Monday April 19, 1999

The president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and supreme commander of the Yugoslav armed forces, Slobodan Milosevic, has issued a decree on the decoration of officers serving with the Yugoslav Army's Third Army District, announced the supreme commander's military cabinet on Monday. For their expressed courage, resoluteness, devotion, disciplined and responsible carrying out of their combat tasks, decorated with the Medal of Courage have been Colonel Mihajlo Gregar, Colonel Sinisa Trajkovic, Lieutenant Colonel Ljubinko Djurkovic, Major Dragutin Dimcevski, Senior Captain Ivica Stankovic, Captain Bratislav Mihajlovic, Captain Dejan Djokic and Sergeant Milovan Vidic.

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Russia’s President Boris Yeltsin discussed with US President Bill Clinton over the phone the Kosmet issue, the press-service of the Russian head of state announced.

In a 50-minute long telephone conversation, Yeltsin insisted on the need for urgently putting an end to the use of force against the sovereign Yugoslavia, a statement said. On Monday morning, the Russian president told reporters he would seek from President Clinton an immediate end to the bombing and return to political dialogue. Moscow is prepared to mediate between Belgrade and Washington, Yeltsin said. Let us halt the bombing and then sit at the negotiating table to resolve the problem, the Russian president said.

***

The attempt to resolve the situation in the Balkans with force has no prospects, and Russia will intensify its talks with both the Yugoslav side and the NATO leadership in order to find a peaceful resolution of the crisis, said the Russian president's special representative for resolving the Yugoslav crisis, Victor Chernomyrdin.

After Monday's meeting at President Boris Yeltsin's cabinet at the Kremlin, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told the press that the participants in the meeting had received a series of instructions for a peaceful resolution of the crisis concerning Yugoslavia. Moscow intends to work with everyone interested in a political settlement. The existence of will for a political solution within in NATO would be of great importance. When such a logic prevails, we will be able to reach agreement that would restore peace in Europe, said Ivanov.

***

In a telephone conversation with Bill Clinton, the chairman of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, expressed great concern about the war in FR of Yugoslavia, pointing to the numerous dangers stemming from the increasingly dramatic situation, ANSA news agency reports.

On assuming the office of European Commission chairman, Prodi promptly expressed the necessity of urgently putting a halt on the bombardment of FR of Yugoslavia and of launching a political and diplomatic initiative, which would be followed by a Balkan peace conference.

***

Since Monday morning, the NATO criminal aviation has incessantly been overflying Kosovo-Metohija. The relay on Mokra Gora, near Pristina was targeted with a number of missiles. The environs of Pristina and Slatina airport were pounded in two waves, strikes were also aimed at the region of Goles in the Lipljan municipality, and the broader region of Pec was also targeted.

Overnight targets included the Pristina excursion place in the area of the village of Sofajlija, the Belacevac coal mine, while four missiles fell on the village of Bair near Kosovska Mitrovica. The NATO aviation launched several missiles on Podujevo, but due to activities by the Yugoslav Army's anti-aircraft defense, the enemy planes were compelled to withdraw in the direction of Albania. For the ninth time since the beginning of the aggression against Yugoslavia, NATO planes pounded civilian facilities in the Kursumlija municipality. Nine missiles targeted the bridge on the major route from Kursumlija to Pristina in the village of Visoka.

Several enemy aviation missiles pounded the region of the Bogutovacka Banja spa near Kraljevo, while Paracin was targeted twice. The missiles fell in the immediate vicinity of the 7th July youth settlement accommodating refugees from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Overnight, four missiles also targeted the district of Baric in the Obrenovac municipality, near Belgrade.

Three strong detonations were heard in Sremska Mitrovica, while targeted in Backa Palanka was the 25th May bridge on the Danube, connecting the town of Ilok with Srem. The left side of the bridge was severely damaged.

Early on Monday morning, NATO planes hit the building of the Vojvodina Executive Council in the very center of Novi Sad. The material damage is considerable, but no one was hurt. The enemy also acted in the broader region of Subotica, near Lake Palic.

***

Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic said in Novi Sad on Monday that the savagery and destruction carried out by NATO in the aggression against our country had not been recorded in the history of humankind.

Even what the fascists did in WW II "is minor in comparison with what the NATO neo-fascists and neo-colonialists are doing", Marjanovic emphasized.

