May 21
- Last night NATO aircraft carried
out a new bomb attack on Belgrade. One person was reported killed and the
Swiss embassy was damaged. In the town of Sombor in the north of Serbia
the missiles hit a residential quarter, destroying several houses. One
man was killed and his relatives were wounded. The night air raid on Belgrade
blew out all windows in the Swiss embassy. The Swiss government has demanded
an investigation into the incident, which is already the fourth of its
kind over the past 24 hours. Earlier NATO bomb explosions damaged the Swedish,
Norwegian and Spanish embassies. Three people were killed on the 7-th of
May when a missile hit the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. On Thursday NATO
aircraft bombed a hospital, killing 6 patients. The number of casualties
since the beginning of the aggression totals more than 6 thousand. Yugoslav
air-defense troops have downed some 50 NATO planes.
- Russia is stepping up diplomatic
efforts to resolve the crisis around Kosovo. Moscow's special envoy to
the Balkans Victor Chernomyrdin has held talks in Moscow with the Finnish
President Marti Ahtisaari and US Under-Secretary of State Strobe Talbott.
The sides agreed to continue them in Moscow next week. Meanwhile, Russian
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov on Friday met with the UN Secretary-General's
special representative on Yugoslavia Carl Bildt and the Greek Foreign Minister
Georgios Papandreu. Greece has strongly criticized NATO's air bombing campaign
against Yugoslavia. On Wednesday the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and
Finland's President Marti Ahtisasri will meet in Stockholm to discuss the
Kosovo crisis.
- The Russian State Duma, the lower
house of parliament, has called on NATO to stop air raids on Yugoslavia
and search for a political solution to the conflict. The call is contained
in a special address adopted on Friday. It points out that NATO's military
operation unauthorized by the UN Security Council has seriously undermined
the alliance's authority and dealt a staggering blow to the entire system
of international security.
- High-ranking diplomats from the
Group of Eight, the former G-7 plus Russia, are meeting in Bonn to draft
a UN Security Council resolution on the basis of a peace plan for Kosovo,
proposed by the G-8. Russia has reiterated a call for an end to NATO bombings
of Yugoslavia for the period of negotiations. On Thursday the parliament
of Italy passed a resolution denouncing the air raids. The Italian Prime
Minister Massimo D'Alema suggests that NATO halt the bombings until the
resolution is finished.
- A source in the Russian Foreign
Ministry has refuted a statement spread by the Kosovo Liberation Army that
a Russian volunteer officer has been killed in Kosovo. The diplomat said
the aim of the statement was to derail the Balkan peace process. The Yugoslav
military command has also denied the report, saying that even Yugoslav
volunteers are refused to fight in Kosovo.
- China has cancelled a planned visit
of US warships to Hong Kong, scheduled for June, in the wake of the Chinese
embassy bombing in Belgrade earlier this month, in which three people were
killed. Beijing demanded a thorough investigation into the incident and
that those responsible for the bombing be punished, but nothing has been
done so far. The attack prompted China to break off relations with the
United States in the military and other spheres.
- NATO warplanes continue to hit
strikes at Belgrade. They attacked a military site in the Rakovic district,
in the southern part of the city last night. There was another raid at
the dump of the national oil company "Yugopetrol" on the bank
of Sava, not far from the center of the capital. Belgrade radio says that
damage has been done to the residence of Switzerland's ambassador to Yugoslavia,
situated a hundred meters away. A reception was being hold at the time
for diplomats in Belgrade on the occasion of Switzerland's national holiday
- Independence Day. Bombs were also dropped on oil and gas dumps in Sombor,
near the border with Hungary and in the outskirts of Belgrade - Ostrujnic.
- US president Bill Clinton has said
NATO will make no compromises regarding its demands to Belgrade. Speaking
at the White House on Thursday he stressed that NATO will continue air
strikes as long as that is needed to attain its objectives.
