Monday March 29, 1999

The Yugoslav President and supreme commander Slobodan Milosevic on Monday received the commander of the air-force and anti-aircraft defense, Lieutenant General Spasoje Smiljanic.

The reception was attended by Defense Minister Pavle Bulatovic, chief-of-staff Colonel General Dragoljub Ojdanic and the head of the supreme commander's military cabinet, Lieutenant Colonel Slavoljub Susic, announced the Supreme Commander's military cabinet. President Milosevic issued a Decree on the decoration of members of the Yugoslav Army's air-force and anti-aircraft defense who, in the first days of the aggression by NATO criminal forces against our country and our freedom-loving people, expressed great personal courage and devotion.

Speaking about the decorated pilots while announcing the Decree, President Milosevic said that they had taken off without hesitation to fight against a many times stronger enemy and inflicted considerable losses on him. Their courage and devotion represent an example of how the freedom of a nation and state are protected and defended. Engaged the most in this phase of our struggle are the air force and anti-aircraft defense. It is therefore logical that, in the combat activities of these branches of our armed forces, in their true light and worthy of the freedom-loving traditions of our nation, many heroes have expressed exceptional courage, devotion, great bravery and initiative in carrying out combat tasks.

Decorations for courage were presented to: senior captain - pilot Zoran Radosavljevic, major - pilot Nebojsa Nikolic, major - pilot Slobodan Peric, major - pilot Iljo Arizanov and second lieutenant of artillery-rocket units Darko Nikolic.

The great decoration - a Medal of Honour was presented to lieutenant of the anti-aircraft defense's artillery -rockets units, Sreto Malinovic.

The supreme commander has issued an order commending air force major general Nikola Grujin, the head of the corps headquarters of the air force's anti-aircraft defense. On the order of the commander of the air force and anti-aircraft defense, Lieutenant General Spasoje Smiljanic, the decorated members of the air force and anti-aircraft have also been promoted into higher ranks.

***

Russian Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev passed a decision on the severing of all contacts with NATO organizations and structures, stated the head of the Russian Defence Ministry's international cooperation chief administration, Colonel general Leonid Ivashov.

By President Boris Yeltsin's decision, the Russian chief military representative at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Victor Zavarzin, was summoned back to Moscow. Also cancelled have been the posts of the deputy commander-in-chief of NATO armed forces in Europe for the Russian brigade in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as all Russian military delegations in NATO member-countries and Russian soldiers being trained in these countries. The Russian defence minister cancelled all plans for meetings with NATO military ministers, Ivashov said, announcing a series of meetings at the level of defence ministers of the Russian Federation, with the Chinese defence minister and a number of other countries. I hope these measures will demonstrate the seriousness of the Russian Defence Ministry and help sober up the NATO strategist hot-heads, Ivashov said.

***

On orders from Russian President Boris Yeltsin, Russian Prime Minister Yevgeniy Primakov will leave for Belgrade on Tuesday morning, the press secretary of the Russian Prime Minister Tatyana Aristarhova announced on Monday.

The Russian Prime Minister's visit is aimed at seeking possible roads and taking further steps in order urgently to end the Nato bombing, the spokesman for the government, Igor Scegoljev said.

***

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has had a lengthy telephone conversation with Byelorussian President Aleksandar Lukasenko, at his call, announced the federal foreign ministry.

President Lukasenko stressed that Belarus resolutely condemned NATO's aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, as a sovereign and independent country, this directly endangering peace and security in Europe and the world, and undermining the foundations of the international legal order. President Lukasenko expressed to President Milosevic the solidarity and strong support of the people of Belarus to the friendly people of Yugoslavia, whose firmness, unity and courage is admired by all the freedom-loving people of Europe and the world. He stressed that the people of Yugoslavia, today faced with NATO aggression, by defending its right to freedom and dignity, is also defending the interests of the people of Europe, justice and law, as it has always done in its history. For this reason, President Lukasenko stressed, Yugoslavia and its leadership deserve the broadest possible support and assistance in its defense from NATO's aggression.

President Milosevic thanked for the expressions of solidarity and support of President Lukasenko and the friendly people of Belarus. He stressed that Yugoslavia, in which there exists the firm unity of the people and leadership, will resolutely and efficiently defend the country from the aggression by NATO criminals and confirm that a nation which is firmly defending its freedom and dignity cannot be conquered.

***

Representatives of the European Union and Russia will meet in the course of the following few days to discuss the crisis in Kosovo-Metohija, it was announced at the European Union's headquarters in Brussels.

