No Yugoslav War Breakthrough in U.S.-Russia Talks; Clark Says NATO
Winning
U.S.-Russia Talks Yield No Compromise; Clark Says NATO Winning
Washington, April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Talks between U.S. and
Russian officials in Moscow produced no movement toward a
compromise that might end the war in Yugoslavia, the U.S. State
Department said.
''The Russians did not indicate any major changes in their
positions'' when U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Strobe
Talbott's met with and Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and
Russia's Kosovo envoy, Viktor Chernomyrdin, said State Department
spokesman James Rubin. ''They stated that very clearly.''
NATO's top military commander also said the bombing will
intensify and shipments of oil to Yugoslavia will be blocked
starting Friday, both actions in response to decisions taken by
NATO leaders at their weekend summit. ''We're winning, Milosevic
is losing and he knows it,'' U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark said in
Brussels.
NATO is in the sixth week of its air war to force Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic to halt his repression of ethnic
Albanians in Kosovo province, withdraw his troops and allow the
refugees to return under protection of an international
peacekeeping force.
Russia wants the bombing halted as a precondition to peace
talks and doesn't want the peacekeepers to be ''primarily'' NATO
forces or heavily armed, Chernomyrdin told reporters in Moscow.
Rubin said NATO's objectives ''are unshakable'' and ''there is no
compromise.''
Blockade Force
Clark said in a lengthy and detailed review of the war for
reporters that NATO is approaching its goal of cutting off and
destroying Serb military forces in Kosovo.
NATO's blockade of oil shipments will begin at the same time
when the European Union's oil embargo goes into effect and it
will include the threat of force, said U.S. Defense Department
spokesman Ken Bacon.
Bacon said NATO's ''visit and search'' regime would be
similar to that used during the Bosnian war. That plan ''allowed
boarding and allowed ships to be turned away'' and produced
''only two cases where force was used -- and the ships didn't get
through,'' he said.
''The vast majority of ships don't challenge embargoes or
search and visit regimes,'' Bacon said.
Most oil shipped to Yugoslavia is delivered through the port
of Bar in Montenegro. Yugoslavia is a federation of Serbia and
Montenegro, and Bar is the Serbs' primary access to the sea. Air
strikes ''against railroads, roads, bridges and other means of
transportation into Kosovo or out of Montenegro'' have cut
shipments of fuel to Serb forces in Kosovo by 30 percent already,
Clark said.
U.S. Reserves Called
There were these other developments in the war:
-- The U.S. is calling up 2,100 military reservists, most of
them Air Force tanker pilots, maintenance workers and other
support personnel. U.S. President Bill Clinton approved a total
call-up of 33,000 and this is the first installment, U.S. defense
officials said.
These troops will support the additional air refueling
planes being sent as part of an effort to ''increase the tempo''
of the air strikes by allowing NATO to increase the number of
planes in the air and over targets and let those planes operate
24 hours a day, said Charles L. Cragin, acting U.S. assistant
secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs.
-- Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said he's sending
800 peacekeeping troops to Macedonia at NATO's request, to be
readied for a future mission in Kosovo. Canada already has about
200 support staff and pilots at the NATO staging base at Aviano,
Italy.
The additional troops will join 12,000 other NATO troops in
the area, Chretien said. His announcement comes two days before
Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy goes to Moscow to urge
Chernomyrdin and Ivanov to help get a UN Security Council
resolution that will pave the way for a peacekeeping force.
-- Clark said NATO daily sees ''evidence of declining
morale'' among Serb troops ''and increasingly widespread
avoidance of the draft.'' U.K. Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said
several hundred Serb soldiers were deserting each week.
Weather a Factor
-- NATO planes have flown 11,574 sorties since the war
began, 4,423 of them attack missions, Clark said. The attacks
have proved ''very effective, very destructive,'' he said, ''but
only a fraction of what is to come.''
-- Two NATO missiles struck the Usce Business Center tower
in Belgrade, the headquarters of Milosevic's ruling Socialist
Party. Kosova Radio and Television and Radio Pink were also hit,
Agence France-Presse said. Sombor airport northwest of Belgrade
was bombed for the second consecutive day, AFP said.
-- Three U.S. soldiers captured by Serbs a month ago are
''in satisfactory condition,'' the International committee of the
Red Cross said, according to AFP.
A doctor and an ICRC delegate were allowed a long talk today
with the prisoners and took letters from them to their families,
AFP reported. The terms of today's visit were in line with the
Geneva Convention, in contrast to the brief and monitored visit
the Yugoslav government allowed Monday, an ICRC spokeswoman said,
according to AFP.
More Refugees
-- As many as 30,000 ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo
are massing near the border with Albania, Sky News reported. That
follows the arrival of 4,000 refugees in Macedonia over the
weekend.
-- NATO is investigating the crash of a U.S. Apache-AH64
helicopter last night during a training flight from its base in
Tirana, Albania. The two crew members were flown to a nearby
mobile hospital unit and are in good condition, the U.S. European
Command said. The plane didn't come under fire but was carrying
missiles and burst into flames upon hitting the ground.
-- The EU is holding talks with the foreign ministers of
Macedonia and Albania which could pave the way for a trade accord
between the countries and the EU, a first step on the long road
towards membership of the 15-nation EU trade bloc.
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