- Three sided talks on settling the
crisis in the Balkans, which began in Helsinki this week - continued in
Moscow throughout last night and in the morning. The president of Finland
Martti Ahtisaari, a special representative of the Russian president Victor
Chernomyrdin, and US deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbott conduct the
talks. Before the discussions began, Victor Chernomyrdin briefed president
Ahtisaari on the results of his talks with Yugoslavia's president Slobodan
Milosevic in Belgrade. The main objective of the three-sided talks is working
out proposals on ending hostilities in Yugoslavia. When meeting with newsmen
during an intermission Victor Chernomyrdin expressed firm belief that a
solution would be found.
- A special representative of the
UN secretary general for settling the crisis in the Balkans, Karl Bildt
arrives in Moscow today to discuss ways of solving the Kosovo crisis. This
was been reported by the ITAR-TASS news agency, referring to diplomatic
sources. In the opinion of those sources, in Moscow Karl Bildt will try
bring closer the stands of Russia and NATO on a settlement in the Balkans.
- Some 20 Human Rights and trade
union organizations of France, including the General Confederation of Labor,
have called for holding on June 2nd a national day of action against NATO's
barbarous bombing of Yugoslavia. They intend to organize manifestations
all over the country. An address circulated on Thursday contains a call
on the United Nations to take necessary initiatives in that respect. Meanwhile
a national coalition for peace in Yugoslavia has been formed in the United
States. Its members are some 20 public organizations uniting thousands
of Americans of different political and religious beliefs.
May 20
- NATO has recognized that during
last night's bombing raid on Belgrade one high-precision bomb with a laser-guidance
device went off course and hit a city hospital. According to the alliance
spokesman Jamie Shea, the bomb fell 500 metres away from the real target.
In hospital the bomb killed three people, injured two women in childbirth
who had been on the operating table at the moment. Last night NATO planes
also attacked, among others, a chemical factory in Belgrade's suburbs and
a major Yugoslav electric power station in Obrenovac. More than 6000 people
have been killed or injured in Yugoslavia since NATO launched its aggression
against the Balkan country and the bombing raids cause an estimated material
damaged of 100 billion dollars.
- The Swedish Foreign Minister Anna
Lind has denounced NATO's bombing raids on Belgrade. As she commented last
night's attacks on Belgrade she said that it was unacceptable that so powerful
bombs causing major destruction had been used for targets in the centre
of a large city. Airstrikes on Belgrade on Wednesday night caused loss
of life and damaged the residence of the Swedish ambassador.
- Capitalizing on improving weather
conditions on Thursday, NATO military aircraft stepped up their strikes
against Yugoslavia on Thursday with an allied spokesman in Brussels reporting
446 sorties made in the past 24 hours alone.
- The Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe has
voiced strong doubts about NATO's readiness for talks with Belgrade. In
an interview with the Berliner Zeitung newspaper on Thursday, Willie Wimmer
criticised the strongly-worded statements recently made by the British
Foreign Secretary Robin Cook as an attempt to bring about a situation that
could eventually lead to a major conflagration in the Balkans.
- The three-way settlement talks
on Yugoslavia will resume in Moscow later in the day. Earlier on Thursday
President Yeltsin's Balkans envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin, Finnish President
Martti Ahtisaari and US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott held 9
hours of consultations in Helsinki after which Mr.Chernomyrdin flew on
to Belgrade. After meeting there with the Yugoslav Presoident Slobodan
Milosevic, he said the principles worked out by the G8 group of industrialised
nations hold the key to a lasting settlement in the Balkans and made further
progress in peace talks conditional on an end to NATO's bombings of Federal
Yugoslavia.
- The Russian presidential envoy
for the Balkans Victor Chernomyrdin told newsmen before leaving Belgrade
after 7-houres discussions with the Yugoslav President Miloshevich there
that the thorniest issue of the talks was the demand for the withdrawal
of Yugoslav troops from Kosovo and the deployment of international peace-keeping
contingent there. Mr. Chernomyrdin reiterated that the crisis should be
resolved on the principles agreed by the Big Eight, and those principles
should be pursued; and of course the bombing should be stopped.
- As soon as President Yeltsin's
emissary for the Balkans Viktor Chernomyrdin left Belgrade, NATO planes
launched a missile and bombing raid on the Yugoslav capital. The Nova Iskra
chemical plant in a suburb of Belgrade was set on fire. Targets came under
fire at the Avala Mountain and in the Lipovy forest, and a few missiles
exploded Belgrade's downtown. A wing of Deninje city hospital was destroyed.