According to Tanjug, a meeting with representatives of the European troika - Germany, Austria and Finland, will be held at Moscow's initiative. The news agency recalls that the newly elected European Union chairman, Romano Prodi recently spoke in favor of holding a special conference on Kosovo-Metohija, since, as he said, war can resolve nothing.

***

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has received a personal message from Chinese President Jiang Zemin, regarding the NATO aggression against our country, announced the Yugoslav foreign ministry.

Chinese President Jiang's message stresses that our country's people and army are waging a difficult and just struggle for the defense of the state sovereignty and territorial integrity from the US-led NATO flagrant attack and that the Chinese people express friendly solidarity and strong support to the people of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In his message, President Jiang condemns hegemonism, the policy of force and of gun-boats, which is starting to be increasingly used.

President Jiang informed President Milosevic that the People's Republic of China had categorically called for eliminating from international relations the cold-war approach, the policy of might and for NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia immediately to stop.

The People's Republic of China will continue with its resolute requests to the international community and with efforts to this aim, says the personal message addressed to the president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia by Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

***

The use of Nato force for imposing a peace deal to Yugoslavia is completely unacceptable, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Boris Tarasyuk said in Warsaw where he saw Polish Foreign Minister Bronislaw Geremek.

Geremek agreed with his Ukrainian counterpart one should not speak the language of cannon but diplomacy and added there was enough room for talks which should be resumed. Unlike Ukraine, Poland which was admitted to Nato, justified the bombing of Yugoslavia under the pretext that one should prevent the alleged humanitarian disaster.

***

At a session of the Yugoslav government chaired by Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic on Monday, the government reviewed a report on the supply of the market with basic foodstuffs under war-time conditions.

The Yugoslav government adopted special measures for immediate control of prices of the products and services of interest for the entire country. According to this decision, determined were the highest prices which had been formed and implemented on the market by March 23. The prices of products and services which were increased after this date will be reinstated in the level of March 23. For the purpose of the regular supply of the market and social security of all the citizens, the Yugoslav government adopted a decree on trade and supply under war-time conditions. This decree will be realized through concrete decision and instructions, by the republican governments with the aim of preserving the stability of the market and providing for a socially-acceptable distribution of material goods. The priority in determining the right to consumption will be given to the defence of the country and socially most vulnerable population. In view of the fact that a large number of citizens is addressing by a large number of citizens and humanitarian organizations from the world offering aid, the Yugoslav government entrusted the Yugoslav ministry for labour, health-care and social welfare with the task of co-ordinating the reception of international humanitarian aid.

***

'The FR Yugoslavia is a victim of the Nato and US aggression and the air-strikes represent the most horrible humanitarian catastrophe. The bombing must stop immediately', said the Federal Deputy Prime Minister, Vuk Draskovic said in an interview to the American CNN TV network.

'The keys to war and peace are in the pocket of the Nato aggressor, stressed Draskovic. A large number of people in Serbia and Kosovo were killed, said Draskovic. 'Among them there are many children' he said adding that on Saturday the Albanian terrorists killed 7 policemen, but that the international community did not react. At this moment there are 50 thousand Serb refugees from Kosovo-Metohija and that fact represents the colapse of all morality, Draskovic said. 'Nato can kill us all, but it cannot kill our love for our home-country, freedom, a multi-national and multi-cultural concept of Serbia', said Draskovic recalling that in Belgrade alone there live more than 100 thousand Albanians. Draskovic stressed that the main cause of all the tragedies in Kosovo-Metohija is an attempt at realizing the project of a 'greater Albania'. At present, Albanian terrorists are taking full advantage of the air-strikes to attack the Yugoslav Army and police.

***

The Yugoslav Army's air force and anti-aircraft defence has been prepared for the Nato aggression against FR Yugoslavia and has downed seven aircraft, three helicopters, thirty cruise missiles and three no-pilot aircraft, said the commander of this branch of the Yugoslav Army liutenant-colonel general Spasoje Smiljanic said.

General Smiljanic emphasized the downing of a F-117 fighter jet for the first time in the world. The US and its satellites cowardly attacked FR Yugoslavia. The only reason of the attack was the nation's readiness to defend its honour and dignity, general Smiljanic said. He underlined that the goal of the Nato aggression against FR Yugoslavia was not to reduce its military power but to spread towards the east. In the entire negotiating game for a peaceful solution to the Kosovo-Metohija issue, the US has had only one goal - to bring in Nato troops to Kosovo-Metohija. To this end they are ready to do everything even commit a genocide against the Serbia nation, the commander of the Yugoslav Army's air force and anti-aircraft defence said.

