment of its embassy in
Belgrade in which three Chinese nationals were killed. Mr.Shroeder made
the announcement in Beijing as he was meeting with the Chinese Foreign
Minister Tan Tszyasyuang. The minister said the incident must be investigated
thoroughly and those responsible must be brought to justice. Beijing is
mourning the death of the three journalists whose ashes arrived in the
city on Wednesday. Protest rallies continue near the embassies of the United
States, Britain and other NATO countries taking part in the aggression.
- An Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman
has expressed serious concern over NATO's new strategy to carry out military
operations outside the alliance's spheres of influence. According to the
diplomat, the bombardments of Yugoslavia undermine the principles of peaceful
co-existence and violate the UN Charter and international law.
- Canada has demanded an urgent session
of NATO Council to discuss the consequences of the bombardment of the Chinese
embassy in Belgrade. The country's Foreign Minister Lloyd Exorthy has described
the attack as a serious mistake.
- More than two thousand militants
of the Kosovo Liberation Army undergo training at secret bases in Albania
with the support of the country's government. This information is part
of a report made for the Pentagon by an US military attache in Tirana.
Among the KLA militants there is an Atlantic battalion consisting of Americans
and Canadians.
- The president of France Jacques
Chirac arrives in Moscow on a two-day working visit. He meets today with
President Boris Yelzin. Attention will be given to the state of bi-lateral
relations and the main objectives of their development. The two sides will
also discuss a number of international problems the chief one is the search
for settling the Yugoslav crisis. Moscow insists on ending NATO's military
action against Yugoslavia and resuming efforts to settle the conflict by
peaceful means.
- Russia's president Boris Yelzin
has approved the results of the visit to Beijing of his special representative
in Balkans Victor Chernomirdin. He informed the president about the results
of his talks with China's leaders when meeting with Boris Yelzin at the
president's residence near Moscow on Tuesday evening. On returning to Moscow
from Beijing on Tuesday Victor Chernomirdin said Russia has new proposals
to make to Washington on settling the crisis in Yugoslavia. He also stressed
that talks with China's leadership have shown that the two sides have similar
views on ways to approach the settlement of the Yugoslav crisis. According
to Victor Chernomirdin both Russia and China believe that ending NATO's
bombing should be the main condition for going over to peace talks on settling
the crisis around Yugoslavia. And the Russian representative will today
discuss with US under secretary of state Stroub Tulbott who has arrived
in Moscow ways of pulling out from the crisis situation in the Balkans
which has further aggravated by NATO's missile attack on China's embassy.
- NATO warplanes hit more missile
and bomb strikes at Yugoslavia on Tuesday night. The air alarm was sounded
in Belgrade and the big cities of Novi Sad and Kraguevaz. According to
the TANYUG news agency, there were big explosions in the outskirts of Belgrade
- Panchevo. Missiles were fired at the city of Sombor, near the borders
with Hungary and Croatia. About a dozen bombs exploded near the camp of
Serbian refugees in Parazin, 175 kilometers south of Belgrade. Intensive
strikes were hit at the outskirts of Pristina, the administrative center
of Kosovo. And on Tuesday evening five persons were killed, including a
three year old girl, when air attacks where made on a bridge near the Serbian
village of Vladicin Khan in Kosovo. And in Montenegro, a member of the
Union Republics of Yugoslavia - a bridge across the river Lim and a power
substation were destroyed. International observers say fierce fighting
is going on between the Serbian army and the fighters of the Kosovo Liberation
army near the Albanian border. Several thousand people have been killed
or wounded since NATO bombing of Yugoslavia began.
|
- NATO has begun preparing an operation
on introducing its ground forces into the Serbian province of Kosovo. A
leading newspaper "Scotsman" reported that on Tuesday, referring
to Britain's military circles. At present there are 28.000 servicemen under
the command of the head of NATO's ground troops in Macedonia, General Michael
Jackson. According to the newspaper, the advance units of the troops could
cross the border in the next five days.
