04/22/1999

OHR SRT News Summary, 22 April 1999

image_pdfimage_print

Footage of the residence of President Milosevic after NATO bombing

Headlines

  • Kosmet today suffered the severest air attacks from NATO since the beginning of the bombing
  • American Government destroyed the UN and the truth by bombing Yugoslavia, Milosevic stressed in an interview to the American TV station CBS
  • Solana authorised Clark to consider plans for the possible use of ground troops in aggression on Yugoslavia, Reuters reports
  • Patriarch Pavle served requiem mass to the victims of genocide and war crimes from the Second World War
  • RS Government confirmed programme of measures aimed at helping the RS economy that is bearing grave consequences due to the aggression on Yugoslavia

Parts of the interview by Slobodan Milosevic given to the CBS network

In Belgrade today Milosevic received the special envoy of the Russian President for resolving the crisis in Yugoslavia, Viktor Chernomyrdin.

Javier Solana authorised the military commander of the Alliance, Wesley Clark, to consider plans for possible use of ground troops, Reuters reports referring to the statements of American officials. Reuters also reminds that Solana expressed the expectation that the air campaign against Yugoslavia would be successful and said the Alliance is far from taking a political decision on use of ground troops.

The severest attack by NATO since the bombing of Kosovo started commenced today around 14:00 hr, the SRNA correspondent reports. In 45 minutes NATO airplanes fired more than 30 missiles at targets in the vicinity of Pristina. The report of the SRT correspondent from Belgrade on today’s NATO attacks.

There are no more rules in the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia, and the western alliance is using all means, the London-based “Independent” stresses today. The reporter of this magazine Robert Fisk says that what is most surpising is the fact that NATO has become the ally of the terrorist KLA.

Yugoslav Minister of Information Milan Komnenic stated today that 517 civilians died, including 13 children, in the NATO attacks against Yugoslavia so far. At a press conference Komnenic said that 4,500 citizens were heavily injured in the bombing and that there are victims amongst members of the Yugoslav army as well.

The Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Igor Ivanov stated today in Jerusalem that sending ground troops to Kosmet would only cause an escalation of the conflict in Yugoslavia, Tanjug reports.

Regular press conference of the Pentagon and UK Ministry of Defence officials on the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia.

We keep targeting exclusively military infrastructure in order to weaken the military system of Milosevic, Kenneth Bacon stated, adding that he did not have information on the human casualties in the attack on the residence of Milosevic.

Pentagon military representative Tom Wilson submitted detailed report on the NATO air strikes in the last 48 hours. NATO denies an assassination attempt on Milosevic, since it only targeted his residence, which is, according to them, a military target. Wilson also spoke about the RTS reporting. Wilson claims that there are many mass graves in Kosovo and that this issue must be thoroughly examined as well as the fields that are being mentioned in regard to that.

At a press conference in the British Ministry of Defence, a member of Parliament Henderson said that Milosevic had given an interview to the American TV, stressing that his address was incomplete. He said that people in Serbia do not know what is going on in Kosovo and underlined that Milosevic is responsible for the death of people in Yugoslavia. According to him, Milosevic did not answer where 600,000 refugees in the last 4 weeks came from, nor did he speak about the ethnic cleansing.

Albright and Cook reiterated that the USA and UK are against deployment of NATO ground forces in Kosmet in the conditions, as they said, of a hostile mood, Reuters reports and SRNA carries.

Blair believes that it would be better for an attack by NATO ground troops to take place sooner rather than later, carries the London-based “Guardian”.

Macedonian government received a written guarantee from NATO saying that its territory would not be used for military intervention against FRY, Boris Trajkovski stated.

Several hundreds of German citizens are to depart tonight from Eastern Germany cities to Belgrade in order to take part in an international rally for peace, which will take place in Belgrade on Saturday, Tanjug reports.

Protests in Belgrade, Backa Palanka.

A session of the RS Government was held in Banja Luka today. It confirmed the programme of measures aimed at helping the RS economy which bears grave consequences due to the NATO aggression against Yugoslavia.

BiH Presidency Chairman Zivko Radisic, who put a moratorium on his function, talked in Banja Luka today with the Ambassador of Czech Republic about the overall political situation in the RS, BiH as well as in the wider region.

RS PM Dodik was on a working visit to Petrovo today.

The BiH CoM members agreed at today’s session to prepare in 15 days the platform for the presentation of the BiH delegation at the forthcoming donor conference, which is due to be held by the end of May in Brussels.

Minister for Refugees Miladin Dragicevic talked in Banja Luka today with the representative of OHR and UNHCR about assistance to refugees coming from Yugoslavia. The meeting also discussed the implementation of Annex 7 of the DA.

Minister of Justice in the RS Government Milan Trbojevic and his counterpart in the FBiH Government visited the CoE in Strasbourg. According to Trbojevic, it requires the fulfilment of certain conditions for the admission of BiH to the CoE.

The RS Association of Journalists called on all the media in RS to express common protest due to the NATO bombing, destruction and ruining of the information system in FRY.

The reconstruction of the government is out of the question, only the election of a new one, is the attitude of the Serb Coalition for the RS. The present government cannot suffer any reconstruction, since it was not legally elected after the September elections, Lazarevic explained at today’s press conference held in Banja Luka. He went on to say that with this act, the intention was to hush up the pressures of the HR Carlos Westendorp on the coalition SLOGA.

The SNS main board decided that the representatives of this party in the common bodies at the level of BiH are to return to their regular obligations in presenting and advocating Serb interests, says the SNS press release.

FBiH-related news.