***

Channel S - the local TV station in Pale, has broadcast exclusive footage showing the wreckage of a US aggressor NATO plane which fell in the region of Stajna, 14 kilometers from Pale.

The footage shows the remains of the top of the plane, as well as parts whose insignia and serial numbers clearly show that at issue is an American NATO aggressor plane.

The downfall of this plane was also confirmed on Monday by members of the Republika Srpska's interior ministry in Pale.

There was a huge explosion during the fall of the aggressor aircraft, and it is assumed that one of the bombs in the plane exploded.

According to eyewitnesses, the plane was from returning from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and it most probably attempted to land at Sarajevo airport due to malfunction.

***

Yugoslav Army frontier-guards have prevented a large group of Albanian terrorists from crossing over from Albania to this country and smuggling an enormous quantity of weapons in the region of the Mitar Vojnovic lookout post near Djakovica.

The Yugoslav border guards disbanded the group killing 13 terrorists while others fled to Albanian territory.

The terrorists were dressed in Nato uniforms or carried German flags. Judging by the uniforms, armament and equipment, at issue was a special group of terrorists who, in the drafting of all Albanians of Kosmet in Albania under the command of Nato's aggressors, are to attack the border and compel the Yugoslav Army to react in defending the border.

***

The official spokesman of the UNHCR, Chris Yanovski, on Monday brought into question the truthfulness of the information presented by NATO centers for the purpose of justifying the aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Yanovski told the Itar Tass news agency that there were no sources of information that could confirm that the Yugoslav authorities were forcing the Kosmet Albanians to leave their homes and places of residence. The UNHCR spokesman also observed that certain reporters were setting out imprecise information about refugees, since they were using information obtained from NATO. However, news agency reports confirm that NATO's criminal bombings of Yugoslav cities are causing a humanitarian disaster. The Albanian terrorists are abusing these bombardments for their attacks.

***

In regard to allegations from Nato headquarters that advisor of Ibrahim Rugova, Fehmi Agani, the editor-in-chief of the Koha Dittore newspaper, Baton Hadjiu, and thee Kosmet Albanians had been liquidated, the authorities in Pristina announced there were no indications that these murders had been committed and that they had been reported to investigative bodies, the Pristina Media Center reports.

Obviously seeking a new excuse for their criminal activities, the spokesman for the alliance are attempting to divert the attention of reporters from the barbarian bombardment of Yugoslav cities.

***

Albanian terrorist gangs on Sunday evening took the advantage of a general attack on Yugoslav Army and Serbian Interior Ministry members in the region of the Kosovska Mitrovica district, Tanjug reports.

From the direction of the village of Cabar, the municipality of Zubin Potok, Albanian terrorists opened fire at Yugoslav Army members. One policeman has been reported wounded in an attack by terrorist gangs on members of the Serbian Interior Ministry in the village of Samodraz, the municipality of Vucitrn. All the attacks have been efficiently and timely responded to and the Albanian terrorist have been neutralized. Albanian terrorist gangs attacked security forces in the municipality of Pec, Klina and Decani on Sunday night. The police and army repelled the attacks.

***

Yugoslavia, faced with a barbarian and criminal Nato aggression, feels Russia's solidarity and expects that its moral and political support and aid will continue, Yugoslav ambassador in Moscow Borislav Milosevic told Russian state-run television.

We applaud Russia's commitment to the peaceful settlement of the conflict and the fact that Moscow severely condemns the aggression and calls for an urgent cessation of the onslaughts in Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav ambassador said. In reply to a question as to whether Russian and Yugoslav presidents Boris Yeltsin and Slobodan Milosevic would meet soon, the ambassador said he did not rule out such a possibility. The two presidents are in constant contact through messages they are exchanging. Their meetings have always been useful not only in bilateral co-operation but in the field of peace and progress on the world scene, the Yugoslav ambassador said.

***

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayi has condemned the attacks by the NATO aggressor against Yugoslavia, as a sovereign country and United Nations member country.

No country in the world has the right to kill the civilians, army and police of another country, said Vajpayi before a large number of citizens in Laknau, the capital of the Indian state of Utar Pradesh. India is sharply against any kind of foreign interference in the internal affairs of sovereign countries, stressed the Indian prime minister, adding that problems must be resolved by peaceful means.

***

Greek Prime Minister Kostas Simitis said in Athens on Monday that diplomacy must immediately renew attempts at finding a peaceful, political solution to the Kosovo-Metohija problem.

