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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: goldsnow who wrote (4210)	4/17/1999 9:55:00 AM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 17770

Kosovo Refugee Exodus Awaited Saturday, 17 April 1999 B E L G R A D E , Y U G O S L A V I A (AP) ABOUT 13,000 Kosovo refugees poured into Albania early today and thousands more were on the move in Yugoslavia as Serb forces appeared to be making a final push to clear Kosovo of its ethnic Albanian population. Despite bad weather, NATO pressed ahead with its air campaign, saying airstrikes overnight hit fixed targets and military units on the ground in the southern Serb province of Kosovo. In neighboring Macedonia, where at least 5,000 refugees crossed over Friday, officials were bracing for an enormous influx in coming days. Ron Redmont, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said more than 100,000 refugees were believed bound for Macedonia after being driven from their homes in Kosovo. At Kukes, a crossing point in northern Albania, refugees arriving overnight made their way through a rainstorm with huge lightning flashes, driving wind and blasts of thunder. U.N. refugee agency spokesman Jacques Franquin called the situation "terrible." Many of those arriving had been on the road for days. Amid the refugee exodus, NATO pressed ahead with its air campaign against Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav capital Belgrade remained under air-raid alert from late Friday until early today, the 24th night of NATO attacks. An industrial plant in Valjevo in central Serbia was hit by four missiles early today, causing serious damage to the surrounding residential area, Serb media reported. Despite poor weather, Vice Admiral Sir Ian Garnett, chief of operations for Britain's Royal Air Force, said today that British jets hit a Pristina army corps tactical headquarters overnight, inflicting "severe damage." Meanwhile, Gen. Wesley Clark, NATO's supreme commander, traveled to Macedonia and Albania for talks with officials and visits to NATO troops. "This is not a campaign against the Serb people - far from it," Clark said after meeting with Macedonian Premier Ljubco Georgievski. "But it is a campaign against the policies which have caused the humanitarian tragedy that is affecting this country." Clark said Milosevic could not win his war with NATO - but a top Yugoslav official told the West the same thing. Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic, commander of army forces in southern Yugoslavia, including Kosovo - told Serb reporters that NATO would suffer heavy losses in a ground invasion. "In case of an intervention on the ground in Kosovo, NATO would face 150,000 armed men," Gen. Pavkovic said. "Even if every third bullet (my men) fire hits a target, it will be a price the aggressor will have to pay for coming into our country." Yugoslavia, the general said, was "preparing for an all-out war." Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic launched a crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists 14 months ago in Kosovo, a conflict that has killed thousands and left tens of thousands homeless. NATO began bombing Yugoslavia on March 24 after Milosevic refused to sign a peace accord for the province. In Washington, U.S. defense officials said a Yugoslav army officer captured inside Yugoslavia by the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army was delivered to American custody on Friday. The officer was taken earlier this week, delivered to the government of Albania and then into U.S. custody, the statement said. It was the first capture of a Yugoslav soldiers since NATO began bombing. In Geneva, International Committee of the Red Cross spokesman Nick Sommer said two Red Cross representatives visited the captured Yugoslav army officer in Albania. They registered his name, accepted a written message for forwarding to his family, and planned to make regular visits for as long as he is held, Sommer said. Yugoslav authorities are holding three Americans soldiers who were captured along the Macedonian border. Serb reports, meanwhile, said Macedonia had seized large quantities of arms brought into Macedonia across the border from Kosovo by the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army. The state-run Tanjug news agency said the weapons were found in an abandoned mine near the town of Kumanovo. The report said among the arms discovered were automatic and semi-automatic rifles, machine guns and land mines.