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April 24

NATO intensifies its military campaign against Yugoslavia, one month after the operation began. Last night the missiles hit the cities of Nic in the south of Serbia, Novy Sad in the north and Kosovo's capital Pristina. At noon the rockets struck the Interior Ministry office in Belgrade. In the small hours of Friday morning the strikes destroyed the state-run television centre. 10 people are reported killed, about 20 wounded and about 20 missing. Rescue workers continue to clear up the rubble in search of survivors who have contacted them over cellular phones to let them know they are alive. According to the Yugoslav authorities, the explosive force of the bombs dropped is six times as much of the nuclear one which hit Hiroshima. Damage has been estimated at 30 billion dollars. 5 thousand people are reported killed and wounded. Yugoslav air defences have shot down 50 NATO planes and more than 100 cruise missiles.
NATO has been using weapons containing depleted uranium in its air strikes against Yugoslavia. The announcement was made by Patricia Makkena, a Europarliament deputy from Ireland's greens, with reference to the increased radiation level in the areas of bombardment. Depleted uranium is twice as heavy as lead and is used in the cores of missiles to increase their destructive force.
Russian Foreign minister Igor Ivanov says that Russia will continue supplying oil products to Yugoslavia in defiance of a unilateral embargo imposed by NATO and the EU. Mr. Ivanov made the statement on Saturday in Cairo where he had earlier arrived as part of an ongoing tour of several Middle East nations. Mr. Ivanov has already been to Israel and from Egypt we will move on to Syria. During talks with the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the Russian Foreign Minister, in an apparent bid not to exacerbate the situation in the region, advised Mr. Arafat to delay the planned May 4th declaration of Palestinian statehood until after the parliamentary elections in Israel due this May 17th.
On Friday night NATJ delivered more airstrikes on Yugoslavia/ 25 explosions have torn through Nish, Yugoslavia's third largest city, since the North Atlantic alliance launched its aggression a month ago. A bridge was destroyed in the environs of Nish/ The town Sremske Mitrovica, in Northern Serbia, also came under a missile attack. And air-raid warnings sounded in Belgrade., Novi Sad, Kragujevats and Chachak. On Friday night at least five missiles went off in Kosovo's administrative centre Pristina. NATO aircraft bombed the built-up areas Pomazatin, Belacevac, Veternik and Avajlija. The air-field Slatina came under another attack. According to eye-witnesses, a NATO plane was downed over Pristina. In Washington a spokesman for the Pentagon pointed to NATO plans for delivering another strike on Yugoslav television. When the Belgrade television centre came under attack on Thursday night, 10 people died, 19 were injured and 20 are still under the wreckage. 5000 people in Yugoslavia have been killed or injured since bombings began a month ago.
NATO plans to continue to build up military pressure on Yugoslavia. This comes in a statement on Kosovo that the NATO countries' leaders signed in the wake of their meeting in Washington on Friday, in the run-up to the official opening of their summit to mark the 50 years since the alliance was set up. The NATO leaders agreed to take "additional measures" against Yugoslavia that would include economic sanctions, one of which would be an embargo on oil product deliveries. NATO, the statement points out, will suspend airstrikes on Yugoslavia as soon as Belgrade "starts to quickly withdraw its troops from Kosovo" and "unconditionally" meets other demands by the alliance.
The NATO Defence Ministers have taken the decision to authorise their warships to stop and search sea vessels that carry cargoes to Yugoslavia. This came in a statement in Washington on Friday by the spokesman for the US Administration Samuel Berger. He said he did not rule out the use of arms against the vessels that would refuse to obey orders from MATO naval forces.
The positions of Russia and Ukraine on a peaceful settlement in Kosovo are very close. This came in a statement in Washington on Friday by the Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, who attends the NATO summit. According to him, the Kosovo problem cannot be resolved without Russia. Kuchma made public Ukraine's plan for a settlement of the Balkan conflict, whereby the Serbian troops are pulled out of Kosovo and NATO stops their strikes on Yugoslavia simultaneously. Ukraine's President feels that NATO troops should not take part in the future peacekeeping operations in Yugoslavia.
Yugoslavia has accused the US of breaking the embargo on arms deliveries to Kosovo. In a letter to the United Nations Security Council Yugoslavia'' ambassador to the United Nations Vladislav Jovanovic points out that Washington has been secretly supplying the separatists of the Kosovo Liberation Army with modern weapons, including antitank missiles, to enable them to engage in terrorist activities. Thus Washington, the Yugoslav ambassador stresses, violates the Security Council resolutions on Yugoslavia and encourages terrorism and separatism in Kosovo.
Last night an unidentified explosive device went off near the building of the United States and British consulates in the city of Yekaterinburg, in the Urals. No casualties have been reported. The law enforcement bodies are looking for the reasons and searching for those behind the act.

