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

To: lin huan chen who wrote (9401)	5/21/1999 12:54:00 PM
From: Milk	Respond to of 17770

Friday May 21 10:53 AM ET NATO Kills 19 In Kosovo Prison Strike-Serbs By Colin McIntyre BELGRADE (Reuters) - NATO jets bombed a prison in Kosovo for the second time in two days Friday, killing 19 people including the deputy governor and wounding at least 10, the Serb-run Media Center in Pristina said. It said both prisoners and guards were among the casualties of the strikes, during which more than 20 missiles were fired. On the 58th night of NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia, four missiles also hit a petrol depot in Belgrade and the blast shattered the windows of the Swiss ambassador's residence as he was hosting a National Day reception. On the diplomatic front, both optimistic and pessimistic noises came out of Moscow, where talks between Western and Russian officials have been concentrated. And the Yugoslav government re-entered the diplomatic fray, emphasizing its interest in a political settlement. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari and Russian Balkans envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin met into the early hours of Friday in Moscow to try to narrow differences on a joint peace plan for Kosovo. ''I think that my talks here in Moscow this time have been sufficiently constructive and serious to justify my coming back yet again next week,'' Talbott told reporters. However, a senior Russian lawmaker was pessimistic about the chances of progress after government officials briefed parliament in closed session on the negotiations. Vladimir Lukin, respected head of the State Duma's foreign affairs committee, said U.S. ''stubbornness'' was the main problem. ''The meetings in Moscow have not yet delivered any positive results,'' Lukin told reporters. United Nations envoy Carl Bildt and Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou were holding more talks in Moscow Friday. In Belgrade, Yugoslav Foreign Ministry spokesman Nebojsa Vujovic called on NATO to halt its air strikes and withdraw troops from the borders of neighboring countries as a pre-condition for a political settlement. ''For a political settlement to develop, for a political settlement to be reached, a pre-condition is that the bombing campaign and crimes against humanity should halt immediately,'' Vujovic told a news conference. He said troops were already being withdrawn from Kosovo under an order from the high command announced last week, but were being hampered by NATO's bombardment. Belgrade was taking measures to emphasize the political process. ''We are open to a peaceful solution, open to diplomatic negotiations. We are open to playing a constructive role in reaching a political solution on Kosovo,'' Vujovic said. Earlier, the United States and Britain poured cold water on speculation of a pause in NATO bombing of Yugoslavia before Belgrade complied with alliance demands on Kosovo. Both Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and British Armed Forces Minister Doug Henderson separately made clear an early halt to the campaign was not on the cards. ''What is being talked about among all of us is the necessity to continue in our sustained campaign, air campaign, in order to achieve what is necessary here,'' Albright said in an interview with BBC radio after talks in Washington with British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook. Russia and the West are seeking to agree conditions for ending the crisis, with Moscow insisting the bombing must end and Belgrade must participate in any peace plan. NATO began bombing on March 24 to enforce demands for the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Kosovo and security and a large measure of autonomy for the majority ethnic Albanian population in the southern Serbian province. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians have been driven from the province or fled. NATO says Belgrade must allow a strong international peace force, with a NATO core, into Kosovo to ensure peace there. A U.N. refugee agency worker in the Macedonian capital of Skopje said Friday many of the refugees now arriving had come from the Kosovo capital Pristina, which Serbian forces appeared to be clearing district by district. Hundreds of refugees reached Albania Friday and officials said they expected thousands more in the first sizeable arrival for a week. A policeman at the border said he believed about 7,000 people were on their way. At the bombed prison in Istok, some 70 kms (45 miles) west of Pristina, the governor said he believed a number of prisoners had escaped during the raids. He said the 1,000 prisoners at the jail included many ''terrorists,'' the usual Serb description of members of the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrilla group. In Brussels, NATO military spokesman General Walter Jertz told reporters the alliance attacked a security facility at Istok Friday morning, but he had no further details. In Belgrade, Serb media said the NATO attack on a fuel depot in the city had blown out windows at the residence of the Swiss ambassador during a reception. No one was hurt. Swedish ambassador Mats Staffansson, whose own residence was damaged in a strike 24 hours earlier, and other guests had to hurl themselves under tables when bombs shook the building. ''At quarter past eight we had just got to dessert when it exploded,'' Staffansson told Stockholm's Aftenbladet daily. ''Four cruise missiles hit a fuel depot just 300 meters from the Swiss residence and an enormous pressure wave shattered a very large window in the dining room. ''Myself, the Slovakian ambassador and the Vatican's ambassador immediately threw ourselves under the table to avoid flying glass,'' he said.

To: lin huan chen who wrote (9401)	5/21/1999 12:56:00 PM
From: The Philosopher	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 17770

If my action is illegal. So be it. That is the exact opposite of law. You are advocating anarchy, where everybody follows their conscience and remakes the law to suit their desires. So if my conscience tells me to kill you to get your money, because my conscience tells me I need it more than you do, does that make it lawful? We don't need laws to tell us to do what we would do anyhow. We need laws to stop us and others from doing what we otherwise would do. By your approach, Milosovic can argue that he is just recreating the law and what he is doing in Kosovo is perfectly legal.