- The remains of three Chinese newsmen,
who were killed in NATO's bombing attack on China's embassy in Belgrade,
have been brought to Beijing by plane. About 20 wounded citizens of China
arrive on board the same plane from the Yugoslav capital. The bombing of
China's embassy and the death of the country's citizens sparked off mass
anti-NATO and anti-American action on the part of the Chinese. And the
arrival of the remains of the three Chinese newsmen could lead to a new
outbreak of anti-NATO and anti-American feelings.
May 11
- Russia and China insist there can
be no peace talks on Yugoslavia before NATO has called off its air assault.
The Russian presidential envoy Victor Chernomyrdin and top Chinese leaders
including President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji agreed this during
talks in Beijing which centered on how to deal with the aftermath of the
NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade early on Saturday. Mr.
Chernomyrdin said there can be no military solution to the crisis over
Kosovo but believed the UN Security Council must stay away from discussing
the issue as long as NATO presses on with its bombing campaign. The sides
welcomed the start of an announced Serbian military pullout from Kosovo.
- US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe
Talbott has arrived in Moscow to discuss the Balkans crisis with Foreign
Minister Igor Ivanov and presidential envoy Victor Chernomyrdin.
- NATO air force this noon continued
its pounding of industrial sites in Nis in southern Serbia. Reports by
an independent radio station and the official agency TANYUG speak of bombs
hitting a gas processing plant and injuring members of a parliamentary
delegation there at the moment. The casualties include Dusan Mitkovic,
a senior functionary of the ruling Socialist Party. Overnight, NATO dramatically
stepped up its air attacks after a three-day lull following the destruction
of the Chinese Embassy early on Saturday. In Belgrade, bombs and missiles
hit administrative buildings and a chemical plant. In Cacak, bombs apparently
intended to destroy an industrial park ravaged a residential area nearby
killing 4 people and injuring dozens. Explosions could be heard in Sombor,
Kralevo, Uzice, Sijence and rural areas in southern Kosovo as well. Yugoslavia
has suffered several thousand casualties in the seven weeks of the American-led
aggression against it.
- The International Court of Justice
in The Hague has continued hearing a case, brought by Federal Yugoslavia,
for ten NATO countries to end their agression against that Balkan state
and make up for the damage caused by their air campaign. A lawyer for the
plaintiff described the bombardments as an act of genocide.
- A Russian aid convoy has hit the
road from Sofia to a town in Serbia after arriving in the Bulgarian capital
by plane. It carries essential supplies an a field hospital with over 40
experienced medical staff.
- President Yeltsin's emissary for
the Balkans Viktor Chernomyrdin has met, in Beijing, with Chairman Jiang
Zemin of China and some other Chinese leaders. The first man Chernomyrdin
met with was Chinese deputy Prime Minister Qian Qichen. The NATO bombing
of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade served to prove, Chernomyrdin told Qian
Qichen, that the western muscle flexing hampered, if not stalemated, the
negotiating process. It was agreed Monday in a telephone conversation between
President Yeltsin and Chairman Jiang Zemin, that Chernomyrdin would visit
Beijing. What Chernomyrdin and Qian Qichen said showed, Chinese Prime Minister
Zhu Rongji said that China and Russian trusted and understood each other,
and supported each other's efforts to settle the Yugoslav crisis. Chernomyrdin
summed up the results of his meeting with Zhu Rongji by saying president
Yeltsin would visit China in late October.
- Chinese Ambassador to the United
Nations Qin Huasun puts an end to the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia as a necessary
conditions for a Kosovo accommodation. The United Nations Security Council
met on demand from China Monday to discuss the bombing raid on the Chinese
Embassy in Belgrade, which claimed three human lives and left 20 people
injured. The Chinese Ambassador suggested that the Security Council denounces
the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia and takes action to stop the aggression.
The Russian Ambassador to the United Nations supported his Chinese counterpart.
First came an end to the bombing raids, he said, then talk of a political
accommodation. The NATO member-nations represent on the United Nations
Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, Canada and the Netherlands
- opposed what the Chinese spokesman said, and the Security Council decided
to hold more consultative meetings before actually doing something about
the Yugoslav crisis.
