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April 17

Last night NATO warplanes continued striking civilian targets in Yugoslavia but with less intensity compared to the days before. Yugoslav state news agency TANJUG said four missiles had hit a factory in the city of Valjevo, some 80 kilometers southeast of Belgrade leaving 7,000 people without work. Serbia's Studio-B private television company also reported missile attacks in the city of Uzice in the south. TANJUG also said that 25 NATO missiles were fired on the Kosovo capital Pristina late on Friday. More than a thousands people have already died in aliened bombings since the airstrikes began on March 24th.
The speaker of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament believes that, by unleashing the war in Yugoslavia, the North Atlantic Alliance wants to show everyone who exactly is running the show in today's world. In an interview with the news agency RIA Novosti on Saturday, Gennady Seleznev called the United Nations the main strategist of NATO's ongoing military operation. He also said that an ever growing number of countries are now describing it as an illogical aggression against Yugoslavia. Mr. Seleznev said that the NATO countries begin with raising money to make war, then to accommodate he refugees and will wind up looking for funds to rebuild the war-shattered cities and villages in Yugoslavia. He also said that NATO's action had proved beyond any reasonable doubt that it is an aggressive organisation.
NATO's Allied Commander in Europe General Wesley Clark has arrived in Macedonia to discuss with the local leaders ways to resolve the conflict. In Skopje he will be meeting with Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov and Prime Minister Lyubco Georgijevski. Before flying on to Albania later in the day, General Clark will also have a meeting with NATO representatives in Macedonia, which is now home to a 12,000-strong NATO contingent.
5000 Kosovo Albanian refugees crossed into Albanian last night. Thousands are near border. Earlier up to 10 thousand refugees crossed into Albania and 5 thousand - into Macedonia. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has said in Geneva the number of refugee camps in Macedonia has been increased and the Macedonian authorities are against. Hence the United Nations intends to appeal to the governments of other countries to step up airlifting the refugees.
The American Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has for the second time since the beginning of the military campaign tried to convince the people of Yugoslavia that NATO's bombardments mean good only. In a radio address earlier in the day Mrs. Albright speaking Serbo-Croat said the action had been designed to defend human rights and save the lives of thousands of innocent people. She denied allegations that NATO was carrying out aggressive plans with regard to Yugoslavia. American news media have described Mrs. Albright's address as nothing but propaganda.
The Yugoslav government believes NATO has failed to achieve any of its original objectives in Yugoslavia in the more than three weeks of its air campaign. A government statement in Belgrade on Friday says the Yugoslav air defenses are alive and kicking and retain their capability to knock out hostile aircraft. The statement also denounces the NATO aggression as criminal and says the assault has caused serious destabilization throughout Europe.
Yugoslavia has declined a plan by the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan for a settlement around Kosovo. The official letter of reply was handed over to Mr. Annan on Friday. According to the Yugoslav representative at the United Nations, Kofi Annan's plan repeats the demands by the US President Bill Clinton, who makes an end to the bombardment of Yugoslavia conditional on the Balkan country's agreement to having NATO troops deployed in Kosovo. The Yugoslav representative said that in the letter of reply Belgrade again demanded that NATO aggression should be condemned and stopped. On Friday the Yugoslav Foreign Ministry again said Belgrade would not consent to deploying foreign troops in Yugoslavia, "whatever the flag these troops could come under".
A report from Belgrade carried by Russian Public TV says the Serbian President Milan Milutinovic and the moderate leader of the Kosovo Albanians Ibrahim Rugova discussed an interim administration for Kosovo when they met in Belgrade on Friday. The meeting took place in full view of a number of foreign correspondents', a Russian reporter has said. Among other things, it dealt with how to go about the return of refugees from the southern Serbian province. This problem had come under discussion at an earlier meeting in Pristina between Mr. Rugova and the Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Shainovich. The Russian reporter quotes foreign colleagues who visited the scene of the NATO bombing of a refugee convoy in Kosovo on Wednesday as saying they had discovered fragments of missiles carrying markings of the US Air Force.
A Russian expert believes the air campaign against Yugoslavia poses considerable radiation risks. In an interview with the RIA-NOVOSTI agency on Friday, Vice President of the Russian Nuclear Studies Society Andrey Gagarinski said there are two nuclear reactors and fuel storage facilities outside Belgrade, and there would be a major disaster in the case of a direct hit. NATO airmen are not targeting those installations, but a stray bomb is always a possibility Mr. Gagarinski said. He also spoke of the dangers to regional tectonic stability from large caliber bombs.
In a number of NATO countries, there are signs of growing unease over the protracted bombing campaign against Federal Yugoslavia. Emerging from a Cabinet meeting on Friday, the Greek Prime Minister Kostas Simitis said NATO's bombings had achieved nothing but loss of life and a dangerous destabilization in the Balkans. In Portugal, several thousand politicians, intellectuals and artists petitioned President George Sanpal to issue orders for their country to pull out of the American-led military operation in the Balkans.