April 23

A spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Belgrade has told the Russian Novosti news agency that President Slobodan Miloscevic has accepted the idea of foreign presence, under the aegis of the United Nations, on Yugoslav territory. This, the Embassy spokesman said, was what Miloscevic told Russian emissary Victor Chernomyrdin. A formal document that sums up the results of the Miloscevic-Chernomyrdin meeting provides for the redaction of the Yugoslav army and police force together with the withdrawal of the NATO forces from the Yugoslav borders. It calls for a political accommodation for Kosovo, international aid for the economic reconstruction of Yugoslavia, including Kosovo, and safe repatriation of the Kosovar refugees.
Russian foreign minister Igor Ivanov feels the Miloscevic-Chernomyrdin formula for a Kosovo accommodation will, if put to work, lay the groundwork for the political settlement of the Balkan crisis. Ivanov said in Jerusalem that his country was doing its best for the political settlement of the Kosovo problem. The United Nations Security Council could, in the Russian view, underwrite detailed suggestions for a political accommodation.
NATO plans carried out, last night, one of their worst attacks on Belgrade. The TV company building, downtown Belgrade, was destroyed. Witness reports put say at least ten people were killed and about fifteen people received injuries. TV broadcasts were disrupted at 2 a.m., Friday, local time only to resume, though, Friday morning. The Russian Journalist's Union describes what North Atlantic Alliance did last night as an act of vandalism that aimed to hide the truth about the Yugoslav developments. Russian television and radio chief Mikhail Seslavinski feels international radio and TV association must give thought to the NATO raids on Yugoslav TV centers. Relay stations in number of Yugoslav cities, as well as the Belgrade TV center, came under missile and bombing raids last night. The Yugoslav casualty list of the past month totals five thousand. Forces of the Yugoslav antiaircraft defense system have downed about fifty NATO planes and more than 100 NATO missiles.
The chairman of the Russian committee for environmental protection Victor Danilov-Daniliyan suggests that independent experts consider how much damage the NATO attacks on Yugoslavia did to the environment. Danilov-Daniliyan has reminded the international community that the destruction of chemical plants and oil refineries has resulted in the emission and spillage of a high amount of cancerogenic and gene mutation substances, which presents a threat to Yugoslavia and all the neighboring nations.
The North Atlantic Alliance celebrating its 50 birthday with a three day summit, in Washington. The summit will focus on the Kosovo problem and new strategies which will allow NATO operations beyond the member-nations borders and without United Nations authorization. President Clinton told media people in the sunup for this event that air attacks against Yugoslavia would continue. The NANO summit brings together the heads of state and government of more than 40 countries-NATO members and participants in the Partnership-for-peace program. No Russian emissary attends the summit.
70% of Hungarians oppose the use of their territory as a springboard for NATO's ground operation against Yugoslavia. This follows from the results of a social opinion poll published by the Nepsabadshag newspaper in Budapest. 54% called for an end to NATO bombings of Yugoslavia and for the resumption of talks on a peaceful settlement of the Balkan crisis.

NATO warplanes hit hard at the central quarters of Belgrade last night. The main target was a television complex. Several bombs were dropped, razing to the ground a big part of it. The courageous TV- men remained at their jobs and only when laser targeted bombs hit the building, switched off the TV screens in the homes of the residence of Belgrade. Rescuers and firemen are pulling out the killed and the wounded from under the ruins. All three channels of state-owned television aren't now working in Belgrade. A correspondent of Russia's NTV television reported from Belgrade that two electric stations have been destroyed in the city and there is no electricity. Since NATO began its aggression against Yugoslavia some five thousand people, including women and children were killed or wounded in the bombing raids.
In a telephone linkup with the British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday, President Boris Yeltsin described NATO's continuing military operation in Yugoslavia as a grave threat to international peace. The Russian leader stressed that bombs being rained on a sovereign state will not help resolve the Kosovo problem and urged Mr.Blair to give up the use of force and to redouble efforts to politically resolve the conflict. President Yeltsin informed the British Premier about the efforts this country has been making towards a speedy and peaceful solution of the crisis. President Yeltsin said he was counting on positive signals from NATO. Prime Minister Tony Blair outlined the long-established western position justifying NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia and praised the Russian peace initiatives.
A special representative of Russia's president for settling the situation in the Balkans, Victor Chernomyrdin, has expressed cautious optimism after holding eight hours of talks with Yugoslavia's president Slobodan Milosevic about the Kosovo problem in Belgrade on Thursday. So far the main obstacle was the question of international presence in Kosovo. NATO insists on the presence of its military forces while Yugoslavia is against that as it is against foreign interference, in general. According to the ITAR-TASS news agency, the document approved on the results of the talks between Chernomyrdin and Milosevic proposes international presence in Kosovo under the aegis of the United Nations and with the participation of Russia. The plan also provides for reducing the forces of the Yugoslav army and the police in Kosovo with a simultaneous withdrawal of NATO troops from the border with Yugoslavia. The plan likewise provides for settling the problem within the framework of Kosovo's autonomy, and international assistance in restoring the economy of Yugoslavia, including Kosovo and the region on the whole.
The Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zhivadin Yovanovic has told the news agency RIA "Novosti" that the six principles of a plan for a peace settlement of the Kosovo crisis, as proposed by Russia and made public by the Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov a few days ago, are "constructive and real". According to the Yugoslav Foreign Minister, it's on the basis of this plan that one "should look for and find a solution". On a mechanism to carry out a future agreement between Belgrade and Kosovo Albanians, provided it is reached, the Foreign Minister says that Yugoslavia continues to support the idea of deploying a monitoring mission in Kosovo, but one that would comprise no servicemen.
More than 150 bombs and missiles charged with depleted uranium have already been fired on Yugoslav targets in NATO's four week-old military operation. RIA "Novosti" learned this from Russia's Union for Socio-Ecological Studies citing foreign sources. The United States' independent Environmental News Service says that one dreadful aftermath of NATO's airstrikes on petrochemical facilities has been the contamination of the subsoil waters in Serbia which means that the whole of southern Europe will be contaminated by health-threatening chemicals. Foreign scientists are saying that never before have chemical installations been bombed on so large a scale as in Yugoslavia today.
In Italy, 160 senators and deputies of parliament have come out against NATO's ground operation in Yugoslavia and calls for settling the conflict by peaceful means. And the Foreign Minister of France believes that the sea oil blockade of Serbia which is urged by the United States - is at present impossible since such a measures has to be sanctioned by the UN Security Council.
When taking part in the Voice of Russia program "Vis-a-Vis with the world", a famous Russian painted Alexander Shilov commented on the situation in the Balkans. He said when strikes are hit at Yugoslavia, they at the same time are hit at Russia. Strikes are targeted at civilian sites, in complete disregard of Russia's opinion. Civilians, including children are killed and museum and cultural monuments are destroyed.

