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To: Alex who wrote (31046)	4/1/1999 7:46:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116764

Would be interesting to see what Bill Clinton would do to extricate himself...(I guess Yugoslavia is a wrong ticket to political immortality) Italy, Germany and France Face Public Backlash Over Lengthy NATO Campaign Italy, Germany, France Face Dissent Over Lengthy NATO Campaign Brussels, April 1 (Bloomberg) -- The popular backlash against NATO strikes on Yugoslavia mounted in Europe as the Italian, German and French governments came under growing pressure from inside their own ranks to stop the war from escalating. As the bombing campaign moved into the ninth day and Yugoslav television paraded three captured U.S. soldiers before the cameras, Italy's Communist and Green parties threatened to withdraw their ministers from the cabinet unless Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema helps broker a cease-fire. D'Alema's government, in power since last October, ''must publicly show its disapproval and its different position from its allies,'' the parties, both members of the ruling coalition, said in a joint statement late yesterday. In Germany, where memories of Hitler's crimes in the Balkans during World War II have colored the debate on the Kosovo conflict, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Green Party coalition partners grappled with grass-roots dissent to the war. French Communist ministers expressed unease but stopped short of threatening to quit the government. Across Europe, outrage at reports of Yugoslav brutality toward ethnic Albanians mingled with fears of protracted NATO involvement, raising questions whether governments have the resolve to fight a weeks-long campaign against a regime that Schroeder called ''the butchers of Belgrade.'' Following the arrival of a single currency in 11 of the European Union's 15 countries, the crisis has become a test of whether the bloc can unite in foreign policy as well. Going back to the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, the indications have not been favorable. Long Campaign With few if any politicians willing to speak of the dispatch of ground troops to Kosovo, NATO Secretary General Javier Solana sought to steel the European public for a long period of hostilities. ''This is not a situation that can be resolved in 24 or 48 hours,'' he said. In Italy, the communists underlined their threats, hinting that they will decide Saturday to pull their two ministers out of the government temporarily. The Greens toned down their protest, saying the Green ministers will take part in policy- making for now, news agency Ansa reported. D'Alema -- caught between the demands of his coalition's most radical components, his own party's pacifist traditions and Italy's NATO membership -- would survive such a boycott because the two allies have expressed their determination to support him in parliament, at least for now. Italy is across the Adriatic Sea from the war zone and home to two dozen NATO bases. Moreover, calls by the Vatican for an Easter truce have resonated in the strongly Catholic country. The Vatican sent its foreign affairs minister, Monsignor Jean Louis Tauran, to Belgrade today in an attempt to restart negotiations with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. In Germany, the first military involvement since World War II has split the pacifist Green Party, the junior partner in Schroeder's five-month-old coalition. With their roots in the antiwar movement of the 1960s, rank-and-file Greens have demanded an immediate halt to the air strikes. ''NATO and the German government carry responsibility for the escalation and can end their war activities any time,'' said an open letter by the Greens' ''anti-war initiative.'' It thanked the seven Green deputies who broke with the party leadership and voted against Germany's participation in the air raids in parliament on March 26. Personal Conviction Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, a member of the Greens' pragmatic wing, spoke yesterday of his ''personal conviction'' that bombing is the only course of action after failed attempts to achieve a political settlement. ''When you are described as a warmonger, then of course you have to ask yourself whether you have done everything possible'' to prevent violence, he said. ''And I can answer with a clear, precise, yes.'' In France, the bombings met with the disapproval of 46 percent of the people, according to a March 29 opinion poll in the Parisien newspaper. Just 40 percent were in favor, compared to the 71 percent approval rating in February 1991 when France and its allies bombed Iraq during the Gulf War. Two Communist ministers, Tourism Minister Michelle Demessine and Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot, expressed their ''concern and disappointment'' over the air strikes, calling for a ''political solution.'' Neither said they would leave Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's government, which relies partly on communist support. ©1999 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Terms of Service, Privacy Policy and Trademarks.