Three patients were killed and several people, including tow delivering
mothers, received injuries. Missiles were also fired on Yugoslavia's biggest
Obrenovats power plant.
- United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan feels the United Nations must be playing a key role in the search
for a Kosovo peace accommodation. He hopes the United Nations Security
Council will soon consider ways to settle the Yugoslav crisis. Mr. Annan
was speaking Wensday at a Kosovar refugee camp near the Macedonian capital
of Skoplje. He thanked the Macedonian capital of Skoplje. He thanked the
Macedonian government for giving roof to about 230.000 Kosovar refugees.
May 19
- The Russian presidential shutter
for the Balkans Victor Chernomyrdin is flying to Belgrade to deliver to
the leadership there new peace initiatives on Yugoslavia that emerged from
his talks with US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and the Finnish
President Martti Ahtisaari in Helsinki yesterday an today. After leaving
Belgrade, Mr. Chernomyrdin is expected to have new consultations with Mr.
Talbott and Mr. Ahtisaari. The venue will switch to the Russian capital
Moscow. The Finnish President is quoted as welcoming the outcome of the
talks in Helsinki. There are no reports of details of understandings there.
- High-ranking diplomats from the
7 most powerful democracies and Russia are meeting in Bonn today to translate
a G-8 peace plan for Kosovo into a draft resolution of the Security Council
of the UN. Acting Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov believes the NATO
air campaign against Yugoslavia creates immense obstacles for this job.
He says the bombings must immediately come to and end so that diplomacy
could take its course.
- NATO aviation has carried out another
night of air strikes against Yugoslavia. According to the country's news
agencies, the missiles targeting Belgrade's suburbs went off on the territory
of Batainitsa air field and in Cucaritse where an oil reservoir and a sugar
plant are situated. Powerful explosions were heard in the suburb of Rakovitsa
and the district of Surchin near a civil airport. NATO planes fired three
missiles at army barracks in the town of Mica Mitrovic, 80 kilometers west
of Belgrade and just 100 meters from a residential area. 14 missiles hit
an area near the southern city of Vranje inflicting considerable damage.
Yugoslav radio and TV transmitters came under intensive bombing again last
night. More than 6 thousand people are reported to have been killed and
wounded since the bombing campaign began. Damage inflicted has been estimated
at over 100 billion dollars.
- The Italian Prime-Minister Massimo
D'Alema is meeting in Brussels tomorrow with NATO's Secretary-General Javier
Solana to discuss a Kosovo settlement. Addressing Italian MPs earlier in
the day Mr.D'Alema said he would inform Mr.Solana and NATO allies of his
country's opinion with regard to the crisis in Kosovo. Meeting earlier
this week the Italian prime-minister and the German Chancellor Gerhard
Shroeder agreed that the United Nations must play a decisive role in a
Kosovo settlement. The UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan admitted before
the meeting that NATO countries had pushed the United Nations aside by
beginning a military campaign against Yugoslavia without its sanctions.
- NATO warplanes hit now strikes
at Yugoslavia last night. Yugoslavia's news agencies say there were raids
on the outskirts of Belgrade. Missiles and bombs exploded on the territory
of a military airfield in Batainic and also in Kukaric where an oil dump
and a sugar factory are located. Several big explosions were heard in Rakovic,
an outskirt of Belgrade, and in the capital's district of Surchin where
there is a civilian airport Yugoslav's air defenses repeatedly opened fire
on enemy planes. According to the TANYUG news agency, a very strong missile
attack was made on a population center of Suva Reka in Kosovo. The outskirts
of the city of Prizren in Kosovo likewise came under heavy attack. On Tuesday
NATO planes bombed Belgrade and also the big Serbian cities of Novi-Sad
and Nis. More than 20 missiles explored in Valevo, in the west of Serbia.
An elderly woman was killed and 12 persons were wounded. More than 50 bombs
were dropped on Kosovo since NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia began,
over six thousand people were killed or wounded. Material damage is said
to exceed l00 billion dollars.
