Russia may be broke, but China certainly isn't. We should take both of them
seriously.
Why would Albright weigh in against the Joint Chiefs of Staff? What American
interests is she claiming to protect?
Best Regards,
Marshall Houston
Portland, Oregon
http://www.scmp.com/news/template/Front-Template.idc?artid=19990405003725011&t
op=front&template=Default.htx&maxfieldsize=2011
Monday April 5 1999
Zhu warns attack could start world war
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Toronto
Premier Zhu Rongji criticised the bombing campaign as an intervention in
the affairs of a sovereign nation, warning that the attack could lead to
a world war.
"All internal matters should be left for the country itself to resolve,"
Mr Zhu said.
"If we should refuse to recognise a country's sovereignty, I'm afraid
that would lead to a world war," he told the Globe and Mail of Toronto.
The Premier's remarks came on the eve of a two-week North American tour
beginning tomorrow in California and ending on April 20 in Canada.
Mr Zhu called for an immediate halt to the air strikes, which he said
almost caused him to cancel his trip to the United States.
"If military interventionism is to be allowed in all internal matters
like a question of human rights of any country, that will open a very
bad precedent in the world," he said.
"We do not have a world tribunal or a world police" to enforce
international human rights standards, he said. "So who should be the
person to make the decision to use all this military force?"
The Premier said the principle of non-intervention applied to China's
record in Tibet and Taiwan, as well as to Britain's handling of Northern
Ireland or Canadian affairs in Quebec.
The Premier said he had been tempted to cancel his visit to the US
because of the air strikes and anti-Chinese sentiment in Washington amid
accusations of spying against Beijing.
He said chances to reach an accord on China's entry into the World Trade
Organisation were slim since the White House seemed "rather reluctant"
to push for it.
He criticised US plans to establish a Southeast Asia Theatre Missile
Defence programme to boost the defence capabilities of Japan and Taiwan.
Mr Zhu warned that including Taiwan in the system "would be very
dangerous" as it would be interpreted as an "encroachment upon China's
sovereignty".
"The proposal to establish [a system] does not conform with the
international treaties on missiles," he said.
=============
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/1999-04/05/056r-040599-idx.html
Joint Chiefs Doubted Air Strategy
By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 5, 1999; Page A01
In the weeks before NATO launched its air campaign against Yugoslavia,
U.S. military chiefs expressed deep reservations about the Clinton
administration's approach to Kosovo and warned that bombing alone likely
would not achieve its political aims, according to sources familiar with
their thinking.
The Pentagon's senior four-star officers, meeting in closed-door
sessions in the Pentagon's secure "tank" room, argued that the
administration should use more economic sanctions and other non-military
levers to compel Belgrade to make peace in the rebellious Serbian
province before resorting to airstrikes. They also complained about what
they saw as the lack of a long-term vision for the Balkans and
questioned whether U.S. national interests there were strong enough to
merit a military confrontation.
"I think it's safe to say that I don't think anybody felt like there had
been a compelling argument made that all of this was in our national
interest," said one senior officer knowledgeable about the
deliberations.
Led by Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the
commanders challenged in particular the "domino theory" being pressed in
interagency discussions by Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright.
"Losing" Kosovo, she and her allies in the discussions maintained, would
lead to wider destabilization in the Balkans that sooner or later would
damage U.S. interests in Europe -- so better to act before it was too
late.
Ultimately, the chiefs agreed unanimously last month to go along with
airstrikes, embracing the administration's view that U.S. leadership in
NATO had to be preserved and that the looming humanitarian catastrophe
in Kosovo had to be addressed, the sources said. But the earlier
hesitations had been forwarded to President Clinton and his aides, and
reports from the White House have said doubts from the military were
weighed in the final decision to go to war.
Twelve days into the bombing campaign, the military leaders remain
doubtful that airstrikes alone can satisfy the larger political
objectives put forward by Clinton and other NATO leaders: stopping the
violence in Kosovo and driving Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic
back to the bargaining table.
They fret that the American public was not adequately prepared to accept
a prolonged air operation. But they have been frustrated, too, at the
incremental progression of the bombing, which they blame not just on bad
weather but also on the requirements of conducting war by consensus
among all 19 NATO members.
The chiefs are understood to be wary of recommending ground forces,
worried that this would evolve into yet another open-ended commitment of
U.S. troops in a foreign trouble spot. At the same time, if a political
decision were made to send ground units to combat Yugoslav troops, the
service leaders have stressed that the force should be substantial.