April 16

The Russian Foreign Ministry says that at its sitting on Thursday the UN Security Council singled out NATO's bombardments as the main obtacle in the way towards a peaceful resoluion of the conflict over Kosovo. By doing so, a statement in Moscow goes, the highest UN body threw its weight behind growing international condemnation of the American-led aggression against Federal Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia called yesterday's sitting of the Security Council to air its complaints about the NATO bombing a refugee convoy in Kosovo on Wednesday. At least 75 people are known to have died in the attack. Hundreds more received serious injuries.
NATO forces have again been dropping bombs and firing missiles on Yugoslav territory. The Yugoslav news agency TANYUG says a NATO missile left a man and woman heavily injured in the field near the south Serbian village of Ribnica. Another missile inflicted heavy damage on civilian buildings south of the city of Vranje. NATO aircraft bombed the administrative capital of Kosovo - Pristina. The airmen reported seven powerful bomb blasts. An attempt was made Thursday night to leave the city of Pancevo, near Belgrade, and the cities of Novy Sad and Subotica, near the Yugoslavia-Hungary border, without their stocks of fuel. Thousands of people braved an air alarm on bridges across the Danube and Sawa rovers, in Belgrade. The allied attacks on Yugoslavia have claimed more than a thousand civilian lives.
The agency ITAR-TASS quotes Serbian television as saying Yugoslav gunners last night brought down a NAT0 plane near the town of Danilovgrad in Montenegro. The town received four bomb hits during the latest raid. NATO has lost over 40 warplanes and about 120 cruise missiles since the start of the current campaign. A few days ago, it asked its backbone power the US to send 300 planes in support of its air assault on Federal Yugoslavia.
NATO will continue its air assault as long as it takes to destroy Yugoslavia's military potential or bludgeon that country into unconditional acceptance of all Western demands over Kosovo. Appearing on a popular TV programme in Spain today, Secretary General Javier Solana also declined to rule out a full-scale ground invasion of Kosovo.
The Serbian President Milan Milutinovic and Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic met in Belgrade today with the moderate leader of the Kosovo Albanians Ibrahim Rugova. According to REUTERS, Mr Rugova exchanged a few words with the reporter for SKY NEWS Tim Marshall who was invited to take photographs. About two weeks ago, Mr Rugova had meetings with Mr Sainovic and the Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. Those encounters produced understandings to cooperate in the search for a peaceful solution to the dispute over Kosovo. Both sides also demanded that NATO immediately call off its bombing campaign.
The director-general of the United Nations' Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Federico Mayor is calling for an immediate cease-fire and the repatriation of the Kosovar refugees. He is calling for the normalization of the regional situation under the auspices of the United Nations. Mayor sees the replacement of the logic of force with that of reason and the earliest involvement of the United Nations as the best solution to the Kosovo crisis. The text of Mayor's call on the international community has been distributed at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
The chairman of the Russian council for foreign and defense policy Sergei Karaganov feels the NATO action on Yugoslav territory is threatening Europe with an environmental and economic catastrophe. Karaganov says Yugoslav oil terminals have been set on fire, and an oil slick is drifting down the Danube in the direction of a Bulgarian nuclear power plant. There are two nuclear reactors near Belgrade. If NATO forces mistarget again, and deal a blow on either of these, Europe may come to face a full-scale environmental disaster. The lower house of the Russian legislature the State Duma - has urged the lawmakers of Europe to put heat on the North Atlantic Alliance so as to make it stop bombing Yugoslavia.
The State Duma has passed a resolution on the Yugoslav moves to join the Russian-Belorussian Union. The Russian lawmakers have advised President Yeltsin and the federal government to consider, without delay, the international, political, economic and legal angles of the Yugoslav request for admission to the Russian-Belorussian Union.

NATO warplanes on Thursday sight barbarously bombed many cities in Yugoslavia. A strong strike was hit at the city of Panchevo, near Belgrade. According to the TANYUG news agency, targets of attack were a chemical plant and oil storages. And in the city of Novi Sad a big fire broke out at an oil refinery during the raid. Four powerful explosions were heard near the city of Subotica, near the border with Hungary. An air alarm was sounded in Belgrade in the evening and since then anti-aircraft units continued firing at NATO planes flying over the city. Despite the air alarm thousands of residents of Belgrade continued to stand on the bridges across the Danube and the Savu, shielding them from attacks. Over a thousand civilians died since NATO began bombing Yugoslavia.
The Russian Prime-Minister Yevgeny Primakov has described NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia as "an absolutely unacceptable form of interaction between sovereign states". Speaking at a meeting with Prime-Minister Milos Zeman of the Czech Republic in Moscow Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov stressed the need for an exclusively political solution to the Kosovo problem and described as erroneous NATO's relying on the use of force, and ultimatums. According to M. Primakov NATO's bombings of Yugoslavia have only served to aggravate the Kosovo crisis and have led NATO into a difficult situation. The main thing now he stressed is to secure an end to strikes on Yugoslavia and resume talks.
The lower house of Russia's parliament discusses today the draft resolution on Yugoslavia joining the Union of Belorussia and Russia. The request for joining the union was made by the leadership of Yugoslavia. The deputies also intend to approve an address to the parliaments of the European countries view of the throat of an ecological catastrophe which could result from the bombing of Yugoslavia by NATO planes.
America's secretary of state Madeleine Albright does not rule out a NATO ground operation in Kosovo, but would like to see in the first ranks Albanian separatist fighter. She spokes at the hearings in Congress on Thursday. Television reports from Albanian say that NATO is speedily arming the fighters from the so called Kosovo Liberation Army and also the mercenaries from the Moslem countries arriving in Albania.
Yugoslavia's information minister Milan Komnenic has accused NATO forces of using shells with low-enriched uranium and cluster bombs. In a statement circulated in Belgrade he pointed out that both those weapons are banned by the Geneva convention. The minister also said NATO planes spray special chemicals over farmland in Yugoslavia to destroy the future harvest. All that, the minister added, could have disastrous after maths for the health of the people.
The UN Security Council has limited itself to only expressing regret over the death of 75 Kosovo Albanians who were killed by NATO bombs. Two convoys of refugees were fired upon on Wednesday. Because of the resistance of the delegates of the United States and other countries taking part in the aggression against Yugoslavia under the flag of NATO, the Security Council's contained no condemnation of the act nor any mention of those responsible for the crime.
NATO's secretary general Javier Solana has addressed himself to the public in Russia through a Moscow newspaper "Commersant". The publication was entitled " We cannot ignore each other". In it he tried to explain what had prompted NATO to take its action and the objectives of the North Atlantic alliance as regards Yugoslavia. According to Solana Russia could play a constructive role in settling the crisis in the Balkans, a role that is appropriate to its political weight. In his comment the special representative of Russia` s president Victor Chernomirdin said that Brussels has at last realised that this is not a Yugoslav crisis, but an European one. He added that it is very good that Solana has at last remembered that Russia is a member of the contact group for Yugoslavia and member of the UN Security Council, and now invite Russia to help find a way out of the blind alley in the Balkans.
Three NATO rockets exploded this morning in the camp of refugees who fled from Croatia and Bosnia during the previous armed conflict in former Yugoslavia. The TANYUG news agency says the refugees are living in a former youth camp in the city of Parachin, 150 kilometers south of Belgrade. NATO has been constantly saying that it hits strikes at only military and strategic targets.
The Pentagon has confirmed that when NATO aircraft struck at a column of Albanian refugees in Kosovo on Wednesday, no Serbian planes or helicopters were in the air near the place, and the strike was delivered by NATO aircraft. This came in a report on Thursday by the NBC television network. On Wednesday NATO refused its involvement in the death of 75 Albanian refugees because of an airstrike on the column they had be moving in from the Albanian border to their homes in Kosovo. Most of the victims were women and children. The Russian Foreign Ministry has described the firing at the refugees as another crime by NATO in Yugoslavia.
The leader of the ecological committee of the Russian Duma Vladimir Kostiutkin warns that NATO bombings of Yugoslavia will trigger an ecological disaster. According to ecologists, the fuel used by American bombers is a highly toxic substance. When these planes take off, a third of what amount of fuel they carry is thrown out into the atmosphere. Tonnes of fuel oil and other oil products killing all living things got into the soil and rivers. Missiles` homing systems contain radioactive caesium, which may result in the radioactive contamination of the region.
Some of the Kosovo separatists fighting for independence from Yugoslavia are fighters that are loyal to the international extremist Osama bin Laden. This has been given to understand to the RIA-Novosti news agency by a man, who's close to bin Laden's inner circle and who now illegally stays in Pakistan.