"It is an unheard of crime against a country which is only defending its people, its freedom, independence and integrity. The countries which carried out the aggression have nearly 600 million inhabitants, Despite this, we have, although there are only 10 million of us, courageously opposed them, so that our cities, like Belgrade or Novi Sad, have become world symbols of resistance to aggression", the Serbian prime minister stressed.

***

Yugoslav Foreign Minister Zivadin Jovanovic received on Monday the US Republican Congressman Jim Saxton.

Saxton came to a visit to Yugoslavia in order to acquaint himself with the situation and the consequences of NATO's aggression against FR of Yugoslavia, says a statement from the federal foreign ministry.

***

One warplane and one unmanned aircraft, which were hit above Kosmet crashed down in western Macedonia near the Yugoslav border.

According to the accounts of the inhabitants of the village of Donje Jelovce, they clearly saw the plane and the smoke that encompassed it, after which it disappeared on Mt. Sar. The inhabitants of Jugunovac near Tetovo claim an unmanned aircraft landed in the area of their village. The peasants, cameramen of the local TV station and NATO units headed towards the sites of the plane crashes. The Danish F-16 warplane taking part in the NATO airstrikes on FR of Yugoslavia had to perform an emergency landing on Sarajevo airport. The Defence Ministry in Copenhagen on Monday officially stated that the plane had landed on Sunday evening due to technical problems not caused by combat operations.

***

The association of the Aegean Macedonians of Bitola on Monday issued a declaration emphasizing no one must allow the deployment of Nato ground forces from Macedonia to Yugoslavia.

If the Macedonian authorities let this happen, the association said its members would prevent such form of aggression with their bodies and said they hoped they would be joined by other citizens of Macedonia who respected the freedom and courage of the Serbian nation. The declaration also said the US intention was very clear - to rule Europe backed by European countries' troops.

***

World-acclaimed ecologist Franz Weber has called on Bill Clinton to put a halt to the bombing and war that set Europe ablaze.

In an open letter, Weber called on Clinton that on behalf of the civilized Europe and in his own name, immediately end the war against Yugoslavia. He cautioned that if this did not take place, millions of Europeans would accuse the US of igniting and waging the war in order not to achieve a humanitarian objective but to consume enormous quantities of war materiel. Thereby, the US backs its military industry which ensures the economic boom of that country to a great extent.

***

Serbian Deputy Assembly Speaker Vladimir Stambuk has had talks with member of the Portuguese Communist Party's Politburo, Albino Nunes, and member of the Portuguese parliament, Antonio Felipe, announced the republican parliament's information service.

Members of the Portuguese delegation pointed out that their visit represented an expression of solidarity with and support to the people of Yugoslavia in its struggle against the barbarian act of the United States and NATO. The peace-loving world must stand up in defense against this brutal aggression, said the guests from Portugal, requesting an urgent cessation of the bombardment. Deputy Assembly Speaker Stambuk pointed out that Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had done everything to defend peace and the security of the citizens, as well as the country's territorial integrity and its political and economic sovereignty. For this reason, according to Stambuk, the peace-loving world must condemn NATO's aggression without delay, stop the crimes and the destruction being inflicted on our country day after day, the statement says.

***

Yugoslav Information Minister Milan Komnenic on Monday saw representatives of the Italian national Solidarity Association which organized the recent anti-Nato rally in Rome.

Minister Komnenic thanked the guests for their support at this difficult moment and pointed to the tragic consequences of Nato’s aggression - more than 500 dead, material damage amounting to more than 100 billion US dollars, destroyed bridges, factories, schools and a number of civilian facilities. Is the bombing of petrochemical plant an overture for an ecollogical catastrophe in Yugoslavia and the Balkans and is Nato, by pounding Yugoslavia by radio-active projectiles, intent on turning this country into a nuclear dump, Komnenic inquired.

***

French people, you are taking part in a war which can produce no positive results. The Serbian nation, your ally and friend, expects France to retrieve its role it played in the history of Europe and the world, Serbian writer Dobrica Cosic said in an open letter to the French people.

The letter published by Monday's Le Figaro newspaper severely condemns Nato's aggression against the Serbs who decided to oppose it completely aware of the fact that never in history has such an unequal clash been witnessed. The entire nation is united in resisting the US-European aggression, Cosic said and added at issue was not part of our national territory - Kosovo-Metohija only but our identity and our existence. He particularly warned of the danger of US imperialism looming over Europe and Russia and pointed to the fact that Serbia and Montenegro were its first victims. Cosic underscored that the Kosovo-Metohija issue could not have been solved by a Contact Group document or dictate from Rambouillet which was an overture for the war and that it was less feasible to solve it by war. Cosic ended his letter with a call for an urgent end to the war against Yugoslavia.