"The feeling now is, if you're going to go with the ground option, let's
not screw around, let's go with what needs to be done to get the job
done," one general said. "This thing about incrementally approaching it
and working our way up the ladder and hoping we can get just enough
isn't going to do it."
The views of the Joint Chiefs were gleaned from conversations with
several officers who know their thinking but declined to be named. In
contrast to Shelton and his vice chairman, Gen. Joseph W. Ralston, the
service heads -- Army Gen. Dennis J. Reimer, Navy Adm. Jay Johnson, Air
Force Gen. Michael Ryan and Marine Corps Gen. Charles Krulak -- do not
participate in running the war day to day. But they continue to be
consulted regularly on its course, and Shelton and Defense Secretary
William S. Cohen are supposed to relay the chiefs' views to Clinton and
his national security advisers.
>From the outset, the chiefs reportedly were skeptical of the rationale
for U.S. military involvement in Kosovo. Having struggled for the past
few years to get out of a NATO-led peacekeeping operation in Bosnia, the
commanders were reluctant to get involved in yet another ethnic conflict
in the Balkans.
The argument that instability in Kosovo would snowball into chaos in
such neighboring states as Albania, Macedonia and Bosnia and would
engender a wider war in Europe struck the chiefs as overdrawn and a poor
case for intervening. For the commanders, it carried uncomfortable
echoes of the thinking that drew the United States into the ill-fated
Vietnam War three decades ago.
The chiefs suggested pursuing other means, short of a military
confrontation with Yugoslavia, to wall off the unrest in Kosovo. They
urged more aggressive consideration of non-military measures to bring
pressure on Yugoslavia -- tighter economic sanctions, for instance, or
the international indictment of Milosevic for crimes against humanity in
Bosnia.
"There were other tools that maybe just had not been exploited to the
degree they could have been," said a senior officer, reflecting the view
of the chiefs.
Asked about the commanders' doubts, a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs,
Navy Capt. Steve Pietropaoli, said that none of the military leaders
dissented when presented with the NATO strike plan. "They all agreed
that the operation envisioned could achieve the articulated objective,"
he said.
By then, however, the military mission had been framed narrowly -- "to
degrade Serbian capability to conduct repressive actions against ethnic
Albanians in Kosovo." There was no specific requirement to halt the
relentless Serb drive to push ethnic Albanians out of the province, nor
was there a mandate to bomb Milosevic back to the bargaining table.
Still, the chiefs understood that the military campaign would be judged
against these larger political objectives and, very likely, would fall
short.
As the Clinton administration and other NATO governments geared up for
action, the chiefs warned about the limitations of a campaign restricted
to air power. They said Yugoslavia's notoriously foul weather this time
of year, rugged terrain and extensive air defense network would
complicate the strikes and raise the risks to pilots.
Some of their concerns emerged publicly at a March 18 hearing before the
Senate Armed Services Committee, at which the chiefs stressed the
likelihood of U.S. casualties. Privately, even the staunchest advocates
of air power among the four-star commanders doubted that airstrikes
alone could do much to budge Milosevic in the near term. They noted the
challenges of sending planes against widely dispersed ground forces that
were carrying out door-to-door terror.
"The position of the chiefs was: There was no guarantee that air would
do it," one general said. "There were people who felt they knew
Milosevic, or knew him better than we knew him -- that the threat of
bombing . . . would make him come to the table. But it just hasn't
worked that way."
For all their skepticism about air power, the chiefs never gave serious
consideration to sending in ground troops, at least not U.S. troops.
Despite reports that NATO is considering a ground force to establish a
protectorate for displaced ethnic Albanians, the U.S. chiefs have yet to
review any specific plans for such an operation, the sources said. But
the commanders have discussed the general proposition that U.S. ground
units may need to enter the fight as part of an expanded NATO force to
help root out Yugoslav troops in Kosovo.
� Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company
=============
http://cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9904/03/kosovo.russia/
Survey: Two-thirds of Russians fear NATO attack
CNN's Steve Harrigan reports that many Russians fear a NATO
attack (April 3)
April 3, 1999
Web posted at: 6:53 p.m. EST (2353 GMT)
MOSCOW (CNN) -- Nearly two-thirds of all Russians say their country has
reason to fear a NATO attack, according to a recent survey.
The poll, conducted by the Russian Center for Public Opinion, found that
63 percent of Russian citizens believe NATO could be a threat.
"This attack on Yugoslavia is just a dress rehearsal for NATO," said
Moscow taxi driver Anatoly Kuznetsov.