April 15

On Thursday morning NATO aircraft continued to pound on Yugoslavia. Bitter fighting got underway over Belgrade, which had come under the fiercest bomb attack since the war broke out. In Central Serbia bombs and missiles hit the central residential areas in the town of Kraguyevats. In Southern Serbia the twons Kralevo and Krushevats came under attack. ln the same area a bridge was destroyed t across the Western Morava river. Bombing raids continue on Kosovo's administrative center Pristina, which, eye-witnesses say, is being turned into a desert. More than 1,000 civilians have died in the bombing raids in Yugoslavia since hostilities broke out there, and NATO has, over the period, lost some 40 aircraft and almost 120 cruise missiles.
NATO has actually accepted responsibility for the death of 75 Albanians killed is an airattack against two columns of refugees in South of Kosovo on Wednesday. A high-raking NATO official has told journalists in Brussels that the aircraft dropped bombs on the columns allegedly because there had been military trucks at the head tail of the column. The refugees, basically women and children, had been returning to Kosovo from the Albanian border. The Serbian President Milan Milutinovic has accused NATO of deliberate extermination of the refugees. While the Russian Foreign Ministry has expressed indignation over this criminal act, one of the latest in the series.
The Russian MP, Colonel Sergey Glotov feels that NATO planes deliberately struck at Kosovo refugees. According to him, the operation was conducted fully in compliance with the rules to fight the enemy, namely, the pilots first delivered a strike on the trucks and tractors at the head of the column, the set on fire those at the tail-end, and only than did they start dropping bombs and firing missiles at the refugees. Glotov stressed that modern aiming systems make it perfectly easy for a pilot to differentiate a tractor in a column from a tank or a military truck.
The Russian Prime-Minister Yevgeny Primakov has described NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia as "an absolutely unacceptable form of interaction between sovereign states". Speaking at a meeting with Prime-Minister Milos Zeman of the Czech Republic in Moscow Yevgeny Primakov stressed the need for an exclusively political solution to the Kosovo problem and described as erroneous NATO's relying on the use of force. According to Primakov NATO's bombings of Yugoslavia have only served to aggravate the Kosovo crisis and have NATO into a difficult situation. The main thing now, he stressed, is to secure an end to strikes on Yugoslavia and resume talks.
The speaker of the State Duma, - the Russian Parliament's lower house, - Gennady Selezniov feels that the NATO bombing raids on Yugoslavia can trigger off an ecological disaster in Central Europe. He's pointed out that hostilities have already resulted in a 12 kilometre long oil slick on the Danube which has already affected a number, of countries. Selezniov stresses that the destruction of peaceful towns and production facilities that have nothing to do with the defence industry, and also the killing of civilians should be taken up by the International War Crimes Tribunal.
The Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov says that there is no military solution to the Kosovo problem. And the conflict can be resolved only if NATO stops the military operation and starts peace talks. Speaking in an interview with Spanish radio Ivanov stressed the need for growing ever more active in the efforts to reach a settlement. According to international lows, Ivanov points out, it is only the United Nations Security Council that has the right to authorize the use of force, so from the point of view of international law NATO's armed invasion is absolutely illegal.
The former French Prime-Minister Allain Jupe says that NATO should not play the role of a world and European policeman. Speaking in an interview with French television he said searched for a diplomatic solution to the problem around Yugoslavia should be held under the auspices of the United Nations and with Russia's participation.
Russia is considering humanitarian aid deliveries to refugees in Yugoslavia by ground vehicles via Rumania and by an air bridge. This came in a statement to journalists by Russia's Minister for Emergencies Sergey Shoigu after his meeting with President Boris Yeltsin in the Kremlin. On Friday another Russian plane with humanitarian aid will leave for Macedonia. And in a day or two a hospital will be ready to be send to Montenegro.

This morning NATO aircraft have again delivered air strikes against Yugoslavia. According to the Yugoslav news agency, NATO aircraft were bombing central quarters of the town of Kraguyevats after mid-night. Later a fierce air fighting broke out the over Belgrade. Yugoslav air defense systems opened fire on NATO targets. NATO aircraft dropped bombs and missiles on the communities of Valevo, Kralevo and Krushevats. In the village of Yasika in Serbia's south a bridge over the River Western Morava has been destroyed. A station of Serbian state television near the city of Chachak has been exploded.
The Serbian television reported on Wednesday that another NATO plane shot down over Yugoslavia fell on neighboring Bosnian territory. The pilot of the put out of action plane tried to land at Tuzla airport where the US base of International peace mediators on Bosnia Herzegovina is situated. Yet the plane fell several kilometers before the landing strip in the mountains region.
NATO missiles have killed nearly 70 ethnic Albanian refugees in two separate strikes on refugee convoys in Western Kosovo. In the first such incident, missiles hit a column of nearly a thousand refugees, mainly women, seniors and children, moving on cars, tractors and by foot near the village of Meha five kilometers away from the Albanian border. The second column hit had been moving from Djakovoca to Prizren in the south. Asked to clarify the matter, a NATO spokesman in Brussels could only say the alliance was investigating the details of the incident. In Belgrade, meanwhile, the authorities released fresh new details about Friday's missile attack on a passenger train headed from Kosovo to Belgrade. 10 passengers were killed, 16 injured and 17 other are still missing. More than a thousand people have already died since NATO airstrikes began 21 days ago.
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has formally applied to his Russian and Belorussian counterparts Boris Yeltsin and Alexander Lukashenko for permission to join their union. The Belorussian President said this at a news conference in Belgrade after discussing the matter with Mr. Milosevic.
In an interview with the Moscow-based daily Krasnaya Zvezda the Russian Defence Minister Igor Sergeev has said NATO is preparing to launch a land operation against Yugoslavia. He added that the analysis of the situation in the region where the intensity of air strikes has increased, showed this. According to Igor Sergeev, the land operation is aimed to destroy Yugoslavia's armed forces in Kosovo and air defence system in the country.
The Russian Minister for Emergency Situations Sergey Shoigu has said his country will continue to render humanitarian aid to the victims of NATO air strikes in Yugoslavia. He emphasized that help will be given to all, regardless their nationality. On Tuesday a consignment of humanitarian aid was sent Macedonia. On the same day 76 lorries arrived in Belgrade with Russian and Belorussian aid.

April 14

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has agreed to have unarmed civilian observers from countries not involved in NATO's ongoing military aggression against his country deployed in Kosovo. Belorussian President Alexander Lukashenko broke this news at a press conference in Belgrade shortly after meeting the Yugoslav leader earlier on Wednesday. What Yugoslavia will never agree to, he said, was the possibility of a military, paramilitary or police operation carried out there by the NATO member states. President Lukashenko said that the admission of civilian observers was the farest the Yugoslav leaders are ready to go and that they are prepared to engage in more talks to resolve the crisis provided that all Kosovans enjoy equal rights irrespective of nationality and religion and that they will never compromise the territorial integrity of their country.