- The talks hold on Tuesday by the
special representative of Russia's president in the Balkans Victor Chernomyrdin
with Finland's president Martti Ahtisari and America's deputy secretary
of state Strobe Talbott concerning the G-8 plan of settling the Kosovo
problem - were serious and constructive. This is said in a report circulated
in Helsinki by the foreign ministry of Finland. The talks will be continued
today. Later Victor Chernomyrdin will fly to Belgrade to inform Yugoslav's
president Slobodan Milosevic with the results of the negotiations. Yugoslavia
has expressed readiness to conduct a dialogue on the G-8 plan, which provide
for stationing international peacekeeping forces in Kosovo.
- Russia plays a constructive role
in settling the crisis in Yugoslavia by political means. This was stated
at a news conference in New York on Tuesday by a special envoy of the UN
secretary general to the Balkans, foreign minister of Slovakia Eduard Kukan.
He intends to arrive in Moscow on Thursday to meet with Russia's foreign
minister Igor Ivanov and with the representative of the Russian president
to the Balkans Victor Chernomyrdin. Eduard Kukan pointed out that it is
very important for all sides involved in settling the Kosovo conflict -
to join efforts with Russia.
- High-ranking diplomats of the G-8
countries meet in Bonn today to prepare a draft resolution of the UN Security
Council on the basis of the plan for a peaceful settlement in Kosovo that
they had proposed. Russia's acting foreign Minister Igor Ivanov stress
that continuing NATO air strikes at Yugoslavia don't create the best conditions
for that work. He expressed firm belief that the missile and bomb strikes
should be ended. The Yugoslav crisis could be settled only by political
means, added Igor Ivanov.
May 18
- After a relative lull caused by
poor weather, NATO aircraft have carried out new attacks on Yugoslavia.
Last night they bombed suburbs of Belgrade, the city of Novy Sad in the
north and Nish in the south, using anti-personnel cassette bombs prohibited
by international treaties. Missiles hit several bridges on railroads and
highways, as well as a bus station, a printing house, a cigarette factory
and a residential area in the city of Vranje in southern Serbia. Over 50
bombs were dropped on Kosovo.
- President Boris Yeltsin's special
representative on Yugoslavia Victor Chernomyrdin on Tuesday arrived in
Helsinki where he will meet with President Marti Ahtisaari and the US Under-Secretary
of State Strobe Talbott to discuss the Kosovo crisis. On Wednesday Mr Chernomyrdin
will leave for Belgrade. He will perhaps be accompanied by Mr Ahtisaari,
who is an international mediator at talks with Yugoslavia. Victor Chernomyrdin
has repeatedly stressed that NATO must stop the bombings before the talks
begin.
- Senior foreign ministry officials
of the Group of Eight will meet in Bonn on Wednesday to discuss the problem
of Kosovo. Russia will be represented by Ambassador Extraordinary Boris
Mayorsky.
- Two Serbian army servicemen captured
by militants of the Kosovo Liberation Army have been released from prison
in the German city of Mannheim. They were handed over to International
Red Cross officials, and will now return home.
- Acting as Russia's defence minister
Igor Sergeyev has said that despite the continued process to peacefully
settle the Kosovo problem, NATO is planning to carry out a ground operation
in the Serb Kosovo Province. Speaking in Moscow, he said that the NATO
contingents in Yugoslavia's neighbours would be increased and that additional
armaments would be deployed there. The minister has also said that there
are plans to use the territories of Hungary, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania,
Macedonia and Bulgaria as the possible directions for NATO's future offensive.
Igor Sergeyev has noted that the British Prime Minister Tony Blair is actively
advocating NATO's invasion of Yugoslavia. At the same time, the Russian
minister was hopeful that the negotiating process on Yugoslavia would continue
successfully advancing and that the problem would be settled by political
means.
- The Patriarch of Moscow and all
Russia Alexi the Second has again advocated the stopping of the NATO bombings
of Yugoslavia at the earliest date possible. This is what he said, meeting
in Moscow with the Speaker of the House of Commons of the Canadian Parliament
Gilbert Paran. The Patriarch has voiced his regret over the fact that despite
the appeals of the Russian and Serb Patriarchs and also those of the Pope
to stop the bloodshed in Yugoslavia, the NATO countries continue the bombings.