- Hundreds of people paid tribute
Monday to the memory of the three Chinese journalists killed Friday in
Belgrade. A Chinese government emissary said the three journalists had
died as heroes. Serbian deputy Prime Minister Milovan Bozhic lashed out
against the North Atlantic Alliance. Three was no recorded memory of similar
acts of banditry, he said in reference to the bombing raid, which claimed
the journalists' lives.
- NATO planes kept bombing Yugoslavia
last night. Seven Yugoslav cities, including Belgrade, woke up to air alarm.
Bombs fell on a residential area of the city of Smerderovo which lies southeast
of Belgrade. Human casualties and destruction were reported. The railroad
station of the city of Pancevo, near Belgrade, a bridge of the Belgrade-Nisc
highway and other civilian targets came under fire. Bombs were dropped
on a study center and a plant that produces construction materials, in
the city of Chachak. Four people were killed and 12 received injuries.
More human casualties were reported, in other cities. Several thousand
people have been killed and injured in the one and a half-month of the
NATO aggression against Yugoslavia.
- The Supreme command of the Yugoslav
armed forces says Yugoslav army and police units are beginning to pull
out of Kosovo. The pullout decision is writing an end to the combat action
against the Kosovo Liberation Army. Agreement on the presence of United
Nations emissaries in Kosovo, would, the Yugoslav Supreme Command said,
open a way to the reduction of the numerical strength of the Yugoslav army
and police to the pre-aggression level.
- The International Court of Justice
in The Hague has started hearing a case, brought by Federal Yugoslavia,
for the ten contributors to the NATO aggression against that Balkan country
to be found in breach of international law including the Charter of the
UN and to compensate Yugoslavia for the damage sustained in the current
air campaign. Yugoslavia accuses the aggressors of massacring civilians,
destroying civilian industries, wiping out treasures of culture and massively
polluting the environment by bombing refineries and chemical plants. The
ten defendants are the US, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada,
Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
May 10
- The Russian presidential mediator
for the Balkans Victor Chernomyrdin is on his way to Beijing after Presidents
Yeltsin and Jiang Zemin were on the phone this morning to discuss the situation
in the wake of the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, which
left three Chinese nationals dead and at least 20 others, seriously injured.
He will continue top-level consultations started by deputy head of the
presidential staff Sergey Prikhodko, who has already delivered Mr. Yeltsin's
condolences over the tragic incident in Belgrade. This country continues
to insist that NATO immediately call off its air campaign against Federal
Yugoslavia.
- The Chinese President told his
Kremlin counterpart he holds NATO responsible for any consequences of the
destruction of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. The agency XINGHWA quotes
him as saying the UN Security Council is unlikely to adopt any plan on
Kosovo as long as NATO presses ahead with its air assault.
- China has announced it is suspending
all defence ties and consultations on non-proliferation with the US as
part of its response to the atrocious bombing of its Embassy in Belgrade.
A statement by the Foreign Ministry in Beijing says the dialogue on human
rights will also have to be put on hold.
- The American Embassy in Beijing
is without window panes on the third day of a siege by thick crowds enraged
by the bombing of their country's Embassy in Belgrade. In Chendou in the
southwest, demonstrators burnt down the consular office of the US during
protests over the weekend. The authorities fear even stronger manifestations
of popular wrath when the bodies of the dead Chinese diplomats arrive.
- From China, anti-NATO protests
have spread to elsewhere in Asia including Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Cambodia
and Thailand. In Moscow, Chinese expatriates are picketing the American
Embassy for a second straight day.
- The German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder
has demanded an investigation into the rocketing of the Chinese Embassy
in Belgrade. A spokesperson for the German government announced this in
advance of the Chancellor's visit to Beijing later this week. Beijing has
downgraded the trip to a working visit in a sign of displeasure with German
participation in the American-led air campaign.
- NATO air force has continued its
pounding of targets in Federal Yugoslavia. According to the Yugoslav agency
TANUG, two loud explosions could be heard last night near the airport of
the city of Nis in southern Serbia and considerable damage was caused to
military installations and a fuel depot near Pristina, the capital of the
province of Kosovo. Other areas were largely spared NATO bombs. Belgrade
had its first night without sirens in the six and a half weeks of the NATO
air assault. Yugoslavia has lost over 1000 lives since the start of the
raids on March the 24th. More than 5 thousand people have received serious
injuries in the attacks.