NATO warplanes on Wednesday continued pounding targets in Yugoslavia. Hardest hit were the outskirts of the nation's capital Belgrade, the city of Novy Sad in the north and the administrative center in Kosovo, Pristina. A rocket severely damaged a hydroelectric power plant in Novy-Varos 200 kilometers southwest of Belgrade effectively cutting off electricity supplies to local hospitals, schools and nursery homes. Other missiles knocked out a railway bridge connecting the capital to the Adriatic port city Bar. Serbian television also reported NATO missiles landing near the Bulgarian border in the east. During prevision raids two NATO missiles strayed into Bulgaria and one into neighboring Macedonia. NATO military commander Army General Wesley Clark has asked for 300 more warplanes in addition to the 700 warjets already involved in the operation. More than a thousand people have reportedly been killed since NATO's airstrikes began on March 24h.
Yugoslav air defenders have already shot down 36 NATO warplanes and 119 cruise missiles since the airstrikes began 20 days ago. Other reports bring the number of downed planes to 39, as transpires from an interview which Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic recently had with the Moscow-based Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper. President Milosevic said the West was keeping its losses under wraps and praised the Russian efforts to end the NATO aggression and to politically resolve the crisis.
President Boris Yeltsin has appointed his former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin as his personal peace mediator in Yugoslavia. In an interview with ITAR-TASS on Wednesday, Mr.Chernomyrdin said Russia still has a chance to end the bloodshed in Yugoslavia and called for redoubled diplomatic effort to politically resolve the crisis. He did not rule out a personal visit to Washington to discuss the matter the "highest level".
Belorussian President Alexander Lukashenko and his Yugoslav counterpart Sobodan Milosevic have been meeting in Belgrade to discuss ways to solve the Kosovo conflict. Speaking to reporters before the start of the talks earlier on Wednesday, the Belorussian leader said he was going to discuss with Mr.Milosevic a new peace plan which will essentially pick up where Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov left off during his recent visit to Belgrade. President Lukashenko refused to disclose the details stressing only that the plan had already been agreed with the Russian Premier. He also reiterated the Russian and Belorussian calls for an immediate end to NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia.
President Yeltsin has expressed serious concern over the possibility of an ecological catastrophe in the Balkans which may result from NATO's air strikes against Yugoslavia. According to the presidential press secretary Dmitry Yakushkin, the concern stems from the fact that there are two research nuclear reactors around Belgrade and several nuclear power stations around Yugoslavia. Mr.Yakushkin said the air raids could have far-reaching consequences for both Balkan and European neighbours. He said the threat of environmental disaster is another aspect now at the focus of attention of the Russian president.
The Chinese Military Chief of Staff Fu Xuanu has demanded an immediate end to NATO's bombardments of Yugoslavia. Meeting with the Portuguese air force commander he pointed out the need to resume peace talks on Kosovo at an early date. The international community, he said, should respect sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yugoslavia.
The crisis in Kosovo is at the focus of attention of a conference of the EU heads of state and government in Brussels. The UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is taking part. Today he is meeting with NATO's Secretary-General Javier Solana.

NATO warplanes bombed on Tuesday night Novi Sad, the second largest city in Yugoslavia. This was been reported by the Yugoslav news agency TANYUG. Yugoslavia's air defences at once took measures to beat off the attack.
The United States and its allies in NATO intend to enlarge the air campaign against Yugoslavia for that purpose the American aircraft carrier " Theodore Roosevelt" now near the shores of Yugoslavia is to be joined by one aircraft carrier from Great Britain and one from France. This was announced by US president Bill Clinton on Tuesday. He also said NATO intends to increase the number of planes taking part in the bombing raids.
Russia's foreign minister Igor Ivanov has stated that Russia's stand on the Kosovo crisis has not changed. He spoke at a news conference, following talks with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright near Oslo, Igor Ivanov stressed that NATO should end the bombing of Yugoslavia. While noting that talks with Madeleine Albright were useful, the Russian foreign minister said that agreement has been reached on the main point - to continue the search for a political solution of the Kosovo problem. US Secretary of State, on her part, said the stands of the sides on the Kosovo crisis are now noticeably closer. She stressed however that the question on the peace-keeping forces in Kosovo remains unsettled.
The talks between Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov and US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright have confirmed the necessity and usefulness of the joint work of the West and Russia. Such an opinion was expressed in Paris by French foreign minister Hubert Vedrin when commenting on the meeting held in Oslo on Tuesday by the heads of Russia's and America's diplomacy. He described the Russian-American talks as a positive event.
In the UN Human Rights' commission in Geneva on Tuesday Russia rejected the attempts of the NATO countries to justify the aggression against sovereign Yugoslavia by claiming that Belgrade violates the rights of the Kosovo Albanians. The Russian delegation voted against the draft resolution submitted by the NATO countries and the countries of the Islamic conference organization in which the Serbian authorities are charged with carrying out repression.
The US Administration intends to ask Congress for additional emergency appropriations to pay the expenses of United States participation in NATO's military operation against Yugoslavia. The exact sum is yet unknown but is believed to be close to three or four billion dollars. This was announced by a representative of the United States defence department at a briefing in the Pentagon on Tuesday.
The President of Belorussia Alexander Lukashenko is on his way for one day visit to Belgrade at the invitation of Yugoslavia's president Slobodan Milosevic. Earlier, there was a telephone conversation between Alexander Lukashenko and Russian president Boris Yeltsin. They discussed a whole package of measures aimed at directing speedily the Yugoslav conflict into the channel of peace talks. Alexander Lukashenko and Boris Yeltsin also discussed the decision of Yugoslavia's parliament to have the country join the Union of Belorussia and Russia and agreed on how the question is to be considered.
CORRESPONDENT REPORTING FROM BELGRADE

In Yugoslavia, there have been more civilian deaths as NATO continues to bomb the country non-stop in what looks like a deliberate campaign to lay it to waste.

At 20 minutes to noon Central European Summer time on Monday, several missiles struck a passenger train on its way from Belgrade to Salonika in Greece.

We have the details from our Belgrade correspondent Konstantin Kachalin:

At least 10 people are known to have died and at least 30, to have received serious injuries in a fire inferno that consumed carriage 2 and explosions that rocked carriages 3 and 4.

Video footage, which you will never be shown on NATO TV, shows charred bodies scattered around and disfigured faces with empty sockets instead of eyes. An atrocity indeed, to use the wording so common for Easter time.