- NATO aircraft have again been bombing
Yugoslavia. Three explosions shook Monday night suburbs of Belgrade. A
few missiles hit the industrial zone of Yugoslavia`s third largest city
of Nis. The city of Licovac where the Kosovo Liberation Army used to heardquarters
last year, came under attack. Air alarm calls woke up the city of Novy
Sad. Last night`s attack on the city of Bor claimed one human life and
left five people injured. The city of Smederevo which lies 60 kilometers
away from Belgrade, suffered damage. A fuel depot was set on fire in that
city. NATO planes were bombing the railroad between the cities of Cacak
and Kralevo. Bridges were destroyed on the Belgrade-Nis and Pec-Kosovska
Mitrovica highways. As many as 12 houses were destroyed in the village
of Yence which lies near the administrative capital of Kosovo Pristina.
The NATO aggression civilian death toll is being put at more than 6,000.
The bombing have inflicted more than 100 billion dollar damages.
- The United Nations Security Council
is starting work on a draft resolution on Yugoslavia. Russia`s acting foreign
minister Igor Ivanov has told media people in Brussels that the Security
Council efforts will do no good unless the North Atlantic Alliance puts
an end to the missile and bombing raids on Yugoslavia. In Ivanov`s view,
Russia is willing to keep backing international efforts in the search for
a Yugoslav accommodation. Ivanov attended a conference of the foreign ministers
of the European Union, in Brussels.
- United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan hopes the world`s seven leading nations and Russia will, by
week`s end, reach agreement on ways to end the Yugoslav crisis. Annan was
talking to newsmen after a meeting with Dutch prime minister Vim Cock,
Monday at the Hague.
May 17
- Acting prime minister Sergey Stepashin
insists nato must call off its bombing campaign against federal Yugoslavia
before there can be fresh peace talks on Kosovo. He said this in appearance
before the Upper House of Parliament on Monday. His opinion came a couple
of hours after presidential go-between for the Balkans Victor Chernomyrdin
announced he would again go to Belgrade on Tuesday after discussing Yugoslavia
in Helsinki with US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and the Finnish
President Martti Ahtisaari, who, too, acts as an international mediator
in the crisis. Mr Chernomyrdin believed the diplomacy to end war in Yugoslavia
is entering a crucial stage.
- Acting Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov
is discussing Kosovo with the 15 counterparts from the European Union on
his first visit to Brussels since NATO unleashed its bombing campaign.
Their gathering is supposed to pave the way for a broader conference on
Yugoslavia in Bonn late this month.
- Two NATO commandos have died in
a secret operation in Kosovo, the London-published weekly "Independent
on Sunday" reported. According to the weekly, a group of US and British
commandos disguised as Yugoslav servicemen was infiltrated into Kosovo
prior to the bombings to guide NATO planes at targets. The operation is
being carried out jointly with the so-called "Kosovo Liberation army".
Last week, a group of NATO commandos supported by 100 Albanians made a
raid in Kosovo as a result of which tens of civilians were killed.
- Last night in Yugoslavia NATO aircraft
attacked Belgrade and Pristina, and also a number of other cities and towns.
The Kosovo town Orakhovac came under especially violent attack. Bomb explosions
rocked Cacak, Kralievo and Uzice. On Sunday the NATO commander in Europe
General Weslie Clarke said that he would order stepping up the bombardment
of Yugoslavia. Now 500 NATO planes are involved in airstrikes. Meanwhile,
according to the Belgrade-based newspaper "Borba", the barbaric
bombings have damaged Yugoslavia to the tune of at least 100 billion dollars.
And the number of killed and injured exceeds 6,000.
- Some 1,000 Kosovo Albanians had
been in the village Korisa, when it came under NATO's bombing attack last
Thursday night, when three US planes dropped 500-kilogramme bombs on the
local farm and peasant homes to kill and injure some 170 people. NATO leaders
claim the planes were hitting a military target. But a France Presse reporter
who visited the site says he saw some 20 burnt tractors and carts of Albanian
peasants. Meanwhile the NATO command warns that it will continue to strike
at all suspicious facilities, even though these may house civilians, Albanians
including. But when the North Atlantic alliance launched the military operation
in Yugoslavia on 24th of last March it announced that its objective was
to protect Kosovo Albanians.