April 22

The Russian President's special representative in charge of a settlement in the Balkans Viktor Chernomyrdin arrived in Belgrade early on Thursday. He told journalists that his delegation has brought concrete proposals for having the tragic developments in Yugoslavia ended. The Russian envoy met the Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade in the first half of the day.
The deputy Yugoslav Prime-Minister Vuk Draskovic has said in an interview with the BBC that several thousand civilians have either died or have been gravely wounded in the NATO bombings of Yugoslavia. Draskovic has stressed that NATO is waging a war against Yugoslavia, which is a collective crime that's comparable with Hitler's Holocaust.
President Slobodan Milosevic has said in an interview with the TV company KHOU that a peaceful settlement in Kosovo can only be reached after NATO has stopped its bombing raids. Milosevic has added that if NATO puts an end to its bombings, the subsequent talks between Serbs and Kosovo Albanians are likely to prove successful.
The Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zhivadin Yovanovic has told the news agency RIA Novosti that the six principles of a plan for a peaceful settlement of the Kosovo crisis, as proposed by Russia and made public by the Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov a few days ago, are "constructive and real". According to the Yugoslav Foreign Minister, it's on the basis of this plan that one "should look for and find a solution". On a mechanism to carry out a future agreement between Belgrade and Kosovo Albanians, provided it is reached, the Foreign Minister says that Yugoslavia continues to support the idea of deploying a monitoring mission in Kosovo, but one that would comprise no servicemen.
NATO's Secretary-General Javier Solana has said in an interview with the Washington Post daily that he's ordered the military command of the alliance to renew the plans for a likely invasion of Yugoslavia. According to the daily, it's most likely a NATO summit due in Washington later this week that will take a decision on a change in the military strategy of the alliance with regard to Yugoslavia.
The adoption of a new concept of the North Atlantic alliance will prove the highlight of the forthcoming NATO Washington summit. The concept is centered on above all on NATO's action in regional conflicts, outside the NATO countries, territory and not necessarily authorised by the United Nations Security Council. Bombing raids on Yugoslavia can be seen as the first graphic example of this. According to a NATO official who's given an interview to the ITAR-TASS agency on conditions of anonymity, the Kosovo crisis has caused the alliance to re-consider and make more precise the understanding of some elements of their strategy. Among other things NATO presupposes to resolve the issue of military interference on its own, without a UN Security Council mandate. NATO claims that "human rights" and democracy western style are superior to state sovereignty.
Russia will make amends to its military doctrine because of NATO's current aggression against Yugoslavia. Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev said this when addressing military cadets in Belorussia earlier on Thursday. He said that the emphasis will be made on maintaining the highest possible combat readiness of the Russian strategic missile deterrent and on boozing this country's air defenses. Assessing the situation now existing in the Balkans, the minister said that, despite NATO's massive airstrikes, the Yugoslav air defenses remained a formidable force. He also praised as "favorable", the prospects of Russia's strategic military cooperation with India and China.
NATO members are bitterly split over the possibility of sending ground troops marching into Kosovo, which makes chances for such an operation look dim, at least for now. US Defense Secretary said as much when addressing members of the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday. He said this was the reason why the Pentagon was planning no US participation in NATO's possible ground operation in Yugoslavia. Mr.Cohen also admitted the fact of many allied nations opposing the use of ground troops in Kosovo.
A Russian Derfense Ministry spokesman says the North Atlantic Alliance has actually launched a ground operation in Yugoslavia. Speaking in the Belorussian capital Minsk on Thursday, he said NATO had already airlifted a number of commando units into Kosovo to locate military sites which will then be destroyed by multiple rocket launchers and the Apache tank-busting helicopters already deployed in Macedonia and Albania. Additional NATO troops keep pouring into Macedonia for participation in a full-scale ground operation in Kosovo.
China has called for an immediate end to NATO's military operation in Yugoslavia. Briefing reporters on Thursday, Chinese diplomatic spokesman Sun Xuisi said that the Kosovo crisis can only be resolved with all respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He also called for measures to ensure the legitimate rights of all the ethnic groups living in Kosovo.

