OHR SRT News Summary, 31 May 1999 - Office of the High Representative

Headlines

More than 30 killed in NATO attacks
Less then 50% of Europeans support air campaign and more than 50% do not support ground troops intervention
Talks Dodik-Ambassador Farrand in Brcko

In a NATO attack on a sanatorium in Surdulica at least 20 were killed and more than 50 were wounded. This is the second so-called collateral damage in this town. NATO has attacked the Serbian power supply system and left the most important facilities without power. Extensive reports from SRT correspondents about NATO bombing.

Montenegro Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that an incident between several members of Montenegro police and FRY army occurred on the way from Cetinje to Ivanova korita this morning. Several people were slightly injured.

Less than half the population of 12 European countries support the air campaign and more than half object to sending in ground troops.- Danish survey agency.

M. Ahtisaari, Finnish president is to meet Chernomyrdin and S. Talbott in Bonn.

Russian PM, Stepashin said that he sees real chances for the FRY crisis to be over soon.

Italian PM, d’Alema in a telephone conversation with Javier Solana, NATO General Secretary expressed Italian concerns regarding the, as he said, character of NATO bombing.-TANJUG reports

German Chancellor, Schroeder said that Germany would not take part in ground troop operations if it came to that.

Kiro Gligorov, Macedonian president, said that the Macedonian Parliament and Government had clearly stated that Macedonian territory could not be used for ground troops intervention.

UNHCR Human Rights Commissioner, Mary Robinson called upon Serb forces to stop committing crimes and withdraw from Kosovo immediately. She criticised NATO for using cluster bombs and for bombing schools and hospitals.

FRY Army General Pavkovic said that the only thing that NATO had destroyed was the permanent FRY Army infrastructure and that 3 army casualties were minimal.

NATO Colonel, Conrad Freytag stated that NATO had conducted 772 flights, 323 of which were combat flights. He said that the FRY army was involved in some heavy fighting with KLA in southwest Kosovo. KLA has suffered heavy casualties. He did not confirm the attack on a journalist convoy on the Prizren- Brezovica road. Jamie Shea said that NATO would not give up the air campaign until Milosevic accepted NATO conditions. According to Shea 1,582,345 Albanians were refugees or internally displaced.

CNN coverage of protest concert in Skopje, which turned into a protest against NATO.

RS PM, Dodik stated that the Brcko Arbitration Award was final only in the part which declared Brcko a district. Dodik added that everything else was up to the annex, by which the RS Government was trying to protect RS interests and Serb people in Brcko. After the closed meeting with Brcko Supervisor, Farrand, Dodik said that he presented the RS position that the Brcko Award, which declares pre-war Brcko territory a district, was final for the RS and that everything else was up to the annexes. “I think that Mr. Farrand has an interest to reach a balanced proposal in order to satisfy both entity interests”.- Dodik said.

OHR Spokesperson, A. Stiglmayer said that OHR refutes the possibility of lawful exchange of apartments between entities. OHR would not support such an initiative.- she said.