***

Over 20,000 Kosmet Albanians from villages of the Podujevo region returned to their homes on Monday from refuge they had taken due to NATO bombing and manipulation they were subjected to by terrorists on order from the aggressor, Tanjug learned from the Provisional Executive Council of Kosovo-Metohija.

At the invitation of the authorities, Albanians of the village of Sajkovac and the neighbouring villages, came in a column via the road from Pristina to Podujevo to their homes, because they were guaranteed complete safety. Members of the Provisional Executive Council, Faik Jashari and Selim Gudyufi, members of the Albanian national community, immediately visited the returnees and took them necessary humanitarian relief.

***

The criminal NATO missiles have so far destroyed or damaged 80% of the 600 collective centres in the territory of Serbia, thus directly endangering the lives of over 80,000 refugees, Serbian Commissioner for Refugees Bratislava Morina told Tanjug on Monday.

According to her, the July 7 refugee settlement in Paracin, which was damaged in Sunday night's bombing, houses 80 refugees from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, among whom there is a large number of children and the elderly. The Commission for refugees is working on relocating them to a safer place. Morina stressed that the refugees housed in Kosovo-Metohija, Krnjaca and Paracin were the most afflicted ones.

***

Representatives of the largest religious communities which have been living and cooperating in the territory of FR of Yugoslavia for centuries met at the Serbian Patriarchate on Monday and signed a joint peace appeal to the political and military representatives of NATO, with a request to stop the bombardment and seek a way out of the crisis through peaceful negotiation.

The appeal signed by Serbian Patriarch Pavle, Catholic Archbishop France Perko, Belgrade Mufti Hamdija Jusufspahic and Yugoslavia's Rabbi Isak Asiel, recalls the large number of innocent victims among Serbs, Albanians and other ethnic communities, as well as the vast material devastation which threatens to hamper further life.

***

The Patriarch of Moscow and all of Russia Aleksey II who is to pay a visit to the Serbian Orthodox Church and nation, will serve holy bishops’ liturgy in front of the Belgrade St Sava Church on Tuesday.

Bishop of Backa Irinej told a press conference at the Serbian patriarchate that the Russian Patriarch, Serbian Patriarch and other Serbian Orthodox Church dignatories would pray for peace and express their solidarity with the Serbian Orthodox nation and all nations in FR Yugoslavia sharing this predicament caused by the western alliance’s attacks. According to schedule, Patriarch Aleksey is due to meet top Yugoslav and Serbian officials. He saw Yugoslav ambassador to Moscow Borislav Milosevic who informed him about the situation in Yugoslavia caused by Nato’s aggression against Yugoslavia.

***

At numerous rallies and concerts, the citizens of Yugoslavia continue voicing their embitterness over the criminal bombing of our country by NATO, the desire for the problems to be resolved by peaceful means and their firm determination to defend the fatherland from the aggressor.

At the large protest concerts entitled SONG GAVE US STRENGTH, the citizens of Belgrade still convey the message "We will beat the aggressor with song". Among the rallied at Republic Square present was also French philosopher Daniel Schiffer. Citizens' rallies were also held in Pljevle, Bor, Leskovac, Pirot and Smederevska Palanka.

***

The United State of America and their allies are humankind's worst enemies. In the name of imperialism, they are leading us into death and are destroying our nations. We are convinced that no one can say he wants peace by sending bombers on innocent people, Argentine mothers, whose sons went missing in the reign of the military junta in Argentina said in Belgrade on Monday.

We can no longer listen to US spokespersons saying that the slaughter of people, women and children was a mistake. As mothers who have suffered the pain of the loss of our children due to the ambitions of power-wielders, we have personally come to Yugoslavia to express our solidarity. We are here to convey to the world what we have seen: "Refugee camps and demolished schools. We will convey our message to the world, because we believe that missiles and bombs are no way to build peace", said the mothers from Argentina.

27th DAY OF NATO'S AGGRESSION

Today is the 27th day of the barbaric aggression against a sovereign country by US-led NATO firces. There has not been a single day, or a single night, without bombs and missiles killing civilians, destroying residential areas, bridges, factories, schools and kindergartens. On Sunday, shrapnels from a cluster bomb, a weapon banned by international conventions because of their inhumanity, found and killed a three-year-old girl Milica Rakic in her apartment, on the second floor in the Belgrade suburb of Batajnica.