The Yugoslav capital Belgrade and its suburbs came under heavy attack from NATO warplanes last night. There were about twenty explosions. The Yugoslav news agency Tanjug reports that airstrikes hit a military airport and the near-by town Batajnica, some 20 kilometers from the capital. A three-year old girl was killed by a fragment of a bomb in Batajnica last Sunday. The town of Valevo is also reported to have been attacked. A civilian plant is reported to have been destroyed there. Some 8 thousand people worked there.
The Yugoslav news agency Tanjug reports that the Yugoslav air defence force has shot down another NATO pilotless reconnaissance plane. The plane fell near the town of Vucitrn some 25 kilometers from the Kosovo capital - Pristina on Wednesday. The Yugoslav state television quotes army sources as saying two NATO warplanes have been shot down near the town of Kraguavac - south of Belgrade. The Yugoslav air defence force has shot down nearly 50 NATO warplanes since the start of the alliance's military operation. More than one thousand civilians have died in Yugoslavia in the NATO bombardment.
The NATO airplanes have made 6 thousand raids on Yugoslavia since the beginning of its aggression; 5 thousand bombs were dropped, and 1,5 thousands missiles fired, says a letter from Yugoslavia's envoy to the UN Vladislav Yovanovich to the Chairman of the UN Secretary Council. The letter speaks of large-scale destruction: 15 hospitals, 190 schools and other educational centres, including kindergartens, were raged. The damage is estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Russian presidential envoy for the Balkans, Viktor Chernomyrdin, is to make a one-day visit to Belgrade today for talks with President Slobodan Milosevic and other Yugoslav leaders. The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexey II, met at his Moscow residence on Wednesday with Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Victor Chernomyrdin. Earlier in the day the Patriarch returned from Belgrade. The news agency ITAR-TASS reports discussion was focussed on ways to put an end to the NATO airstrikes on Yugoslavia and to achieve a peace settlement with the mediation of Russia.
The Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has come up with a number of measures to resolve the conflict in the Balkans. In an article in Le Monde newspaper, Mr Ivanov calls on the parties involved to declare an immediate cease-fire and return to the negotiating table. Other major measures, he says, include the withdrawal of excessive military and police forces from Kosovo, parallel to the pull-out of NATO units deployed in Albania and Macedonia, a safe return of all refugees to Kosovo, the resumption of talks between Belgrade and Kosovo Albanian leaders on a political agreement to grant broad autonomy to Kosovo. Implementation of the principles, he says, will require international presence the tasks of which have yet to be agreed upon.
The United States is ready to support the holding of a ground operation by NATO against Yugoslavia. A spokesman for the White House in Washington said on Wednesday that the United States was waiting for a decision of the NATO leadership on the matter. The Secretary General of NATO, Javier Solana, said in a television interview on Wednesday that a ground operation might begin after the Yugoslav army had been considerably weakened by the airstrikes.

April 21

President Yeltsin's Balkans envoy Victor Chernomyrdin is expected to carry out a one-day trip to Belgrade tomorrow. According to the agency ITAR-TASS, his talks there with top Yugoslav offiicials including President Slobodan Milosevic will revolve around how to resolve the crisis over Kosovo. Chernomyrdin says he may discuss the situation in Yugoslavia with President Yeltsin at a meeting shortly before departure for Belgrade. At a Kremlin meeting this morning, the Russian leader instructed Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov to stay the course towards a political solution to the crisis in Yugoslavia.
Foreign Minister Ivanov, too, reiterates the need for renewed diplomacy over Yugoslavia. In an interview with the Arabic-language paper AL-HAYAT today, he also warns NATO not to move ground troops to Kosovo, saying this would make matters there even worse and push entire Europe to the brink of a prolonged war. NATO's air campaign, the Russian minister said, has brought results that are opposite to what it aimed at. The Alliance's argumentation that there is no other way to resolve the crisis over Kosovo has proved entirely wrong.
President Yeltsin has issued instructions for this country to stay away from sittings of the NATO-Russia Council and the Council for North Atlantic Partnership fixed to take place on the fringes of the half-centenary NATO summit in Washington on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This freeze-up, a statement by the Foreign Ministry says, is in response to the NATO campaign against Yugoslavia, which sidelines the UN and wrecks years of diplomacy to create a new security system in Europe. Keeping silent, the statement goes, would be tantamount to encouraging outright aggression. Russia strongly opposes the attack. At the same time, it will do everything in its power to prevent another Cold War with the West. It remains prepared to cooperate with the Western alliance in the search for a peaceful solution to the crisis over Kosovo.
According to the chief officer of Belgrade's civil defence, there are numerous casualties after the overnight air raid. Rescues are sifting through the rubble on the site of the Socialist Party's headquarters in the hope of finding someone alive. Yugoslavia's civilian death toll in the American-led aggression stands at over 1000. Yugoslav gunners say they have brought down nearly 50 NATO planes, whereas NATO has confirmed the loss of only one.
The British Prime-Minister Tony Blaire has prepared the draft agreement to begin a NATO ground attack against Yugoslavia. According to the London-based Guardian newspaper this was done to force Belgrade to surrender. Judging by the report the United States, Britain and France forming the backbone of NATO's military might, agreed to start planning a ground operation in Kosovo before reaching any agreement with Belgrade.
The Italian Prime-Minister Massimo d'Alema has said the role of NATO must be reconsidered after the war In Yugoslavia is over. In an interview with the Corriere della sera newspaper the prime-minister said his country must analyse NATO's actions and how they correlate with the principles of international community. Mr.d'Alema said he expects a lot from Russia's mediation in the Balkan conflict.
NATO representatives have confirmed that the alliance's forces have been using bombs and rockets with cores of depleted uranium to strike targets in Yugoslavia. A report to this effect was made in Brussels by the Japanese news agency Kyodo Tsusin. Meanwhile, Greece's environmental group "Arkturos" has demanded NATO should stop immediately its military operations against Yugoslavia. According to the group's statement, the daily air raids carried out by NATO are fraught with an environmental disaster which may affect the whole region. The statements says toxic and radioactive substances released pollute the soil, air and water creating conditions incompatible with any kind of life.