Reports from neighbouring countries, too, offer little comfort to those who care. In Macedonia, customs officials have counted over six dozen coffins with bodies of NATO servicemen killed in action in Yugoslavia. In the village of Tetovo in western Macedonia, instructors from Germany have been training 15 hundred armed Kosovo separatists for a period of at least 3 months. Around 150 similar terrorists trained in Albania have already been killed trying to cross into Kosovo. Albania on Monday gave NATO full control of its air space, ports and military infrastructure making itself a staging post for a planned invasion of Federal Yugoslavia.

Belgrade meanwhile continues to remind the outside world that Kosovo is home to hundreds of thousands of Serbs, . Montenegrins, ethnic Hungarians and Gypsies as well as Albanians and will degenerate into a bloody mess unless all its countless ethnic groups find a way to live in peace.

Another report says that a Russian aid convoy has finally arrived in Yugoslavia.

The local residents were glad and thankful to Russia for its humanitarian aid suppliers. The head of the Russian convoy Vladimir Bashkirtsev said that their 6-day drive to Belgrade was very hard, mentioning the obstacles the Hungarian borderguards put in the way of the Russian drivers on Hungary's border with Ukraine. Using various pretexts, they managed to hold up part of the humanitarian and fuel supplies. There are grounds to believe that such unlawful actions were taken by the Hungarian customs officers on instructions from Washington, in order to prove that Hungary is a good NATO member-state. Any order from Washington or Brussels is now mandatory in Budapest. It is most likely that the Hungarian customs officers were playing exactly the role that NATO wasted them to play.

April 13

Foreign Minister Minister Ivanov says this country continues to insist that NATO immediately call off its air campaign against Federal Yugoslavia. He was speaking in Oslo today after several hours of talks with American counterpart Madeleine Albright. He described the Kosovo problem as one of the strongest irritants between this country and the US but said his talks with Mrs Albright had produced a remedy to it in the form of an agreement to continue the search for a diplomatic solution to the dispute. Mrs Albright said these sides ad moved closer on Kosovo but remained in disagreement over the nature and opposition of a proposed peace-keeping force there. Speaker of the Russian Lower House Yegor Stroev said in Brussels today this country will not agree to an international deployment in Kosovo before three conditions are met. These are as follows: NATO calls off its bombing campaign; Yugoslavia accepts an international force in Kosovo; No such force includes soldiers from countries that are taking part in the current assault.
President Yeltsin has discussed Yugoslavia with Mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov, who also heads the powerful FATHERLAND electoral bloc. They stated full agreement on all major issues and said they had given serious consideration to a Yugoslav request for membership of the union that brings this country together with Byelorussia. The proposed expansion is matter of great importance, Mr.Luzhkov told reporters in the Kremlin, but requires time to be carried out. The most pressing concern, he said, is how to end the American-led air assault on Yugoslavia. NATO, he pointed out, has switched its aggression into a phase where strictly civilian targets increasingly come under attack. The West is apparently trying to punish all Serbian people for their unwillingness to accept NATO demands. The Mayor also expressed indignation over the position of Hungary whose border guards are still holding up a convoy of trucks with Russian aid for Yugoslavia at a crossing point from Ukraine. In a call from Brussels today, Speaker of the Russian Upper House Yegor Stroyev quoted Prime Minister Primakov as telling him Hungarian customs officers had ripped open all bags with sugar and flour on the Russian trucks.
The moderate leader of the ethnic Albanians in Kosovo Ibrahim Rugova ill probably arrive in Rome soon accompanied by the three American soldiers whom he Serbs captured near their southern border with Macedonia two weeks ago. The Yugoslav Information Minister Milan Komnievic announced this in an interview in the Italian paper JOURNALE today.
Russia's foreign minister has expressed its anger over NATO's regular air raid on a civilian target, as a result of which some innocent civilians were killed. The ministry released a statement on that score in Moscow earlier today. The statement notes that because of the NATO bombing of the railway bridge in Serbia's south, the Belgrade-Salonika passenger train came under bombardment there. One carriage was completely destroyed and another two ran off the rails. At least, 10 passengers were killed and dozens wounded. The Chinese leadership has also denounced the raid of the NATO war planes on the train in the southern part of Serbia.

NATO forces have again been firing missiles and dropping bombs on Yugoslav territory. Batainica air base near Belgrade and the suburbs of Novy Belgrad, Topcider and Rakovica of the Yugoslav capital came under attack Monday night. Powerful explosions shook the oil refinery of Panchevo, 20 kilometres away from Belgrade, and another refinery, in the south Yugoslav city of Novy Sad. The administrative capital of Kosovo - Pristina - suffered more damage. Air alarm sirens sounded in the cities of Nish, Kraguyevac, and Podgoroca. Forces of the Yugoslav antiaircraft defense system downed one plane and two missiles. The twenty days of bombing have claimed more than one thousand human lives, largely civilian.
At least ten people were killed and dozens received in juries when a NATO missile hit a passenger train on the road from Belgrade to the south Serbian city of Risgovac, Monday. NATO aircraft were firing missiles, about Monday noon, on railroad bridge at Leskovac, in southern Serbia and on what is known as the Sarajevsky bridge. One missile hit the train when it was crossing the river. Leskovac railroad chief Radonja Rantic says the missile hit and reduced to nothing car 2. The train went off the rails and caught fire. Three cars burnt down.
A truck convoy with Russian aid to Yugoslavia crossed Monday night the Hungary-Yugoslavia border. It covered safely the 355 kilometers of Hungarian territory but was to have made it for Belgrade Sunday. The Hungarian authorities held what they took for double-purpose trucks for a couple of days at a border checkpoint. The Russian minister for emergency situations Sergei Shoigu went to Hungary to settle the matter and said Monday night that Budapest had been doing what its NATO partners had told it to do.
French defense minister Allain Richard feels other than NATO forces may be sent to keep peace in Kosovo. Richard said, in an appearance on national television, that an international peacekeeping contingent must be capable of taking action if tension mounted yet higher in Kosovo. This, more or less, is what United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told newsmen Sunday in Brussels.
Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov and US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright are meeting later today in Oslo. They will discuss ways to a Yugoslav accommodation and prospects for relations between their countries. They will meet for the first time since the beginning of the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia. They have, however, been keeping in touch over the phone.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan sees the Russian contribution to the efforts to settle the Kosovo conflict as constructive and absolutely necessary. Annan was speaking Monday night at a news conference in Madrid where he arrived on an official visit. He said he was willing to meet, in a bid to find a solution to the Yugoslav crisis, with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. But although it was the NATO bombings that triggered off the crisis, Kofi Annan all but justified what the North Atlantic alliance was doing in Yugoslavia by describing the NATO attacks as effective.
Since the start of the NATO bombings of Yugoslavia its anti-aircraft defences have shot down 39 warplanes and over 100 missiles of the enemy. This is what the Yugoslav deputy foreign minister Zoran Novakovic said in Belgrade on Monday night with reference to the information, provided by the Yugoslav military command. He said that the damage done to Yugoslavia as a result of NATO's aggression is estimated at 10 billion German marks. Mr. Novakovic emphasized that despite the continued fierce bombings, Belgrade does not intend to fulfil NATO's demands. In the settlement of the Kosovo conflict the Yugoslav leadership is guided by two main principles: to prevent foreign occupation of the Kosovo Province and to successfully complete the political dialogue with the Albanians' moderate leader Ibragim Rugova.

