The conflict now officially spreads in Bosnia...let's see the Serbs take more Nato soldiers prisoners and Billie cries "this is illegal and there is no basis for their capture, they were just inncoent bystander blowing up the railtracks in order to keep the peace!!!"
NATO-led troops blow up the Bosnian portion of
Yugoslav railway
4.10 p.m. ET (2110 GMT) April 3, 1999
By Aida Cerkez-Robinson, Associated Press
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — NATO-led troops came under fire
Saturday while destroying the Bosnian portion of a key rail link between Serbia
and Yugoslavia's other republic, Montenegro, which has opposed Yugoslav
leader Slobodan Milosevic.
The commander of the NATO-led forces in Bosnia, U.S. Gen. Montgomery
Meigs, said the railway that runs through Bosnia was cut to prevent it from being
used for military purposes by the Yugoslav army.
"The railroad comes out of ... Yugoslavia into Bosnia-Herzegovina and back into
Montenegro. We had indications that it would be used by military elements,'' said
Meigs, who heads the NATO-led stabilization force stationed in Bosnia.
Yugoslavia, which consists of Serbia and Montenegro, has been under NATO air
attacks for 11 days in an international effort to force Milosevic into signing a
peace deal for the Serbian province of Kosovo.
The president of Montenegro, Milo Djukanovic, has spoken out against both the
NATO attacks and also Milosevic's confrontational policy toward the West.
Western officials said Friday they have evidence Milosevic is plotting to oust
Djukanovic.
The rail line is a major link between the two republics and could have been used
to transport additional troops into Montenegro.
Maj. Sheena Thomson, a spokeswoman for the stabilization force, known as
SFOR, said a "controlled detonation'' cut the rail line Saturday morning. She said
it would be reopened when the conflict in Yugoslavia ends.
Col. Lee Hockmann, an SFOR spokesman in Sarajevo, said Belgrade has one
other railway link to Montenegro, through Kosovo.
Meigs said the NATO-led forces in Bosnia, who are not taking part in the attacks
on Yugoslavia, came under automatic weapons fire while blowing up the
Yugoslav rail link in eastern Bosnia, near the Yugoslav border. He said SFOR
troops fired back and that his forces suffered no casualties.
Thomson said later that the soldiers saw one of the attackers fall, apparently hit.
Thomson said SFOR could not verify his condition.
Bosnian Serb television claimed the SFOR soldiers killed Vidoje Tomic, a
railway guard. The television showed what appeared to be a body lying in the
grass and a witness saying SFOR soldiers attacked the guard and that he did not
resist. The Bosnian Serb claim could not be independently confirmed. |