- Today the international court in
the Haague will begin preliminary hearings on the lawsuit brought by the
Union Republic of Yugoslavia against ten NATO countries, which are directly
involved, in the bombings. Belgrade accuses the United States, Great Britain,
Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Portugal and Spain of
aggression against sovereign state. The Union Republic of Yugoslavia says
that those countries by their barbaric bombings have been trampling on
the United Nations Charter, the 1949 Geneva Convention on the protection
of population in war-time and the International Convention on the prevention
of genocide.
- The head of the Rome Catholic Church
John Paul the Second and the Orthodox Patriarch of Romania Theoktist made
a joint statement in the wake of their meeting in Bukharest. They resolutely
condemned the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. They called on all those involved
in the Balkan crisis to reject hostility and do what they can to reach
peace and accord in the region.
- China has announced the freezing
of military contacts with the United States, which includes, among other
things, meetings between high-ranking military officials. The decision
that the Chinese Government made public on Monday is a response to the
recent NATO airstrikes on China's embassy in Belgrade, the strikers that
killed 4 Chinese nationals and injured 20. The Chinese Foreign Ministry
points out in a statement that China is suspending bilateral consultations
with the United States on the prevention of arms proliferation and on arms
control. China also said it was breaking off dialogue with the US on the
protection of human rights.
- Another wave of powerful antiamerican
demonstrations is expected to take place in China today. On Sunday at least
100000 protesters blocked Bijing's district hosting the embassies of the
United States, Great Britain, Germany and some other NATO countries. Windows
have been broken in the US embassy building, and protesters threw stones
and bottles at it. Two incendiary bombs, flung into the ground floor kindled
a fire there. The US consulate building was burst in the city of Chandu,
in the South-West of China. More police and military units are sent to
areas of demonstration to maintain order there.
- According to the ITAR-TASS news
agency, informed sources in Moscow do not rule out that the Russian President's
special envoy in charge of a settlement of the crisis situation around
Yugoslavia Viktor Chernomyrdin may leave for Beijing later today. He's
expected to discus with China's leaders the situation around Yugoslavia
following the recent NATO airstrikes on China's embassy in Belgrade. Late
last week Chernomyrdin paid a visit to Bonn, where, in the framework of
his mediatory mission, he held talks with the German Chancellor Gerhard
Shroeder, the United Nations envoy to the Balkans Carl Bildt and the Kosovo
Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova. Chernomyrdin and Schroeder described the
peace plan for Kosovo that the G-8 countries agreed last Thursday, as a
good basis for a settlement. The plan provides, among other things, for
an end to violence in the province, deployment of a an international peacekeeping
force there and a return of refugees. According to Chernomyrdin, Rugova
supported the idea of sending peacekeepers to Kosovo, came out for disarming
the so called "Kosovo Liberation Army" and for granting Kosovo
wide autonomy in the framework of Serbia.
- A convoy of lorries of the Russian
Ministry for Emergencies with humanitarian aid will leave Russia for Southern
Serbia later today. A Russian field hospital will be established in the
area of the city Nis, and Russian medical workers are expected to arrive
in the next few days to work there. The move to help the victims of NATO
bombingraids against Yugoslavia is in the framework of a Russian-Greek-Swiss
initiative.
- Meanwhile NATO dodges granting
guarantees of security for Russian humanitarian lorry convoys to Yugoslavia.
On Sunday NATO's official spokesman Jamie Shea failed to give a clear-out
answer to a question by the ITAR-TASS correspondent about granting this
kind of guarantees in the light of ever more frequent "errors",
as it were during bombings of Yugoslav territory. At the same time the
NATO spokesman said the Russian-Greek-Swiss humanitarian program for Yugoslavia
was of secondary importance.
May 9
- NATO has hit yet another property
of a foreign state in its continuing air assault on Federal Yugoslavia.