April 12

Moscow stands for an immediate end to the bombings of Yugoslavia. The principled stand was reaffirmed by president Boris Yeltsin in a telephone conversation with French president Jaques Chirac on Monday. Their conversation initiated by the French side focused on the situation involving Kosovo. It is reported that Yeltsin urged Chirac to use his country's authority and influence for a Kosovo settlement. Chirac, in turn, said that Paris attributes major importance to the coming meeting between Russian and American foreign ministers Igor Ivanov and Madeleine Albright near Oslo on Tuesday.
The issue of the Russian convoy with humanitarian aid for Yugoslavia, detained by the Hungarian authorities has been settled, according to Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov. Prior to that statement, Ivanov met with premier Yevgeny Primakov who earlier discussed the problem with president Boris Yeltsin. The convoy of 74 trucks was held up by the Hungarian authorities on the border with Ukraine on Saturday night. According to the head of the convoy, there were no incidents like that before Hungary was admitted to NATO. Now that the issue of the Russian trucks' passage to Yugoslavia via Hungary has been decided, certain obstacles are yet to be removed, including receiving an air-corridor over Hungary for a flight by a Russian plane with humanitarian aid for Yugoslavia.
The parliament of Yugoslavia has approved the government's decision in favour of the country joining the Union of Russia and Belorussia. Hundreds of Belgrade residents gathered on the square outside the parliament building with flags of Russia and Yugoslavia and posters saying: "Fraternal union will bring peace". On Sunday night, Russian president Boris Yeltsin received a message from his Yugoslav counter part Slobodan Milosevic asking to consider the possibility of Yugoslavia's joining the Union of Russia and Belorussia. Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov says the country's leadership has asked his ministry to study the issue.
At least two people were killed and dozens received serious wounds after the NATO missile had hit the passenger train that was on its way from Belgrade to Ristovats in Serbia's south. Eye-witnesses testify that the missile hit the second carriage, due to which the train ran off the raids and caught fire, as the ITAR-TASS news agency reported. 3 carriages burned down. The doctor on duty in the Leskovats Hospital has said that dozens of those who received various wounds and burns are in the hospital at the moment.
The Kosovo refugees in Albania do not want to take the American foodstuffs, since they regard them non-edible, the Albanian telegraph agency reported. The territory near the refugee camps is heaped up with the humanitarian food supplies, bearing an inscription "Food from the people of America", that were thrown out. Bright refugees are gathering the packages to make a heap of them and are burning them to warm up somewhat. The refugees' enthusiasm over the American foodstuffs disappeared after the children had felt sick because they had eaten them.
A genuine aggression against Yugoslavia - a sovereign state and a member of the United Nations and the Interparliamentary Union- is being committed in the very centre of Europe. This is what the chairman of the Russian Federation Council Yegor Stroyev said, speaking earlier today at the conference of the Interparliamentary Union in Brussels. He says that there is a massive use of modern warfare in Yugoslavia in violation of the resolutions of the UN Security Council and the international law standards. The war, which is killing the people of different nationalities, has become a tragedy for all the Balkan peoples, emphasized Yegor Stroyev.
Italian President Luigi Scalfaro has said that it is necessary to immediately settle the Kosovo conflict by peaceful means. Receiving a group of the Italian senators, members of the Greens Party, in the Quirinal Palace earlier today, the Italian head of state said that his country remains true to its allied commitments. However, I have repeatedly emphasized that wars were helpless in settling problems, continued the Italian President. We are all seeking to achieve peace, and I hope that our appeals will be heard. A member of the house of representatives from the State of New Mexico Hizer Wilson has said that the President must offer explanations to the Americans as to what this campaign against Yugoslavia will mean, what will be its price in dollars, what will be the deathtoll, and also how many hopes were dashed.
A squadron of warships of the Black Sea Fleet is ready to go to the Mediterranean soon as their commander-in-chief gives the order. This is what the press service of the Russian naval forces said earlier today. It is expected that the warships will go to the zone of the Yugoslav conflict, where they will carry out their regular exercises and perform the tasks that are set before them. The Russian reconnaissance ship the Liman is already in the Adriatic.

On Sunday night NATO brought Yugoslavia under more missile and bomb attacks. Powerful explosions resounded in the area of the air force base Batainitsa near Belgrade, and at the oil refinery Panchevo, 20 kilometres off the capital city. Kosovo's administrative centre Pristina also came under attack. According to a report by the news agency TANYUG a missile of colossal destructive power blew up in the thickly populate residential area of Vojevodina's main city Novi Sad. On Sunday,- the day of Easter,- strikes were delivered on the cities of Kralevo, Prizen, Uroshevats and Djakovitse. More than a thousand people, mostly civilians, have died in Yugoslavia since NATO launched its aggression against the Balkan country late last month.
On Saturday night Yugoslav antiaircraft defence units downed another NATO plane, which fell near the town of Sombor, in the North of Serbia. On Saturday Yugoslav sources said that 23 planes, 5 helicopters and several dozen cruise missiles had been brought down since NATO launched aggression against the Balkan republic.
The Republican candidate for the US presidency Patrich Buchanen has said President Bill Clinton's decision to start bombings of Yugoslavia was a horrible error and that those who advised to do so should be held responsible. He was speaking in an interview with the CBS television network to comment on American press reports that Clinton decided on bombings despite recommendations by the Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency. Patrich Buchanen stressed that the US participation in the military operation against Yugoslavia was absolutely unfounded. Yugoslavia, the prominent American politician pointed out, threatened no NATO country, and so this is an offensive war, launched by President Clinton.
Norway's Foreign Minister, who’s also Chairman of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe Knut Vollebak has said that talks between the US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, due in Oslo on Tuesday, could prove to become the first step on the way out of the Kosovo crisis. He was speaking in an interview with Norwegian television on Sunday night. Earlier on Sunday Igor Ivanov said that during the talks with Albright he would demand an end to NATO's airstrikes on Yugoslavia. According to him, the problem of Kosovo can be resolved only through dialogue, one that should be resumed without delay.
The NATO countries are getting down to consultations on ways to find a political solution to the Kosovo crisis. This came in a televised interview in Paris on Sunday night by the French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine. According to him, partners in the North Atlantic alliance continue to oppose the idea of Kosovo's independence and see it as "dangerous for political stability" in the Balkan region. Nor would they think, Vedrine said, of the possibility to divide the Serbian province. The French Foreign Minister pointed to the "essential role" that Russia was called upon to play in a Kosovo settlement.
The United States and French Presidents have, in a telephone conversation, stressed the importance of Russia's role in the efforts to search for a political solution to the Kosovo crisis. When Bill Clinton and Jacques Chirac conversed on Sunday, they said they wanted to act together in promoting UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s initiative, one that seeks to end hostilities and search for a political solution to the conflict. At the same time, a spokeswoman for the Palais Elysee says, the American and French Presidents reiterated that they remained firm about their tough policy with regard to Yugoslavia "to attain their objectives".
The speaker of the Russian Parliament's upper house Yegor Stroyev has said he cannot understand just why Hungary has denied permission to cross its territory to a Russian convoy of lorries with humanitarian aid to Yugoslavia, which has become the victim of NATO aggression. Yegor Stroyev leads a Russian delegation to a conference of the Interparliamentary Union in Brussels. According to the ITAR-TASS news agency, the upper house speaker stressed that the aid was meant for all Yugoslav citizens, irrespective of their nationality. Meanwhile the Russian Minister for Emergencies Sergey Shoigu said in Moscow on Sunday that action by the Hungarian authorities constituted a violation of international agreements. Sergey Shoigu has arrived in Budapest to sort out the situation that's taken shape.

