Here we go..
U.S. Would Support Call for Ground Troops in Kosovo if NATO Leaders Ask
U.S. Would Support Troops in Kosovo, Accept Refugees (Repeat)
(Repeats to fix spacing in lead paragraph)
Washington, April 21 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. will back
NATO's top military and political leaders if they want to expand
the war on Yugoslavia to include the possible use of NATO ground
troops, White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said.
If NATO's top commander, U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark, and
NATO Secretary General Javier Solana recommend positioning troops
near Kosovo, ''we would support that,'' Lockhart said.
NATO's leaders haven't made such a request, Lockhart said.
Officials from most NATO countries continue to insist, as does
U.S. President Bill Clinton, that a sustained bombing campaign
will accomplish NATO's military objectives.
Meanwhile, the Clinton administration decided to accept up
to 20,000 Kosovar refugees on U.S. soil instead of placing them
at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, a Clinton aide said. The United
Nations High Commission for Refugees and the International
Organization for Migration will begin identifying Kosovar
refugees in Macedonia who have family in the U.S.
''We believe permitting refugees to be with their relatives
and loved ones in United States is the most humanitarian way to
deal with this,'' said David Leavy, National Security Council
spokesman. ''The end goal remains the same, however: to get them
back to their homes in Kosovo.''
NATO Summit
The comments about ground troops and refugees come two days
before NATO's leaders gather in Washington to mark the alliance's
50th anniversary. The question of ground troops will be pivotal
to assessments of progress in the war and the Clinton
administration had been under fire for its plan to house refugees
from the conflict at Guantanamo Bay, near Havana, instead of on
the continental U.S.
Public support for ground troops has grown within the U.S.
and other NATO countries as evidence mounts of horrifying
atrocities committed by Serb troops in Kosovo and concern that
the air strikes aren't working quickly enough.
French President Jacques Chirac said today he wants to
intensify the air campaign. ''Massacres, rape, pillaging,
torching of villages and an exodus of families who have been
separated... it must stop,'' Chirac said in a radio and
television address to the nation. ''We must intensify the strikes
. . .That is the position I will adopt in Washington.''
U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair said today the difficulties
of mounting a ground attack are ''formidable'' given Yugoslav
defenses. ''All options are open,'' he said.
Fifth Week
NATO is in the fifth week of its bombing campaign to force
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to end his repression of
ethnic Albanians in Kosovo province, withdraw Serb troops, allow
refugees to return, and accept an international peacekeeping
force.
Missiles today struck the headquarters in downtown Belgrade
of Yugoslavia's ruling Socialist Party as well as radio relay
transmitters and bridges, alliance officials said.
The attack on the ruling party's headquarters struck ''the
center of his propaganda machine,'' NATO spokesman Jamie Shea
said at a briefing in Brussels.
Milosevic intends to disrupt the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization's 50th anniversary summit, Brigadier General
Giuseppe Marani said. Yugoslav forces will try to ''orchestrate''
demonstrations by local Serbs in Washington, Marani said without
giving details.
NATO leaders gave new details of accounts of war crimes by
Serb forces in Kosovo, and said the alliance is massing trucks
and helicopters to assist with a mass exodus of refugees.
Relief workers are finding increasing numbers of ethnic
Albanian refugees with shrapnel or bullet wounds, and Serb forces
have stepped up their moves to force ethnic Albanians from their
homes in southeastern Kosovo and in Montenegro, Shea said.
'Instrument of War'
Ethnic Albanians are being treated inhumanely, including
being denied medical treatment, Shea said.
''Milosevic is using the refugees as an instrument of war,''
U.K. Liberal Democratic Party leader Paddy Ashdown said from
Skopje, Macedonia, where he is visiting U.K. forces.
NATO says it doesn't know how many ethnic Albanians are
still within Kosovo, but it estimates 500,000 to 700,000 have
been displaced from their homes -- living hand-to-mouth and on-
the-run in fear of Serb troops.
Roughly 600,000 who've fled Kosovo are crammed into
makeshift camps along the border in neighboring countries. Poor
weather hampered the latest NATO raids, yet the alliance made an
''extremely accurate attack'' on the Belgrade party headquarters
building, Marani said. The building also housed private radio and
television stations, including Kosava, which belongs to
Milosevic's daughter, Marija.
Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic called the attack
the work of ''criminals'' and said ''they cannot bend us,''
Associated Press reported.
NATO also attacked a radio relay and TV transmitting system
at Novi Sad, Marani said. Two missiles also hit the last bridge
standing over the Danube at Novi Sad, Yugoslavia's second largest
city, knocking the span out of use for cars and trains.
The bridge, 45 miles north of Belgrade, wasn't entirely
destroyed and could still be used by pedestrians, Agence France
Presse said. The Belgrade-to-Budapest train line has nearly been
cut off.
Oil Embargo
The European Union governments agreed to stop shipping oil
to Yugoslavia, EU officials said. The 15 countries' ambassadors
met in Brussels and agreed unanimously to adopt the embargo,
which is to be rubber-stamped by EU foreign ministers on Monday,
said Vicky Bowman, a spokeswoman for the U.K.'s EU
representation. Sales of oil products will be allowed for
humanitarian purposes, notably for displaced people inside
Yugoslavia.
The embargo is just ''another hollow gesture,'' said Bill
O'Grady, vice president and director of fundamental futures
research, at A.G. Edwards & Sons in St. Louis, Missouri. ''What
they need to do something is something they're really not
prepared to do, which is blow up pipelines, particularly from
Russia and Bulgaria. That would be something that would hurt
other people and they're not prepared to do that.
''In the bigger scheme of things, bombing the energy
industry doesn't mean anything because, if you look at the battle
plan, they're willing to let it deteriorate to a guerrilla war,''
O'Grady said. ''There's not much energy use in a guerrilla war.
Just ask any Cuban.''
Russia Opposed
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov warned allied forces
against making a ground-based attack on Kosovo, AFP reported,
citing an interview in the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat.
A NATO ground operation in Kosovo would push ''Europe into a
long war,'' Ivanov said, according to AFP. ''It seems we must
think of some international presence in Kosovo which would be
acceptable to Belgrade.''
Russia opposes the air strikes, suspended its ties with NATO
at the start of the air campaign and won't take part in the NATO
summit meeting this weekend.
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