Late on Saturday, bombs from attacking planes seriously damaged the consular
office of Greece in the southern Serbian city of Nish. Just over a day
earlier, a NATO raid on a residential area there left 15 civilians dead
and 60 more, seriously injured. Bombardments last night of the town of
Uzice 125 kilometers southwest of Belgrade destroyed a post office and
caused considerable damage to a drama theatre, a library and a hospital
compound. One person was injured in an overnight pounding of a water pumps
plant in Valevo in central Serbia. In the same region, a transmitter used
by the private TV channel POLITIKA came down after receiving direct hits.
The destruction fits into the pattern of what looks like a deliberate strategy
to leave the Yugoslav people blind and deaf. Over 1 thousand people in
Yugoslavia have died, and more than 5 thousand, have received serious injuries
in the six and a half weeks since the start of the American-led air campaign.
NATO has lost about 50 warplanes.
- Tens of thousands of people in
Beijing have been besieging the American Embassy there for a second day
protesting against NATO's destruction of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade
in an air raid early on Saturday. On Saturday afternoon, they smashed many
of the Embassy's windows using bottles and rocks and on Sunday morning,
tore off the main entrance plaque after breaking through a military cordon
around the Embassy compound. Streamers in their hands read 'Down with the
American Imperialism' and 'NATO Are Murderers'. Similar protests have taken
place in Shanghai, Tianjing, Guanchou and Hongkong. In Chengdou in southwestern
China, fires started by angry protesters gutted two floors of the American
consular office there.
- Experts writing in British papers
today believe the destruction of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade was deliberate.
They say the Embassy figured on secret target lists that the Americans
act on themselves before disclosing them to their NATO allies. The Chinese
Embassy was hit by bombs dropped from cutting-edge B-2 strategic bombers.
These huge planes fly missions from a base in the American state of Missouri.
- Addressing an emergency session
of the UN Security Council convened on request from China the Russian ambassador
to the United Nations Sergei Lavrov demanded an immediate end to the bombing
campaign against Yugoslavia. Earlier President Yeltsin offered condolences
to the people of China and the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he
had been shocked by the incident. On orders from President Yeltsin the
Russian Foreign Minister has held an urgent meeting over the new turn of
developments.
- The head of the Russian Orthodox
Church Patriarch Alexei II has called for an end to NATO's military campaign
against Yugoslavia. In his address on the occasion of V-Day the patriarch
regretted the loss of historical memory and the feeling of guilt for the
untold sufferings caused by the Nazis to people all over the world and
the repetition of the sufferings in Yugoslavia.
May 8
- At least 4 people - two embassy
employees and two journalists - are reported to have been killed as NATO
planes attacked the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. The attack left 20 people
wounded and several missing. The building hit by three missiles suffered
considerable damage. The Chinese ambassador to the United Nations has expressed
a vigorous protest over the attack describing the incident as an encroachment
on the UN Charter and international law the responsibility for which rests
with NATO.
- Russia's special envoy to the Balkans
Viktor Chernomyrdin has arrived in Bonn for talks with Chancellor Gerhard
Shroeder and the UN envoy to the Balkans Karl Bildt.
- According to the American ambassador
to the United Nations, the bombing campaign against Yugoslavia will continue
despite the attack on the Chinese embassy. Last night Belgrade came under
the strongest since the campaign began air raid with missiles hitting the
city's center killing several electricians fixing power networks and one
hotel guest. The attack caused damage to the Yugoslav Foreign Ministry,
the Italian embassy situated not far from the Chinese one and the nearby
neurology clinic. A NATO representative has admitted in Brussels that the
air raid targeted the central command post of President Miloshevic. More
than 6 thousand people have been killed or wounded since the bombing campaign
began. NATO has lost about 50 planes.
- Thousands of people have gathered
near the American embassy in Beijing to protest the bombardment of the
Chinese embassy in Belgrade. The protesters are carrying streamers demanding
to stop the aggression and describing NATO as Nazis. Police have sealed
off the building.
- Another Ruslan cargo plane with
humanitarian aid for Yugoslavia has arrived in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.
It delivered 40 tons of medicine and 7 Kamaz trucks, which will then move
on to Yugoslavia though Macedonia. The plane is the fourth one sent by
Russia in the past week. Earlier it sent to Sofia nearly 55 tons of food,
clothes, medicine and other essentials and 21 trucks which will deliver
the relief supplies to people of Yugoslavia regardless of their nationality
or religion. The humanitarian operation is carried out jointly with Greece
and Switzerland.