- The Yugoslav Army continues to
withdraw from Kosovo despite the fact that NATO has stepped up its bombing
raids on the province. This has come in a statement in Belgrade by the
head of the information service of the Yugoslav Army High Command Colonel
Milivoje Novkovic. He denounced NATO leaders for the fact that the North
Atlantic alliance responded to each "step towards peace" by the
Union Republic of Yugoslavia by ever more intensive bombardment to preclude
the implementation of peace initiatives. Colonel Novkovic said bombing
raids make it more difficult to carry out the planned regrouping and withdrawal
of Army and police units . And, he pointed out, another factor preventing
the Yugoslav Army Command to go on with their plans to withdraw is the
situation that's grown involved on Yugoslavia's border with Albania and
Macedonia, where Kosovo Albanian refugees are recruited to be trained at
terrorist training centres and then sent to the Union Republic of Yugoslavia.
- The London-based Newspaper "Times"
quotes what it calls British "military sources" as saying that
in July or August NATO plans to launch a ground operation in Kosovo. Until
the NATO aircraft should fully neutralize Yugoslav antiaircraft defences.
According to the newspaper, the NATO command plans to engage from 40,000
to 50,000 troops in the operation. And all signs are that the first echelons
of the invading force will be formed of Kosovo Albanian fighters. The fighters
that are now armed and trained at NATO bases in Albania and Macedonia.
- A group of United Nations experts
in humanitarian matters have arrived in Belgrade, to find out about the
needs of the Yugoslav population, in particular Kosovo residents, who suffered
from NATO airstrikes. This is the first UN delegation to have visited Yugoslavia
after NATO began to bomb the Balkan country on the 24th of last March.
The Yugoslav authorities plan to give all-round assistance to the delegation
during the time the latter will travel in Yugoslavia.
- Active diplomatic efforts continue
to be made to reach a political settlement of the Balkan crisis. Later
this Monday the problem will be taken up in Helsinki and Brussels. In Belgian
capital meetings will be held in the framework of the European Union Ministers
conference to involve the Russian Foreign Minister lgor lvanov and also
the Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova. In Helsinki President Martti
Ahtisaari of Finland, who acts as a mediator on behalf of the EU, will
meet the German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, and then- on Tuesday - the
Russian President's envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin. The US deputy Secretary
of State Strobe Talbott is expected to arrive in Moscow later today to
continue talks on a settlement in Yugoslavia. Russia demands an immediate
stop to the bombings of Yugoslavia.
May 16
- Out over the last 24 hours NATO
aircraft have carried the strongest raids on Yugoslavia since the start
of the aggression at the end of March. Civilian sites came under attack:
a metallurgical plant in Smederevo, a gas plant and the residential area
- Zemun in Belgrade. The cities of Nis, Kragujevac and Bor were also attacked.
NATO has been destroying industry, transport, roads, power stations and
fuel depots in a methodical manner. The areas in Kosovo close to the border
with Albania came under severe attack. The attacks may be a preparation
for a ground operation. Reports say NATO has begun using among other barbarous
weapons the so-called thermal bombs that burn down everything at a temperature
of 2 thousand degrees Centigrade. Nearly one hundred bombs were dropped
on Yugoslavia on Saturday. Reports speak of casualties and serious damage.
More than six thousand people have been killed in Yugoslavia since the
start of the war.
- The American General, Wesley Clark,
who directs the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia, has said that the raids
on Yugoslavia will be intensified. NATO aircraft carry out nearly 700 sorties
daily and the number will be increased. General Clark said bombings would
not be cancelled even if there were civilians on the chosen targets. He
made it clear that NATO will justify the actions, similar to the airstrike
on the village of Korisa in Bosnia, where nearly 90 ethnic Albanians died.