NATO air forces continue to methodically destroy civilian sites in Yugoslavia. No less than five cities in Yugoslavia were bombed last night. And for the third time since the air raids began NATO hit one of the central districts of Belgrade. Two missiles hit the 20-storey building of the headquarters of the ruling Socialist party of Serbia. At one time the Central Committee of the Communist party of Yugoslavia was housed there and now it is used as a radio and television station. According to eye-witnesses, there were at least 15 persons in the building when it was hit by a missile. Nothing is known about casualties. There were air strikes also at military and civilian facilities in four other cities, including the center of Voyevodina - Novi Sad. The last, third bridge was destroyed linking Novi Sad with the rest of Serbia. Railway communication between Belgrade and Hungary was been out, since the bridge was used for both automobile and train traffic.
NATO intends to blockade and cut sea routes of delivering oil products to Yugoslavia. The chairman of the alliance's military committee a German general Klaus Nawman said that in an interview for Munich PRO-7 television company. He said he submitted such a proposal to the NATO Council.
Meanwhile the European Union at its meeting in Brussels on Tuesday failed to reach agreement on the introduction of an oil embargo on Yugoslavia, as insisted upon by the United States. Greece and Italy strongly objected to banning the sale of oil and oil products to Yugoslavia. And France said there is no legal ground for such a ban. In Moscow, Russia's foreign minister Igor Ivanov has described as unacceptable any sanctions that carry sufferings to the people of Yugoslavia and called on the West to move the stress on a political settlement in the region.
Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Alexey II returned to Moscow on Tuesday evening from a once-day peace-making mission to Yugoslavia. In Belgrade he delivered a sermon in the center of the city. Addressing hundreds of thousands of worshippers he called for an immediate stop of the bloodshed. After the sermon Patriarch Alexey had meetings with President Slobodan Milosevic and the leader of the Kosovo Albanians Ibrahim Rugova. Both reaffirmed their commitment to a political settlement of the crisis.
Vatican's ambassador to Belgrade handed over to the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Alexey II a message from the Pope expressing support for the initiative taken by the Head of the Russian Orthodox Church to settle the crisis in the Balkans.
Russia will take part in settling the Balkan crisis only as a mediator. This was stated in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan by the special representative of Russia's president for settling the situation around Yugoslavia, Victor Chernomirdin, on Tuesday evening. In Baku he met with the president of Azerbaijan Geydar Aliev. Victor Chernomirdin pointed out that NATO's massive missile and bomb strikes do not lead to settling the conflict.
The Moscow army newspaper "Krasnaya Zvezda" has analyzed the military aspect of the conflict in the Balkans and arrived at the conclusion that NATO has actually began ground operations in Kosovo, by sending its special units into that Yugoslav province. When forecasting further developments the newspaper says that eventually NATO troops intend to move into Yugoslavia on land, and do that behind the backs of the fighters of the Kosovo Liberation army whose task will be to break through the defences of the Yugoslavs.