Normal mind is boggled at the thought of the brutality and indifference of the power-wielders who are destroying a country and killing its people , just because they did not accept to become guinea pigs of a new philosophy of violence in this world lacking a balance of powers. For the first time since World War II, a sovereign county has been attacked in Europe, whose resoluteness to defend itself confuses the aggressors, nevertheless prepared to intensify their murderous terror day by day. Since the beginning of the aggression, 20 bridges in Yugoslavia have been destroyed. The NATO warlords keep targeting these symbols of human ties and equality.

"Among everything that a man builds and erects, by his life instinct, in my opinion there is nothing better and more precious than bridges" wrote Yugoslav Nobel prize winner, writer Ivo Andric. "Because, they belong to everyone, and are equal to all, they are useful, always well thought out and constructed at places where the largest number of human needs meet, they are more enduring than other buildings, and serve nothing which is secret or mean."

The Yugoslavs, close to such Andric-like spirit, every night defend their bridges with their bodies as a human shield. Footages of this are screened throughout the world, which is getting less indifferent and in which voices of reason are getting more powerful.

The aggressors are helpless in the face of the complete unity of the people in Yugoslavia, many international analysts report. Russia has resolutely raised its voice in favor of the application of international law. Wise people call on the UN to regain its credibility. Hopes and anxieties at the threshold of the 21st century are rising. "Drop us candies, not bombs" is the Yugoslav children's message. Many artists from various countries are on their side. Canadian painter Alan McCay started destroying his works in front of the CBC state television's cameras as a sign of protest against the Canadian pilots' involvement in bombing raids on Yugoslavia. This artist has announced that he would destroy one of his works every day until, as he put it, the Canadian Army regains its mental health.

The truth about the suffering of the Yugoslavs is slowly starting to break through the media blockade of the United States and other aggressor countries. The US has banned broadcasting of video- clips made from a plane which last week bombed a convoy of Albanian refugees returning to their homes, and killed around 70 women, children and men. The news about NATO's planes bombing the international train Belgrade-Thessaloniki in the Grdelica gorge and killing nearly a hundred passengers also broke through with difficulty. In the meantime, each sign of support from the world eases the pain of the Yugoslavs who hope that humane notions will gain victory. They are determined to persevere in the defense of their freedom, in the defense of their right to life.

REACTIONS OF THE POLITICAL PARTIES

On Monday, again Serbian political parties have been making statements concerning the criminal Nato aggression on FR Yugoslavia.

The Secretary General of the Socialist Party of Serbia, Gorica Gajevic, has said that the world is caught in the midst of a great shift of world powers, and also that there is a great power with hegemonistic aims which strives for a military, political, and economic reorganization of the world. To attain its aims this world power is ready to apply extremely brutal measures. 'We are a unique bulwark and every citizen of this country is resolute to defend our motherland. This unity will ensure not only success in defending our country, but also development of a new quality within ourselves which will certainly enable us, once this senseless aggression is over, to quickly reconstruct Yugoslavia and restore its economy to health', Gajevic said. She warned that the bombs dropped on our country are at the same time an attack on the whole of Europe, international relations and the UN Charter. It is clear now that throughout the world there are many freedom-loving countries and that this protest which is constantly spreading will unite the countries and nations wishing to preserve civilisational values, Gajevic stressed.

This Monday marks the 27th day since the beginning of the aggression which is taking human lives, buildings, bridges will go down in history as our hour of glory. At the same time it is creating a foundation of a world that is more just than the present one, says a statement from The Yugoslav Left's Directorate. Our country will be the spiritual capital of this world built on the basis of resistance to the destructive hegemony and immorality. Yugoslavia is not only a symbol but also a living proof of a country's resistance and strength. However, Yugoslavia is also a place where the headlong plunge of European morality became clearly visible. On the threshold of the 21st century Europe publicly admitted that up till now, it has lied about its honesty, while it dishonestly loved everybody who happened to pass by. Children of those dishonest liaisons were colonialism, fascism, imperialism. The statement of the Yugoslav Left Party also says that Yugoslavia will continue its resistance and fight for the sole reason that it is defending itself. We wish luck to those European countries which manage to squeeze in besides Yugoslavia and save themselves. Maybe they, themselves, would in the new world be friends of progressive and proud countries, and perhaps defend this new world built on the basis of our struggle. This new world would have to guarantee one thing that Europe now cannot either keep or guarantee: peace, freedom and equalities to all people', says the statement of the Yugoslav Left.