For this reason, Athens continues its initiative for the cessation of air-strikes against Yugoslavia, Simitis added. Greece has decided to send aid in sanitation and medical material to Yugoslavia, the Greek Prime Minister said.

***

Condemnation of NATO's aggression against FR of Yugoslavia keep coming from the world.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Luis Felipe Lampreia, besides condemning NATO's aggression against FRY, emphasized that unilateral implementation of force was unacceptable. The so far largest demonstrations of Jews of Yugoslav origin were held in front of the US embassy in Tel Aviv, with a request for the cessation of the aggression against Yugoslavia and continuation of negotiations on a peaceful settlement of the problems in Kosovo-Metohija. Official Israel expressed readiness to send humanitarian relief to Yugoslav citizens who have been jeopardized by the NATO aviation's strikes. Over ten thousand participants in the protest rally in Serb Sarajevo on Monday expressed their unreserved support to their brothers in Serbia and Yugoslavia. NATO was told that Kosovo-Metohija was Serbian, just as Washington was American, London British, and that this is the way things will remain. The Yugoslav embassy in Spain received, among the myriad letters, messages of support from the association of artists and intellectuals for peace in the Mediterranean, and from the former Spanish ambassador to Yugoslavia, Gonzales Puente Ohee. The letter sent by the Romanian Patriarchate to the Serbian Orthodox Church stresses that the Romanian Orthodox Church had called on all the Romanians to pray for the urgent cessation of the tragedy that befell Yugoslavia.

***

The Greek government has decided not to allow the use of the port of Thessaloniki for the transport of Turkish soldiers in Macedonia.

According to Greek Information Minister Dimitras Repas, at a meeting of the state council on the situation in Kosovo-Metohija, it was concluded that Turkey was taking part in the Nato air-raid campaign against Yugoslavia and that the government in Athens, as a member country of the alliance, would not approve military operations from its territory against sovereign Yugoslavia.

***

Around thousand of citizens of Kumanovo and the nearby villages blocked with their tractors and trucks a Nato military unit stationed at the foot of the nearby Mt.Zebrnjak with a request to the Nato alliance soldiers to immediately leave that area. After the several-hours long siege thousands of Nato soldiers and around 40 vehicles left Zebrnjak since there was fear that the enraged villagers and the citizens of Kumanovo might lynch them. 'Klinton's killers' was shouted after the Nato soldiers, mostly Frenchmen, as they, humiliated and afraid, were leaving the Zebrnjak district which entered the Serbian textbooks in 1912 as a site of the Kumanovo Battle.

***

On the occasion of Nato's aggression on Yugoslavia, his Holiness Patriarch Pavle of the Serbian Orthodox Church issued a statement saying:

'In this misfortune that has befallen our home-country and Nato's bombing, I call on the authorities of all the countries of the world to have this bombing stopped, and also to have a just solution for the present crisis found through negotiations.

I appeal to all military and civilian authorities in Serbia and Yugoslavia to do everything they can for peace to be established. We and the world are faced with the question: can there be a just war? The evangelical answer says: an aggressive war, a war of conquest is not just. A defensive war is.

In the minds of our people, Kosmet is not a region and land were the Serbian nation's sanctities are located. Kosovo is also the knowledge it has given us, that holy Prince Lazar and our ancestors went out to the Kosovo battle to defend their own land and not to conquer other lands, to defend their own religion and not to impose it on the others. Abel had the right and was obliged to defend himself from Cain.

I call on all the bishops in all the bishoprics in the country and abroad, the clergy and religious people, in this distress that has befallen us, to multiply their prayers to our God, the Lord of peace, for the suffering Serbian nation is exposed to persecution and maltreatment for the sake of justice. Let the ever-needed peace be restored both for us and for all other people of different nations, religions and opinions who live together with us, said Patriarch Pavle of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

***

Last weekend, NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia was the main topic of many world media. It is noticeable that there is an increasing number of those who most sharply condemn the aggression, among which are also some American media.

The NEW YORK TIMES, for example, in its Sunday issue writes that American ambassador Robert Gelbard called the so-called KLA a terrorist organization at the beginning of the crisis, but that America nevertheless became united with such a partner. The character of the so-called KLA, as well as NATO's bombing of Serbia on behalf of the terrorists speaks for itself about the morale and ambitions of those trying to solve the problem from the outside. The Kosovo Liberation Army is a mixture of the remains of a marxist-leninist concept taken over from neighboring Albania and the descendants of Albanian fascists from World War II. They are not led by any great ideology except for the dream of the creation of a so-called Greater Albania, which would stretch through Albania, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro. The so-called KLA's terrorists, as the NEW YORK TIMES also calls them, are not much tolerant towards other ethnic groups. They carry out abductions, executions, and burn down Serbian villages. American officials have tried to present Kosmet Albanians as innocent victims while, in fact, the truth is that their leaders are nationalists who did not renounce extremism, the NEW YORK TIMES writes.