Russian television news stations show the same pictures of NATO strikes
against Yugoslavia that Westerners see. But the two largest television
channels in Russia -- both of which are controlled by the government --
give the story a different slant.
According to Russian news reports, NATO airstrikes -- not Serb
paramilitary and Yugoslav army troop action -- are responsible for the
plight of hundreds of thousands of refugees who have left their homes in
Kosovo for neighboring countries.
"The refugees are trying to save themselves from the NATO bombing.
Instead of preventing a humanitarian catastrophe, NATO is causing one,"
one Russian news report said.
Many refugees say they were ordered out of Kosovo by Serb forces in a
campaign of "ethnic cleansing." Yugoslav officials deny those reports,
saying the refugees are fleeing NATO airstrikes and fighting between
Yugoslav troops and ethnic Albanian guerrillas.
Russian news reports reflect the Yugoslav position.
"We try to bring the Russian government's viewpoint to our viewers,"
said RTR news anchor Dmitry Borisov.
But analysts warn that stirring up anti-Western sentiment could backfire
on the Russian government.
"The danger is that they might energize nationalism, xenophobia,
anti-Western feelings that they will not be in a position to control,"
said Andrei Kortunov.
===========
http://www.smh.com.au/news/9904/05/world/world3.html
Monday, April 5, 1999
BALKANS: THE CONFLICT
Radio station loses fight for the truth
By MAGGIE O'KANE in Belgrade
The police came at 8.45am, just as the editor was unlocking the door on
the last breath of fresh air in Belgrade, and in Serbia.
B92, the independent radio station on the 10th floor of the city's Point
Building, had kept broadcasting through President Slobodan Milosevic's
bloody war in Croatia and Bosnia. But it all came to an end on Friday.
The station had been shut down three times before, for daring to
question the sanity of the wars, but in this angry city where Serbs are
the only victims and the mass exodus of pain from their borders is a
fabrication by a "factory of lies" called CNN and Sky news, B92's door
was finally shut.
"It's over," said the man who founded the station. "... There is no
opposition any more. We are all losers. Only the extremists can win and
the only beneficiary is Milosevic."
With B92 gone there is nobody left to report to the people of Serbia
that in the past 10 days over 150,000 refugees have stumbled from their
country into a stunned world.
These pictures are not shown on the state-controlled Belgrade
television. But after 10 days of bombing Belgrade does not want to know
anyway. Every night Belgrade television has turned the news into reports
of a long list of dignitaries who come from Russia, Greece and the
Vatican to talk to Mr Milosevic. Report after report of bomb damage by
the "fascist forces" of NATO follow. The message: the world is trying to
steal Kosovo from them and only Mr Milosevic can save it.
"I am not afraid," says the founder of B92 sitting in the coffee shop in
his brown tweed jacket. "We are going to broadcast by e-mail from
Brussels." - The Guardian
===========
http://cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9904/04/kosovo.refugees.03/
Aid arrives for 360,000 who have fled; NATO nations offer asylum
April 5, 1999
Web posted at: 6:04 a.m. EDT (1004 GMT)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
In this story:
Children, elderly die at isolated border outpost
Albright insists asylum only temporary
Turkey extends help to 'our brothers'
Disease hits Macedonian camps
Many 'trapped inside Kosovo'
RELATED STORIES, SITES
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kukes, Albania (CNN) -- Between midnight and 8 a.m. Monday, more than
10,000 exhausted Kosovar refugees streamed across the Albanian border,
international aid workers said.
Planes and helicopters carrying food and humanitarian supplies continued
to arrive in the Albanian capital of Tirana on Sunday, as countries
around the world mobilized to help the human flood of ethnic Albanian
refugees forced from their homes in Kosovo.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees spokeswoman Karen Abu Zayd said
Sunday that since NATO airstrikes on Yugoslavia began on March 24,
360,000 refugees have left Kosovo. Of that number, 204,000 went to
Albania, 115,000 to Macedonia and 33,000 to Montenegro.
"We have exceeded our worst-case scenario overnight," she said on CBS's
"Face The Nation." "We are looking at perhaps up to a million refugees
coming out because they're still streaming out, and all the refugees
coming out ... are telling us that the villages behind them are also
being emptied."
On Sunday, an international military relief effort got under way in
Albania, with NATO countries deploying helicopters, troops and other
resources to cope with the humanitarian crisis.
The French army began to rush in food supplies, the Italian army erected
a tent city near the Yugoslav border and U.S. forces began building an
aircraft landing zone.