- At least four people died in China's
embassy in Belgrade when the building was bombed by NATO aircraft. The
killed people are two staff members and two journalists. The three missiles
that hit the building have caused great material damage to it. China's
Ambassador to the United Nations has expressed strong protest in this connection
and has described the occurrence as trampling underfoot the UN Charter
and international law, something NATO should be held responsible for. An
urgent Security Council meeting has been called in New York. The UN secretary-general
Kofi Annan has said he's shocked with the embassy bombing. President Boris
Yeltsin of Russia has expressed deep condolences to his Chinese counterpart,
Chairman of the People's Republic of China Jiang Zeminh. And the Russian
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has postponed his planned visit to London
later today.
- At about midnight on Friday NATO
aircraft struck at three transformer stations in a Belgrade suburb, leaving
the city without electric power. According to local radio reports, NATO
again used graphite bomb just as on the night of May 2d when it disrupted
the operation of 70% of Serbia's power grid. In the latest attack NATO
planes damaged the water-supply system in the cities Novi Sad and Sombor,
and the residents were left without water. Late on Friday night the NATO
command admitted another "error" in the anti-Yugoslav air campaign.
They confirm that during the bombing of the Nis airfield one fragmentation
bomb may have deviated from its trajectory and hit a residential area.
According to earlier reports from Belgrade, on Friday morning bombs hit
the hospital and market place of Nis, killing 19 and wounding some 70 people.
- According to Belgrade's radio station
"Studio B", the air strike on Belgrade last night affected the
earlier attacked building of the Yugoslav Army General Staff and that of
the Interior Ministry.
- The United States House of Representatives
has approved the allocation of 13 billion dollars for the military operation
against Yugoslavia. The Republicans-initiated bill has been supported by
311 Congressmen, with 105 Representatives voting against. The allocated
sum is more than double of what the Administration originally asked for,
when insisting it should be given 6 billion dollars for the period ending
in September.
- The British Parliamentary "Committee
in Defense of Peace in the Balkans" has accused NATO of blocking the
peace talks that seek and end to the alliance's war against Yugoslavia.
The Committee stresses in a statement that the agreement the G-8 Foreign
Ministers reached in Bonn on the principles of a Kosovo crisis settlement,
and also the latest statements by the Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic
prove that a settlement of the conflict can be reached.
- The Russian President Boris Yeltsin
has had a telephone conversation with his envoy to the Balkans Viktor Chernomyrdin
to discuss ways to settle the crisis around Yugoslavia and the efforts
has been making to this end. In the course of the talk the two examined
specific action to be made and negotiations to be held by Viktor Chernomyrdin
in the next few days. The ITAR-TASS news agency has been told that on Saturday
Chernomyrdin will arrive in Belgrade or one of West European capitals.
- Russia is actively involved in
the Council of Europe's efforts to create democratic space on the continent
by influencing integration processes and making wide use of European experience
to carry out reforms at home. This came in a statement to journalists in
Budapest on Friday by the first deputy Russian Foreign Minister Alexander
Avdeyev, who attended the celebrations of the Council of Europe's 50th
anniversary. He pointed out that the forum had focused on the situation
in the Balkans, efforts to find a way out of the Kosovo crisis and also
the principles the G-8 Foreign Ministers formulated at their Bonn meeting.
- On Friday thousands of people took
part in a symbolic "silent march" in the East German city Dresden,
Federal land Saxony, to protest against bombings of Yugoslavia. The many-kilometer
long procession passed trough the city center, and many Dresdeners joined
in the course of the mass action for peace in the Balkans. According to
some estimates, the overall number of participants in the march reached
5,000.
- The preparation of a pact of stability
in SouthEastern Europe should involve active cooperation of regional European
organizations that cover the Balkan region. The participants in the consultations
in Vienna on Friday that involved the European Union, Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe, Central European Initiatives, Black
Sea Economic Cooperation and other regional alliances reached the conclusion.
A conference will be called in Bonn later this month to work out the basic
provisions of a stability pact.
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