-Caveat Lector-
The United States says it regrets [killing 64 noncombatant Albanian
refugees] -- but blames Milosevic for 'making' us do it.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO admitted Thursday it mistakenly bombed a refugee
convoy in Kosovo but vowed to press ahead with its air war against
Yugoslavia.
The United States said it regretted the carnage but blamed Yugoslav Slobodan
Milosevic for driving the ethnic Albanian civilians from their homes in the
first place.
U.S Secretary of Defense William Cohen, promising to intensify aid raids,
accused Milosevic of cynically making propaganda out of the attack in which
Serb officials say 64 civilians were killed.
Cohen told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Milosevic's description
of the attack as an atrocity was ``one of the most grotesque statements I can
conceive of.''
Despite pictures of limbless civilians amid the wreckage of tractors that
flashed around the world, the alliance has pushed ahead with its air war
aimed at forcing Milosevic to bend to its demand for a Yugoslav troop
withdrawal from Kosovo.
Anti-aircraft fire resounded across Belgrade overnight and explosions shook
the Yugoslav capital in the biggest bombardment since air strikes started
three weeks ago.
At NATO's Brussels headquarters spokesman Jamie Shea said the alliance was
taking every possible precaution to avoid collateral damage but one tragic
accident would not weaken its resolve.
NATO played a tape recording of the F-16 pilot who carried out the attack, in
which the alliance says one of its bombs appeared to have mistakenly hit a
civilian vehicle.
He said he made two passes over a three-vehicle convoy of dark green,
two-and-a-half ton vehicles and fired a laser-guided bomb at the lead vehicle
on his third pass.
He said he had seen a villages burning on the main Prizren-Djakovica-Decani
highway and convoys of uprooted civilians in a bottleneck at the north
entrance to Prizren.
He said he believed the vehicles he attacked were Yugoslav military or police
conducting an ethnic cleansing operation.
Serbian official media said 64 people died when the convoy of about 100
tractors, cars and other vehicles carrying several thousand refugees was
attacked from the air on a highway near the south Kosovan town of Djakovica.
``We cannot confirm the figures given by Serb sources, but NATO regrets any
harm to innocent civilians, and reminds that the circumstances in which this
accident occurred are wholly the responsibility of President Milosevic and
his policies,'' the alliance said.
In London, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook accused Yugoslav leaders of
hypocrisy.
``I will not accept the criticism that is emanating from Belgrade,'' Cook
told a news conference. ``How dare they now produce crocodile tears for
people killed in the conflict for which they are responsible.''
Meanwhile European Union leaders backed a United Nations conditional peace
plan for Kosovo.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whose country holds the current
presidency of the 15-nation bloc, said Thursday Yugoslavia would have to
accept all the West's conditions for a Kosovo settlement before NATO
suspended bombing.
``This, and only in this order, would make it possible to suspend NATO's
military measures and open the way to a political solution,'' Schroeder told
parliament in Bonn.
Schroeder also said he was ready to meet Victor Chernomyrdin, appointed by
President Boris Yeltsin Wednesday as his Yugoslavia envoy. Kremlin aides said
the veteran former premier had a mandate to seek ``unorthodox'' solutions to
the Kosovo conflict.
Germany has been at the forefront of diplomatic efforts to bind Russia --
Belgrade's traditional ally -- into an international settlement to the Balkan
crisis.
Chernomyrdin welcomed a German peace plan for Kosovo, signaling a mellowing
in Moscow's tough stance against NATO.
``We have to back a peaceful way out of this crisis and what Germany is
proposing today -- to stop all military action for at least 24 hours and look
for compromises -- deserves attention,'' he told reporters in Moscow.
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic
screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters
and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