Patrick Buchanan, who is a candidate for the next US presidential elections, contributed to the spreading of the truth about NATO's and US aggression against Yugoslavia and the disastrous policy of the Washington administration. In a show on CNN, he said that Yugoslavia did not attack anyone, did not attack NATO countries and stressed that what the Alliance was doing was not a "defensive but offensive action". The only role of the US in the Balkans should be a diplomatic one. "We can only offer our services of good will and nothing else" Buchanan categorically said.

The number of protest voiced against NATO's brutal aggression against Yugoslavia is increasing in Germany as well. In a Sunday show on the first channel of the German state-run television (ARD), it was said that NATO was flagrantly violating the international law and the UN Charter. This insane action of the Alliance has only aggravated the situation in Kosovo-Metohija and hindered the search for a permanent solution of the crisis. German Foreign Minister Joshka Fischer agreed with the TV host that the Rambouillet paper was absolutely worthless now, and that new initiatives were necessary.

According to a report by the Slovak state-run agency CTK, all 65 000 Slovaks living in Yugoslavia are against NATO's aggression. The Slovaks in Yugoslavia are with Milosevic. If so far there has been one Milosevic in Yugoslavia, now there are more than 10 million Milosevics, the Slovak state-run agency CTK said.

***

It is the sixth day of Nato killers' aggression against FR Yugoslavia. The aggressor's army is launching perfidious, cowardly and brutal air-strikes. The most up-to-date war machinery of big world powers has been generated against the freedom-loving and courageous nation of Serbia and Montenegro which was the first to raise their voice against fascism in the occupied Europe fifty-eight years ago.

Today again, for the sake of insane imperialist ideas in the region of Yugoslavia, women, children and the elderly are being killed. Also killed and crippled are innocent people and destroyed are material and spiritual goods. Targeted are civilian facilities in towns and villages. The missiles which fell on country yards, tens of kilometers far from any military facility in the village of Besnik in northern Montenegro killed innocent civilians, women and children. Many people near Danilovgrad living far from the barracks bombed on several occasions, sustained serious injuries. A number of the locals of the villages in the vicinity of the capital of Montenegro, Podgorica, and throughout Serbia had the same fate. Being used are cassette-bombs filled with a number of mines with time-set ignition banned in all sorts of operations, including military. These bombs are falling on Yugoslavia killing civilians.

The barbarity of Nato is confirmed hour after hour. A civilian hospital in Nis was destroyed as well as more than thirty schools throughout the country. Students and pupils in Nis, Prokuplje, Leskovac and several towns in Kosovo-Metohija and across the country remained without schools, pupils' and students' homes and faculties. The target of the criminal bombing campaign were also residential facilities. In the vicinity of Kraljevo and Arandjelovac, tens of privately-owned houses were destroyed or damaged. Bombs also fell on the memorial in Kragujevac, the site where German fascists killed more than seven thousand people including three hundred pupils. In this city today and all other cities in the country, several-month old infants, young children, the sick and elderly spend days and nights in shelters and cellars to protect themselves from Nato bombs. All of them do not go out of shelters since Nato aircraft discharge their deadly loads every hour or two.

One of the latest lies of masters of deceit of Washington, London, Bonn and Paris is that Nato is bombing only military targets while bombs are falling every place where civilians live and work. Not even churches and monasteries have been spared. Also exposed to tomahawk assaults is the 6-centuries-old monastery of Gracanica in Kosovo-Metohija. This gem of Serbian spirituality in Kosovo-Metohija which is under UNESCO's protection has also been toured by Richard Holbrooke most probably to give co-ordinates for its destruction.

The responsibility for the suffering and killing of innocent civilians, for blood and tears in the heart of Europe on the threshold of the 21st century, is borne by the US and Nato's leadership. And all this in order to provide for the US to come to these regions, install its military bases and set borders and arrange relations in this part of the world. To this end they used Kosovo Albanians allegedly defending them from a humanitarian disaster while they are targeting ethnically pure Albanian villages. Thereby, they have demonstrated they are not interested in the fate of the Albanians of Kosovo-Metohija as they wish to present to the public in their own countries and justify the unheard-of massacres against Serbian civilians.

Copyright (C.) Radio Jugoslavija