April 11

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexii the Second has greeted the Head of the Holy Serb Orthodox Church, His Holiness Patriarch Pavel, hierarchs, monks and believers of the Serb Orthodox Church on the day of the holy feast of the resurrection of Christ: "Though today you are going through hard times and trials, though your cities and villages are coming under air strikes and missile attacks, the joy of the holiday and the spiritual upsurge experienced by the Serbian people on this day will help you overcome the hardships and the severe trial. I wish you to rejoice on the holy day of Easter! Let your joy about the resurrection of Jesus Christ help you endure the losses and destruction! Our Lord's mercy and the prayers of all the Orthodox Churches, which are united today in one prayer for the Serbian people, and for the Holy Serb Orthodox Church, will make you strong and will help you overcome all the hardships! Christ is risen! We wish you a joyous holiday of Easter. On this day of resurrection, let's rejoice and embrace each other and, with all our love for the resurrected Christ, let's say to each other: Christ is risen! Indeed, he is risen!"
Embassy of the Union republic of Yugoslavia

NATO BOMBS HAVE POLLUTED THE ATMOSPHERE OF SEVEN COUNTRIES

Belgrade experts have confirmed the reports of Greek colleagues that the blasts of missiles and bombs as aresult of NATO air-strikes at targets in Yugoslavia pose a potential threat to human health throughout the region.

Greek experts reported that after registering an increase in the levels of toxic substances in the atmosphere of Greece, Albania, Macedonia, Italy, Austria and Hungary.

Greek experts of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and director of the World center for ozone cartography Prof. Christos Zerefos said that one day after the beginning of the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia, Greek experts discovered in the atmosphere of that country and its neighborhood dioxin and particles toxic of the group of toxic agents knows as furanes posing a high risk for human health of the entire region. Admissible levels were exceeded in immediate proximity to the war theatre, that is, in places where hellish devices were blasted. Fortunately, the effects were short-lived, said Dr Slobodan Toshovic, toxicology expert and head of the ecotoxicology service at the city health institute.

Threats with propaganda plates.

Apart from shelling Serbian villages with shells and banned cluster bombs, NATO last night dropped metal plates with threats on them.

The inscription on plates dropped near the Gracanica monastery said: "Take a look to the sky just before you dig it's the last time you will". The new propaganda weapon of the NATO aggressor shows once again that the purpose of bombings of Yugoslavia is not to prevent an imaginary humanitarian disaster but to destroy the Serbian people.

Reaction abroad to the decision by the Yugoslav and Serbian government to declare a unilateral cease-fire.

The Vatican welcomed a report from the Union government and the government of the Serbian republic of a unilateral cease-fire against terrorists in Kosovo and Metohija as a "token of peace" and again urged NATO to stop air-raids on Yugoslavia. "One thing is well- known - a continuation of violence of the kind that has taken place throughout recent days creates a major obstacle to the searches of peaceful settlement through negotiations", said Vatican State Secretary archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran.

Moscow. Russian president Boris Yeltsin welcomes in principle Belgrade's decision on a unilateral cessation of hostilities in Kosovo and Metohija, said presidential press-secretary Dmitry Yakushkin. Belgrade's decision is within the general line formulated by president Yeltsin, a line to political settlement. Yeltsin believes that if this is a chance to reach such a goal, it should be used. It is a matter when an advantage should be taken of any peace initiative. All the more so that, as we know by this moment, Belgrade combines its declaration of a truce with a whole number of measures it is ready to take for settling the situation politically, Yakushkin stressed.

Peking released as a "news flash" the joint decision by the governments of Yugoslavia and Serbia on a unilateral cessation of operations against Albanian terrorists in Kosovo and Metohija in connection with the Major Christian holiday - Easter. China again demanded an immediate end to the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia, so that the issue of Kosovo and Metohija could be brought back without delay into a course of political settlement. As the Chinese foreign ministry says in a statement, the NATO aggression encounters increasing censure and resistance all over the world. Peking denounced raids on civil targets, warning that the NAT0 aggressor has in recent days intensified its strikes at civil installations, causing tremendous human casualties and destruction.

Paris. As they welcome Belgrade's decision on a unilateral cease-fire in Kosovo and Metohija, many French politicians criticize the tough position of the NATO aggressor, that is, of president Jaques Chirac who rejected the given initiative without any analysis as insufficient for halting the bombings of Yugoslavia.

Rome. State secretary of the Italian defence ministry M. Brutti has described the unilateral truce announced by the Yugoslav and Serbian governments as a window of opportunity to open a peace dialogue. Any signal for a peaceful solution is welcome and consequently the tiniest opportunity for a return to negotiations must be seized upon. From the start of NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia Italian government has been trying to make a politico-diplomatic initiative and has therefore described the decision by Belgrade a positive step towards a peaceful solution of the most dramatic and tragic events in Yugoslavia.

Support by Indian congress party.

The Indian congress party has continued to voice support for Yugoslavia victim of NATO's naked aggression. The congress support was announced by a senior party member A.P Sangma who strongly condemned NATO's aggression stressing that the congress party and the Indian parliament would continue efforts at a peaceful solution.

NATO's aggression is main reason for mass exodus of people from Kosovo and Methokhia.