April 20

President Boris Yeltsin in a statement made on Tuesday said Russia decisively condemned NATO's bomb attacks against Yugoslavia. At a meeting with regional executives Mr Yeltsin again stressed the need for a peaceful settlement of the conflict. At the same time he noted that Russia could not isolate itself from the world's leading powers. Mr Yeltsin underlined the importance of Russia's relations with European countries for a settlement in Kosovo.
Last night there were more air raids on Yugoslavia. At least 8 cities came under attack. Bomb explosions could be heard in Belgrade, the city of Nish in southern Serbia and Kosovo's administrative center Pristina. In Nish one person was killed and 10 others wounded when missiles hit a residential quarter. Also the local tobacco factory was destroyed. Another missile damaged a civilian communication center 130 km south of Belgrade. In the capital itself part of the TV center's staff was evacuated yesterday evening amid fears that it might be bombed. The overall death toll since the beginning of the strikes has exceeded one thousand. Yugoslav air defense forces have reportedly downed over 40 planes, but NATO's command claims that only one has been really lost.
The head of the Russian Orthodox church Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexi II has called on the Yugoslav and NATO leaders to stop hostilities and sit down to negotiate a peaceful solution to the crisis. On Tuesday he arrived in Belgrade on a peacemaking mission. In a sermon delivered to crowds of worshippers in the center of the city the Patriarch said that several strong and rich countries had committed aggression against those who didn't want to obey the rules that were being forced upon them. He noted that the aim of NATO air strikes was to destroy the existing order and establish a brutal military dictatorship.
NATO is using shells containing depleted uranium in its air strikes on Yugoslavia. Yugoslav experts came to this conclusion after taking earth and water samples in areas of massive bombings and having them tested for radio-active pollution. To increase the weight and striking capacity of shells they are stuffed with depleted uranium the specific gravity of which is double that of lead. On explosion uranium particles can penetrate a human body and cause mortal diseases.
Germany's Environment Minister and member of the "green" party Jurgen Trittin has called NATO's air raids on Yugoslavia a mistake which must be corrected as quickly possible. Speaking in Washington, he reiterated a proposal by the German Foreign Minister that NATO cease its bombings of Yugoslavia within 24 hours to allow for political talks.
Militants of the Kosovo Liberation Army supply NATO forces with information about the location of targets that are to be bombed. The British Times newspaper reported on Tuesday that its correspondent had seen KLA militants getting in touch by a satellite phone with Western diplomats in neighbouring Macedonia, who passed the information on to NATO sources. NATO has denied the report.
Speaking on the national television, the US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, has not ruled out the possible sea blockade of Yugoslavia for the prevention of the oil products' supplies there. On Monday the New York Times newspaper said that the US had raised this issue with France but the latter had said that for this the sanctions of the U.N. Security Council are necessary. Under the previous UN resolutions, there is a ban only on the arms' supplies to Yugoslavia, fuel is not mentioned there.
NATO's continued airstrikes on Yugoslavia have caused a crisis of confidence among the investors in the single European currency Euro. At the currency-exchange in the EU financial capital Frankfurt am Main the Euro exchange rate dropped on Monday, reaching the lowest level possible since its introduction on January 1st this year. The Euro exchange-rate has dropped somewhat at the trading in New York as well.

The NATO forces have fired more missiles and dropped more bombs on civilian targets, oil terminals and bridges on Yugoslav territory. Preliminary reports say one man was killed and at least seven received injuries in the Serbian city of Nisc, last night. Bombs fell on the village of Ivanica of the Chachak District, with its satellite communication center, which insures telephone and television contacts between Yugoslavia and other nations. The Aleksinac District came under attack. Local sources say one NATO plane was downed by forces of the Yugoslav antiaircraft defense system, near the village of Jastrebovac of that District. NATO aircraft kept bombing Belgrade, Pristina and Kraguevac.
President Yeltsin has told Bill Clinton all hostilities in Yugoslavia must come to an end so that the search for a solution to the Kosovo crisis could switch to the path of peaceful diplomacy. In a brief telephone exchange with the White House on Monday afternoon, he also praised the outcome of negotiations between the Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in Oslo last week. Those talks, Mr Yeltsin said, had produced an understanding there should be talks to hammer out an agreement that grants Kosovo the maximum possible self-rule while preserving the territorial integrity of Federal Yugoslavia. The two leaders also discussed how to go about the problem of the refugees from Kosovo, both ethnic Albanians and Serbs.
White House press secretary Joseph Lockart describes Monday's telephone conversation between Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin as very constructive. The two presidents confirmed agreement on certain key angles of the efforts to settle the Kosovo crisis but, Lockart says, differed on the missile and bombing raid against Yugoslavia and the possible introduction of a NATO-led international security contingent in that country.
The chairman of the lower house of the Russian legislature, known as the State Duma, Gennady Seleznyev, said in an exclusive interview with the national news agency ITAR-TASS Monday that United States' Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott totally misunderstood the Russian view of the Yugoslav request for admission to the Russian-Belarussian Union. President Yeltsin, the federal government and the Russian lawmakers upheld the idea of Yugoslav membership of the Union now that it was, Seleznyov said, too hard to talk of cooperation between Russia and the North Atlantic Alliance. Russian-NATO relations had been frozen but, if the NATO aggression went on, they would, according to Seleznyov, be broken off.
Plans have been canceled for a session of the Russia-NATO Standing Council which was to be timed to a NATO summit and was to be held on the highest level in Washington later this week. But, a high-ranking NATO spokesman said, the NATO member-nations intended to reiterate their willingness to keep cooperating with Russia. The NATO spokesman explained the cancellation of the Council session by the difference on the Kosovo crisis.