Children, elderly die at isolated border outpost
The largest refugee movement from Kosovo into Albania took place this
weekend. About 21,000 refugees arrived at the Morini crossing point and
nearly 10,000 arrived at Qafe Prushit, according to the UNHCR.
The situation in Qafe Prushit, an isolated mountainous area, was
described as "desperate" by the UNHCR. Eleven people, including seven
children, died there of dehydration and exposure overnight, and relief
workers fear more could die in the coming days if rescue operations fail
to reach the area.
On the Macedonian border, about 65,000 people were trapped in the
freezing rain after being taken to the border by Yugoslav forces and
left there, the UNHCR said. The Macedonian government closed the entry
point at Blace, forcing thousands of felling Kosovars to head for
another nearby crossing point, Jazince.
UNHCR officials reported that the line of refugees waiting to cross the
border stretched 25 kilometers (16 miles).
"Our problem in Macedonia is that a lot of people are being kept in a
kind of no man's land, not able to move quickly into the country," Zayd
said. "It's certainly taking longer than we had hoped it would take."
Albright insists asylum only temporary
NATO nations -- including the United States, Turkey and Germany -- are
offering temporary asylum to the refugees. U.S. Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright said Sunday that as many as 100,000 displaced
Kosovars could be airlifted to other nations.
However, she emphasized that the refugees must be allowed to eventually
return to Kosovo under the protection of NATO peacekeepers.
A C130 transport plane arrives in Tirana with supplies for refugees
In Tirana on Sunday, three C130 transport planes from Germany and one
C17 from the United States arrived, bringing food rations and logistics
equipment for distribution by the UNHCR. Also arriving were planes
carrying humanitarian aid from France, Saudi Arabia, Britain and Italy.
Julia Taft, U.S. assistant secretary of State for refugees, toured a
Macedonian camp Sunday, where international aid workers struggled to
distribute plastic sheeting and bread to thousands of people camped in
the mud and freezing drizzle, as two Red Cross tents began filling with
the sick.
"We will do a burden sharing to temporarily take out of Macedonia large
numbers of the refugees for temporary asylum until it is safe for them
to go back to their homes in Kosovo," Taft said.
Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said Sunday that his nation was
prepared to shelter 20,000 Kosovo refugees, using extensive stocks of
food and tents, held in reserve against a possible repeat of mass
migration into the country from the Kurdish regions of northern Iraq.
"This is a humanitarian duty. The Albanians of Kosovo, the Turks, they
are our brothers and our relatives," Ecevit said.
The country has deep religious and historical ties to Kosovo's ethnic
Albanian majority, which is primarily Muslim.
Turkey already has taken in more than 5,000 Kosovo refugees, many of
them from the small Turkish minority of the Serbian province, who are
staying with relatives in Turkey.
Turkey has strongly backed the NATO airstrikes on Yugoslavia and has
contributed fighter jets to the force.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder also said that his country would
accept some refugees and would encourage other European Union countries
to do the same.
Other countries that have offered to take in refugees include Sweden,
Greece, Canada and Norway.
Disease hits Macedonian camps
Reports from the Macedonian border on Sunday indicated diarrhea and
meningitis were spreading among the refugees.
Tens of thousands huddled in the freezing rain with little more than
plastic sheeting as shelter and no toilets or running water,
contributing to the spread of disease.
International aid workers said conditions were deteriorating by the
hour.
An injured man is rushed away at a refugee camp in Blace, Macedonia
Macedonia has been especially hard hit by the flood of refugees that
have streamed into the tiny country by the tens of thousands during the
past few days. On Saturday, Macedonia moved to shut its borders to new
arrivals.
Interior Minister Pavle Trajanov said that Macedonia's borders were
technically still open, but only to refugees en route to other
countries.
Many 'trapped inside Kosovo'
NATO spokesman Jamie Shea told CNN on Sunday that many more Kosovo
Albanians who have been uprooted from their homes are trapped inside the
Serbian province without food or shelter.
"There are over a million still trapped inside Kosovo, living in the
woods and on mountains ... they have nothing," he said.
Shea also expressed concern about reports of Serb brutality within
Kosovo. "Clearly, there have been atrocities going on," he said.
Some of the refugees arriving in Albania have given detailed reports of
atrocities which they say are being carried out by Serbs on ethnic
Albanians in Kosovo.
The BBC received an amateur videotape Saturday of what the cameraman
said was evidence of mass killings by Serb forces in Kosovo.
Correspondent Christiane Amanpour contributed to this report.