- Russia, just like any other country,
has no magic solution to the Yugoslav crisis, but it will continue working
hard towards a peaceful settlement in the Balkans. Russia's acting Foreign
Minister Igor Ivanov said as much on Saturday in St.Petersburg where he
was meeting with his opposite numbers from the Baltic republics and Scandinavia.
Russia is not the one who started this war, he said, but it is ready to
work together with anyone holding out for a political solution of the Kosovo
crisis. Mr.Ivanov said Russia and China had abstained when the Security
Council was voting on a humanitarian resolution for Yugoslavia because
the other council members were against demands to end the NATO bombings
of Serbia and Montenegro. You can't resolve a humanitarian problem in Kosovo,
he said, as long as the NATO airstrikes continue unabated.
- The deputy head of the Office of
the Russian President, Sergey Prikhodko, had talks with Indian leaders
in Delhi on Saturday. There were practically identical views at the talks
on ways of resolving the Kosovo problem. Mr.Prikhodko said that the identical
positions of Russia, India and China on the situation in Yugoslavia would
make it possible to unite the efforts of the three countries aimed at resolving
the crisis in the Balkans. He delivered President Yeltsin's message to
the Indian Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In his message the President
stressed the importance of Russian-Indian mutual understanding, considering
that NATO is challenging the whole system of international relations.
- A summit meeting of Central European
countries ended in the Ukrainian City of Lvov on Saturday with a joint
statement on the Kosovo problem. The Presidents of Ukraine, Poland, Bulgaria,
the Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, Slovenia, Germany and Austria attended
the meeting. They spoke out in favor of putting an end to the Kosovo conflict.
The statement stresses that the UN Securoty Council and other international
organizations should play a special role in resolving the conflict.
May 15
- Early on Saturday NATO aircraft
used cluster bombs and bombs with depleted uranium to bomb the areas between
the cities Cacak - Kralievo and Kragujevac. According to the TANJUG news
agency, the worst hit in the industrial area around Cacak. A house-building
complex and a toolmaking factory were set in fire. 11 missiles went off
near four villages in the vicinity of Kralievo and Kragujevac. According
to a report by Yugoslav television earlier today, national antiaircraft
defense units shot down three NATO unmanned reconnaissance planes over
Kosovo on Friday. Fragments of one of them were shown on television. More
than 6,000 people have been killed or injured in Yugoslavia over the 53
days NATO bombings of the Balkan country, and material damage exceeds 100
billion dollars.
- The US Defense Secretary William
Cohen has said that plans for the next stage of NATO's action in the Balkans
should be made public in about a week. He was speaking in an interview
with the "USA Today" newspaper and when asked if the North Atlantic
alliance had any kind of a "Plan B" in case the strategy of airstrikes
should fail, he said that it was precisely this kind of plans that NATO's
military committee was studying at the present moment. The head of the
Pentagon pointed out that the peacekeeping contingent under discussion
should obviously comprise "more than 28,000" men and officers,
although according to earlier estimates, 28,000 was the limit. The Defense
Secretary described the US and NATO approach to selecting targets ON Yugoslav
territory as "humane and civilized". According to him, death
of civilians and destruction of purely civilian facilities is a consequence
of "few errors".
- "Russia, which has repeatedly
warned NATO's leaders of the very grave consequences of the Military action
against Yugoslavia, strongly condemns the alliance's latest crime".
This comes in a statement the Russian Foreign Ministry circulated in Moscow
on Friday to comment on the use of banned cluster bombs by NATO aircraft.
The Russian Foreign Ministry stresses in its statement that "we urge
NATO strategy planners to immediately put an end to this madness. The problem
of Kosovo can be settled only at the negotiating table".
- The United Nations Secretary-General
Kofi Annan and President Martti Ahtisaari of Finland, who acts as a mediator
in a settlement of the Kosovo crisis, met in the Dutch resort place Noydwajk
on Friday to discuss issues related to a search for a way out of the crisis
situation in the Balkans. This comes in a Reuters report, and the agency
adds that President Achtisaari will continue the discussion of the problems
when he meets the Russian President's special envoy in charge of a settlement
in the Balkans Viktor Chernomyrdin and the deputy US Secretary of State
Strobe Talbott in Helsinki on Tuesday, the 18th.
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