Yugoslavia Says NATO
Troops Would Face Hell
04:49 p.m May 17, 1999 Eastern
BELGRADE (Reuters) - A
Yugoslav army commander told
NATO it faced ''hell on earth'' if it
sent troops into Kosovo, as the
contentious issue of using ground
forces to end the conflict was
revived in Western capitals
Monday.
With pressures mounting on NATO
leaders to end their air war, General
Nebojsa Pavkovic, commander of
the 3rd Yugoslav Army responsible
for southern Serbia, including
Kosovo, was quoted by Belgrade's
Studio B television as saying
Yugoslavia's borders were secure
and ''engineering works'' had been
carried out for the country's
defense.
''The first people who will
experience this at first hand are
those who try to enter our territory
-- they will know they have entered
a hell on earth,'' Pavkovic said.
British Foreign Secretary Robin
Cook raised the issue of NATO
ground troops in Kosovo again
Monday, indicating a limited land
combat option was back on the
alliance agenda.
Cook reiterated that the Western
alliance was not contemplating a
full-scale invasion of Yugoslavia,
but it was ready to send in ground
forces once the ''organized
resistance'' of the Yugoslav army
had been broken by NATO
aircraft.
But a NATO official, speaking on
behalf of all 19 allies, said Serb
forces would ''clearly have to be
on their way out of Kosovo in a
total and irreversible movement''
before an international security
force could be sent in.
NATO Secretary-General Javier
Solana ''is reviewing when we can
take advantage of the success we
are having against them,'' Cook
said.
Cook tried to dampen speculation
of a split with the United States
over NATO tactics.
British media have reported that
Washington and London are at
loggerheads, with Clinton reluctant
to commit ground troops but British
Prime Minister Tony Blair eager to
send them in.
In the United States, Newsweek
magazine said the Pentagon had
warned Defense Secretary William
Cohen in a letter that he could not
achieve NATO's declared aims
without a land war.
At a news conference Monday,
Cohen said: ''I don't have a letter
as such, but I have talked to the
chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen.
(Henry) Shelton, and he believes
(the air war) is the correct way to
go.''
NATO already has 16,000 men in
Macedonia and a further 12,000 in
Albania. The force in Macedonia is
equipped with battle tanks and
other armored fighting vehicles. It is
being increased steadily, with
Britain due to add 2,300 more men.
Cook met other EU foreign
ministers and Russia's Igor Ivanov
in Brussels before holding talks with
Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright in Washington later in the
week.
Ivanov told a news conference after
the meeting that Russia remained at
odds with the Group of Seven
industrialized nations over whether
NATO should stop bombing
Yugoslavia ahead of a diplomatic
solution to the Kosovo crisis.
But Ivanov promised that Moscow
would continue to play a
constructive role in efforts to
resolve the conflict.
''At the moment we still have
disagreements about the conditions
under which the bombing should
stop,'' Ivanov said. ''We believe
that the bombing should be stopped
very soon, but nevertheless we are
prepared to work on a resolution at
the (U.N.) Security Council and will
do so.''
The leaders of Germany and Italy,
both under domestic political
pressure to push for a halt to
NATO air strikes, were meeting in
Italy's southeast coastal town of
Bari to discuss fresh diplomatic
efforts to end the Kosovo crisis.
Italian Prime Minister Massimo
D'Alema came armed with a fresh
peace proposal which he discussed
by telephone with NATO's Solana.
Bonn has already expressed interest
in the plan.
''We're working to get the
broadest consensus possible,''
D'Alema's spokesman Pasquale
Cascella told reporters as the
meeting began.
German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder, speaking earlier in
Helsinki, said the EU fully backed
Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari
as international mediator in the
Kosovo conflict.
''I, together with my EU
colleagues, give (Ahtisaari) the
support of the European Union and
of the EU president,'' Schroeder
said after talks with the Finnish
leader.
Explosions reverberated amid
heavy anti-aircraft fire in several
Serbian towns earlier Monday, but
the Yugoslav capital Belgrade was
spared from attack and a U.N.
humanitarian mission began
assessing needs in Yugoslavia.
''Many say this mission is madness,
in particular attempting to do what
you suggested,'' the mission's leader
Sergio Vieira de Mello told a news
conference when asked if his team
would try to reach ethnic Albanians
hiding in remote mountains and
forests in Kosovo.
''Let me get there and assess the
situation on the ground before I
expose my colleagues and perhaps
those populations to additional
danger.''
The mission was sent by U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan to
work out what would be needed in
terms of emergency relief both to
the displaced in Kosovo, estimated
by Washington to number 600,000,
and to those affected by NATO
bombs.
Russia and seven leading Western
nations have agreed to demand a
Serb pullout from Kosovo and
deployment of an international
peace force, but Moscow has so
far rejected Western demands to
give NATO a leading role in the
mission.
Meanwhile, tension rose along
Albania's border with Kosovo and
the United Nations High
Commission for Refugees
(UNHCR) stepped up efforts to
persuade more than 100,000
refugees to leave the area.
Observers from the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in
Europe reported 20 blasts from
NATO bombs by 1400 GMT.
They said the main targets seemed
to be in the village of Planeja.
Serb forces turned back a train
carrying up to 2,000 Kosovo
refugees trying to flee to Macedonia
as the country's President Kiro
Gligorev said up to 100,000
Kosovo refugees should be moved
out of his country.
''It is important for the international
community to take refugees out --
100,000 refugees,'' Gligorov said.
A small, impoverished former
Yugoslav republic of 2.2 million
people, Macedonia has
campaigned hard to reduce the
number of refugees it is sheltering,
now estimated at 230,000.
The UNHCR said the Yugoslav
army had released 106 male
refugees who were seized across
Montenegro at the weekend.
NATO said it was tracking large
groups of displaced civilians in
Kosovo and had been told by
ethnic Albanian refugees that up to
40,000 more may be trying to
move to the province's southern
border.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. |