April 19

President Yeltsin has told Bill Clinton NATO must immediately end its military operation against Federal Yugoslavia. In a brief telephone exchange with the White House on Monday afternoon, he argued the Kosovo problem cannot be resolved by force and insisted on the earliest possible resumption of peace talks. In a appearance before the media earlier in the day, the President offered Russian diplomatic mediation in the Kosovo crisis. He also stressed the strategic importance of the Balkans region and said this country will do everything in its power to foil American plans to establish protectorate over Kosovo.
NATO has been extensively pounding civilian installations including refineries and bridges on the 26th day of its air campaign against Federal Yugoslavia. Air raids continued well into daytime after a night of fire infernos across the embattled Balkan country. Particularly ferocious bombardments were reported from the Kosovo capital Pristina and Yugoslavia's second city Novi Sad in northern Serbia where a NATO missile destroyed the main administrative building, listed as a heritage site. NATO bombs caused heavy damage to a chemical works in Baric 20 kilometers southwest of Belgrade. In Paracin in southern Serbia, a camp housing Serb refugees from Bosnia and Croatia received direct hits. Five days ago, a bomb dropped by a NATO plane hit a refugee convoy near the border between Kosovo an Albania killing at least 75 people. THE DAILY EXPRESS in London quotes a British co-pilot of that plane as saying he had told his American superior on board the convoy was civilian. The American officer wouldn't heed and continued the attack. Yugoslavia's civilian death toll in the NATO aggression has topped 1000. NATO has lost over 120 cruise missiles and more than 40 planes to Yugoslav flak.
Russian and Yugoslav experts warn of a disaster of continental proportions if NATO continues to bomb refineries and chemical works in Yugoslavia. A joint statement by national environmental security forums in the two countries says noxious substances released rapidly spread across Europe causing immune and mental disorders in people who inhale them. The record of the American chemical campaign in Vietnam, the statement goes, suggests that the damage can last 30 years at least.
The Kosovo Albanians control 15% of Europe market of drugs and use the money thus made for the purchase of arms. That was said in an interview to the paper "Maten" by spokesman of the Paris-based "Geo-political observation post on drugs" Michel Kutuzi. He published a report on the world's narco- business in 1997-1998.
52% of the French people speak in favour of ending the NATO strikes at Yugoslavia and beginning talks on peaceful settlements is the region. The fugure, published by the "Le Parisien" on Monday, is based on the results of a public opinion poll the newspaper initiated. In Czechia, a country which has recently became a NATO member, 34% of the polled speak in approval of the military action, while 48% are opposed to it. This is 7% more than two weeks ago. As the "Center of empiric studies" which conducted the poll notes, this is the lowest level of support since the beginning of the NATO air-strikes.
The NATO air operation against Yugoslavia has failed. The opinion was expressed by the former Swedish prime-minister Carl Bild. As he says in the Munich-published magazine "Focus", the NATO strikes cannot prevent a humanitarian disaster in Kosovo, but merely promote an escalation of the conflict and cause a tragedy of unspeakable scale.
Assistant of the NATO secretary-general for political matters Claus-Peter Cleiber does not rule out the possibility of sending NATO land forces to Kosovo. Kleiber, who was giving an interview to the German radio-station "Deutchland-radio" said the issue will be discussed at the end of the week during celebration in Washington devoted to the half-a-century jubilee of the alliance.

On Sunday night NATO delivered more strikes on Yugoslavia, with over 10 powerful explosions tearing through the environs of Kosovo's administrative centre Pristina. Clouds of black smoke covered the North-Western outskirts of the city - Dragodan. Two missiles went off at the airport Slatina. According to Serbian television, antiaircraft forces downed three of the attacking planes. Two of the planes blew up in the air, while the third crashed near Chichavitsa mountain. The plane pilot catapulted. Also brought under missile and bomb attacks were the cities of Nish, Chachak and Subotitsa. In Vojevodina's capital Novi Sad a bomb hit the building of local government - an architectural monument. In Parachin, in the South of Serbia, missiles went off in a camp of refugees from Croatia and Bosnia. Air alarm was also sounded in the Yugoslav capital Belgrade. More than 1,000 people have died in the Union Republic of Yugoslavia since NATO launched aggression against the republic, and Yugoslav antiaircraft defences have brought down over 40 enemy warplanes and over 120 cruise missiles.
Meanwhile the United States President Bill Clinton has acknowledged that NATO's military action against Yugoslavia is "ineffective". According to the Spanish daily "El Pais", the admission came during a private dinner the US President was having with the Spanish Prime-Minister Jose-Maria Aznar in the White House last Tuesday. The author of the sensational report is a member of the "El Pais" Editorial Board, one of the more informed Spanish journalists Casimiro Garcia-Abadillo. President Clinton recognized that the planners of the operation made a mistake by proceeding from the assumption that Milosevic would surrender the moment he would see NATO planes over Belgrade.
On Sunday Yugoslavia broke off diplomatic relations with Albania. And the Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zhivadin Yovanovich has officially confirmed this in Belgrade. According to the Minister, the move has been prompted by the fact that groups of terrorists use Albanian territory to infiltrate into Kosovo from.
This Monday the Russian President Boris Yeltsin is holding a conference on the situation around Yugoslavia. Attending will be Prime-Minister Yevgeny Primakov, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, the President's special representative in charge of Yugoslavia Viktor Chernomyrdin and other officials.
Meanwhile in an interview with the Russian TV programme "Itogi" Viktor Chernomyrdin said that now the Russian leaders should be concentrated on preventing Russia from being drawn into hostilities in the Balkans. According to him, if Russian engaged itself in the military action in the Balkans, this would mean the outbreak of a Third World War, the final one on the Globe. "We rule this out", said the former Russian Prime-Minister and currently Russian President special representative in charge of a settlement in Yugoslavia.
The Russian convoy of trucks that took humanitarian aid to Yugoslavia returned to the town Noginsk near Moscow on Sunday night. 300 tonnes of cargo worth 1 million dollars were handed over to the Yugoslav Red Cross in Belgrade on the 13th of this month. The Russia aid has been distributed among Kosovo refugees of different nationalities, Albanians included.
The Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov again underscored that there could be no military solution to the Kosovo crisis, and the issue should be settled through talks. In an interview with the influential Madrid-based newspaper "El Pais" he said that the Kosovo conflict had endangered stability in the whole of Europe and is threatening to tip a fragile balance of forces on the continent after the end of the cold war. Albania, Macedonia, Bosnia and Bulgaria on whose territory bombs were falling had already been involved in the conflict, the minister said. Igor Ivanov warned if the situation persisted Russia should be compelled to be preparing for third world war. The minister said that he had evidence about NATO's preparations for a ground military operation against Yugoslavia. He underscored once again that Russia favored a solution of the problem through talks and enhancement of the role of the United Nations and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