The Serbian Radical Party pointed to the fact that the daily killing of citizens and razing of civilian facilities throughout Yugoslavia clearly show the extent of powerlessness and hopelessness in which currently the most powerful war machine found itself. Cowards as they are, they are trying to take away the freedom and territory of another nation from above, but the fierce and resolute resistance on the part of our Army and police prevented the realization of their leaders fascist ideas. The statement also says that the Nato soldiers desert their posts in great numbers aware of the fact that they are risking their lives in an attempt to satisfy the senseless American conquering aims directed towards Serbia and Yugoslavia.

The leadership of the Serbian Renewal Movement has expressed their gratitude to and admiration for the Yugoslav Army and people for their heroism and hardships they have suffered so far in the defence of FR Yugoslavia against the Nato aggression. We fight using the weapon which the aggressor does not have: power that comes from the knowledge that we are an innocent victim, that we must not lose Kosovo and our homeland, and that the power of righteousness is stronger than the power of force, says a statement from the Serbian Renewal Movement.

The president of the Democratic Party of Serbia Vojislav Kostunica has assessed that the bombardment of civilians and civilian facilities in Serbia and Yugoslavia on the part of Nato is the result of Nato's defeat. Ultimatums that they send us are aimed at preserving Nato's already shattered credibility on the political and military plane, Kostunica stressed and added that the countries taking part in the aggression are aware of this politically and legally ununjustified action against our country as well as of the historic responsibility that they have taken upon themselves.

REACTIONS FROM ITALY

BY RADIO YUGOSLAVIA'S CORRESPONDENT FROM ROME

For the third time since the beginning of NATO's barbaric aggression against our country, a mass anti-war protest rally was held in Rome on Saturday. Despite heavy rain and high wind, a large procession of 30,000 people, consisting mostly of workers and students, demonstrated for several hours in the streets of the Italian capital. Among numerous banners, we would like to single out those at the head of the column saying: "We do not give, not only a single life, but a single coin for NATO's war". Right behind this banner, the protesters carried a large effigy representing Prime Minister D'Alema, with a helmet on his head and a missile in his hand. Numerous shirts were seen with the TARGET sign on them, which has thus become a symbol of resistance to aggression throughout the world, and the protesters also carried several Yugoslav flags.

On the same day, a mass protest rally was held in front of the already notorious air-base in Aviano, in the north of Italy, in which nearly 10,000 people took part, although weather conditions were also very bad. The demonstrations ended in a rally which was, among other people, also addressed by a worker from Verona, Giannina Del Bosco. She said, applauded by the present with great approval, that if Clinton wanted to bomb the Serbian television building, she proposed that it was much better to bomb their own - Italian television. With great pleasure, we would like to mention the engagement of the Nobel Prize winner Dario Foa' in Milan, and especially of the Italian president Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, who, at the end of last week, once again sent an appeal for a just peace in Kosmet.

We can say that the war-mongering part of the Italian press manages to minimize such statements of its own president, but it can obviously not prevent them from reaching the peace-loving Italian people, which is shown by the above mentioned rallies.

On the occasion of the increasingly frequent manipulations in the western press about NATO's preparing a ground invasion of Yugoslavia, Italian Prime Minister D'Alema stressed at his regular briefing in Rome that NATO did not plan such a move. Whether at issue is a tactic or a wish - remains to be seen. On the occasion of such speculations about a ground invasion, one of the leading European military experts, Italian Ezio Signore pointed out that ground action against FR Yugoslavia would be the hugest possible mistake for which NATO would pay dearly. He has, otherwise, condemned the air strikes so far, calling them illegal from the point of view of international law, stressing that the so-called humanitarian motive is usually a formula for disintegrating FR Yugoslavia. Today's Corriere DellaSera, carrying an article from the New York Times, completely confirms Signori's opinion, although he probably did not want it. Namely, the details of the talks between Clinton and D'Alema, published on March 5, in Washington, demonstrate best how much the US is interested in the humanitarian problems of the Kosmet Albanians and their fate in general. After Italian Prime Minister's objection that the bombardment would produce a large number of Albanian refugees and question what was to be done in that case, Clinton turned to his advisor Berger, who simply replied: " We will keep bombing."

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