Geneva. Russian Ambassador to UN head office V.Sidorov has declared in Geneva that NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia was the main cause of the mass exodus of people from Kosovo and Methokhia. It would be a distortion of facts to fail to say that NATO's aggression is the main cause of the current humanitarian catastrophe since according to UN high commissioner for refugees, the mass exodus began on March 24th the day NATO commenced its aggression. It was then the situation were went out of control said Mr Sidorov at the international conference devoted to the humanitarian crisis in Kosovo and Methokhia. NATO's aggression has exacerbated the interethnic conflict resulting in mass exodus of people. It's the more surprising that some humanitarian bodies including the UN have unfortunately backed NATO's position, said Ambassador Sidorov. We strongly oppose the voiced evaluation because it is wrongly addressed. Ambassador Sidorov revealed that some humanitarian organizations taking part in the Geneva conference even failed to mention NATO's aggression and such a deliberate commission serves only to fuel deep concern since it is capable of being interpreted as a justification for NATO's aggression by launching cruise missiles on Yugoslavia.

About 20 demonstrators have occupied the headquarter of the green party accusing the chairman of the party Joshka Fisher. German foreign minister of supporting NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia. They say that by his support he has betrayed genuine principles of pacifism. The demonstrators who described themselves as anti-racist group from the Federal land of North Rein-Westphalia said their action was in protest against NATO and Germany's involvement in that organization. The demonstrators have vowed not to leave the headquarter of the green party until senior party members such as environment minister Yugen Trittin or state minister in the German foreign ministry Luedger Folmer has spoken to them.

Simultaneously opponents of current policy of the greens have stormed the party building in Hamburg tearing the photograph of the Fuerer and that of US president Bill Clinton, defacing the office walls by the words greens are war-mongers.

The Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov is meeting in Oslo on Tuesday with the American Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to discuss the situation involving Yugoslavia. Addressing a news conference in Moscow on Friday Mr.Ivanov confirmed that Russia would seek an immediate end to the US bombardments of Yugoslavia and would work towards a political settlement. He said NATO's actions were forcing Russian leaders to consider seriously all the aspects connected with guaranteeing national security. President Yeltsin said on Friday that the West would have to admit its failure in Yugoslavia. He said Russia had no intention to be sucked into the conflict unless it was pushed into doing so by the Americans.

April 10

Next Tuesday, April 13th, the Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov will meet the US State Secretary Madeleine Albright in Oslo to discuss the situation around Yugoslavia. Russian Foreign Ministry officials have stressed the Meeting will be held on mutual agreement. According to the ITAR-TASS news agency, the parties to the forthcoming meeting will also take up the current state of Russian-American relations. At a news conference in Moscow on Friday Igor Ivanov confirmed that Russia would press for an immediate end to bombing raids on Yugoslavia and for a settlement by political means. Ivanov refuted reports about retargeting Russian missiles on the NATO countries involved in the act of aggression against Yugoslavia. Yet, he pointed out that NATO's action forced Russian leaders to give a serious thought to all aspects of guaranteeing national security. Also on Friday the Russian President Yeltsin said that the West would have to admit the anti-Yugoslav action was a mistake. He said Russia would not draw itself into the conflict unless pushed to this by Americans. Yeltsin and Ivanov reacted favorably to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's request for joining the Russian-Belorussian Union.
On Friday night NATO aircraft again carried out barbaric raids on Yugoslavia. Strikes were delivered at basically civilian targets like life-support systems, roads and residential areas, and resulted in numerous victims. The dead bodies of a local Turk and his three small children were taken from under the wreckage of a block of flats in Kosovo's main city Pristina. Yugoslav television and radio buildings and services also came under air attacks. According to a TASS news agency report, radio and TV transmitters near Pristina and Novi Sad are out of action. Despite the air-raid warning journalists of Serbian state television in Belgrade remained near the television building to protect it. They held posters, one of which said that Truth is stronger than F-117 planes. During the night Belgraders formed human chains along the bridges across the Danube and Sava and at acme enterprises. Aircraft were droning over the capital and antiaircraft guns were firing all night through. According to Belgrade television, one plane was downed. Russian Military sources claim that over 20 planes, 5 helicopters and several dozen cruise missiles have been brought down in Yugoslavia since NATO launched its raids.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has said Moscow is determined to continue its efforts towards stopping NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia and mediating a political solution to the crisis. At a news conference on Friday he said there were all grounds to suspect that NATO was using a new type of weapons with radioactive components in its military operations in Yugoslavia. In some areas in Kosovo radiation is higher than normal. Speaking about the recruitment of ethnic Albanians in Germany and arms supplies for the Kosovo Liberation Army, Mr Ivanov described it as a gross violation of UN resolutions. The minister denied allegations that Russian missiles had been retargeted at countries taking part in the aggression against Yugoslavia. At the same time he added that NATO has forced Russian leaders to review all aspects of ensuring national security.
The speaker of the Cypriot Parliament Spiros Kiprianu has ended his visit to Belgrade, where he's been staying since Thursday and met President Slobodan Milosevic. He also visited a number of places in Yugoslavia to see civilian facilities and built-up areas destroyed by NATO bombs. Kiprianu described NATO's operation against Yugoslavia as "barbarity and genocide". When in Belgrade he touched on the issue of setting free the three American soldiers who crossed into Yugoslav territory and were taken prisoner in Kosovo.
Talking with journalists in Belgrade the chairman of the Italian Communist Transformation Party Armando Cossuta quoted the Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic as saying that Yugoslavia is prepared to consider an international civilian presence in Kosovo as a guarantee that the refugees will be returned. Cossuta was speaking after his Meeting with the Yugoslav President and said Milosevic would like this civilian presence to be not under the auspices of the OSCE but of someone close to it. When the OSCE mission of verifiers was in Kosovo, it reported to the American Walker, who trumped up charges of "Serbian violence" that NATO used as a pretext to launch aggression against Yugoslavia.
On Friday in Brussels the NATO spokesman Jamie Shea assured Russia that the North Atlantic alliance was not going to conquer Kosovo. According to a TASS report, Shea thus reacted to Russian President Boris Yeltsin's utterances when the Russian leader described NATO bombing raids on Belgrade as "barbaric" and warned that "we would not betray Yugoslavia". Shea tried to prove that what NATO did in Yugoslavia allegedly "posed no danger to Russia's security even in the longest term".
Macedonia does not oppose a NATO peacekeeping operation in Yugoslavia but objects to the use of any offensive force by the alliance. This has come in a statement at the NATO headquarters in Brussels by the Macedonian Foreign and Defence Ministers Alexander Dimitrov and Nikola Kliusev. According to the RIA-Novosti news agency, the two Ministers said that Macedonia would not tolerate on its territory any offensive forces capable of attacking any neighbouring country, Yugoslavia included.

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