April 18

Spanish read Admiral Angel Teglio Valero is making no secret of the fact that NATO military operation in Yugoslavia has been a complete failure and the cause of innumerable suffering to thousands of innocent civilians. The statement made by the commander of the crack Alfa unit of the Spanish air force has rattled the country's media who say it's the first time an active NATO officer has been openly critical of the Alliance's action. Spanish political commentators are now talking about the society being increasingly critical of what NATO is doing in Yugoslavia describing the operation as ill advised and senseless.
The head of the OSCE former mission in Kosovo William Walker doesn't believe that NATO's ground operation in the province will resolve the conflict. In an interview with the Munich-based "Suddeutsch Zeitung" newspaper Mr. Walker expressed confidence that the crisis could be resolved by negotiation alone. About the possible role for the OSCE in Kosovo he said the organization could contribute a lot to establishing peace in the region.
The British Prime-Minister Tony Blaire has said again that NATO has no intention launch a ground operation in Kosovo. The statement was designed to disavow the careless remarks of the British Defense Secretary George Robertson who had said in the United States that a ground operation plan was under consideration.
The Embassy of the Union Republic of Yugoslavia in Moscow has sent a letter to "Voice of Russia".
The following is the full text of the letter:

Yugoslav president: "We will defend our country"

After his talks with visiting Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic declared: Firstly, I like to express great satisfaction with the visit of president Lukashenko whose trio with a Belarussian delegation we see as a great solidarity by Belarussians with the Yugoslav people especially at this very trying period of NATO's aggression...

NATO's naked aggression is being justified by the desire to protect human rights but in that process all known international laws and standards are brutally violated. With a large dose of irony NATO justifies the escalation of its aggression by a determination to protect its reputation. It's impossible to find a single person on earth who would believe that killing of innocent people to protect reputation is justified. Killing can only justify the reputation of murderers.

We see only one way for us and that's to defend our land against NATO's aggression, said president Milosevic.

I say on behalf of all Yugoslav nationals that we will robustly defend our land.

We believe the a political solution is the only sensible solution in Kosovo and our stand is that only a peaceful solution via a political process can a stable peace be found in Kosovo and only through negotiations can a solution acceptable to all be reached in Kosovo and Metokhia.

You are all aware that our firm stand is based on the equality of all Yugoslav nationals, meaning that our position is to Work towards a mutual understanding between the multiethnic, multicultural and multireligious population in Yugoslavia. Consequently, our position seeks to treat all ethnic groups and minorities in Kosovo and Metokhia as equal before the Yugoslav laws.

Hence, we consider it absolutely absurd that anyone in the world and at the close of the 20th century can compare our principled position on equality of ethnic groups with the fascist approach favoring one nation and seeking to foist the views of a single nation on others. We believe that the approach of treating all ethnic communities equally can form the basis for a just and long-term solution in Kosovo, said president Milosevic.

We base our political process on such an approach add is also the basis for ongoing negotiations between the Serbian and Yugoslav governments and representatives of Kosovo Albanians. We believe that those negotiations should be direct and they are ongoing directly between all ethnic communities in Kosovo. It's only through that method that the Kosovo conflict can be settled amicably.

Kosovo problems must be solved by people living in that province and not by foreigners no matter their intentions. Our objective is peace and our aim is equality between the various communities in Kosovo. With such objectives and aims we shall prevail. We believe that truth and right are on our side and therefore we shall overcome all odds. We are feeling the overwhelming support of the free world for our principled position said Mr. Milosevic.

I like to say that president Lukashenko and myself have had a most detailed discussion of au issues concerning proposed union between Russis, Belarussis and the union republic of Yugoslavia. You are aware that the Yugoslav parliament has at a joint session of both chambers voted in support of the proposed merger.

I have today handed to president Lukashenko in his capacity as the current chairman of the Russian-Belarussian council our official membership application and have also asked Mr. Lukashenko to please deliver a similar application to Russian president Boris Yeltsin.

I expect both president Yeltsin and Lukashenko to seriously consider how to implement the proposed merger between the 3 states in the interest of the peoples of those countries and according to issues arising from such a merger. Both president Lukashenko and myself consider the proposed merger a historic step and in the interest of integration and the establishment of stability, security, and improvement of economic and cultural interest of the 3 nations. We strongly believe in the advancement of the merger in the coming years and for a long period of time.

In conclusion, I would like to say that president Lukashenko and myself also held talks on current bilateral economic relations that are increasing in leaps and bounds. We reached specific agreement on the matter and over other issues negotiated between relevant ministers, members of our 2 delegations.

I like to thank most profoundly president Lukashenko for his visit and support, for his friendship and solidarity. I strongly believe in the future of our 2 countries, in the future of Europe without the manifestation of arrogance of power, in the future of Europe free and unfettered.

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