Wednesday April 21,1999

On Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, the NATO aggressors killed people and destroyed buildings of general interest for the citizens.

Hit with four missiles was the USCE civilian facility housing the offices of the Socialist Party of Serbia and over 20 large firms as well as the private radio and TV stations - KOSAVA, TV PINK and BK. After the bombing, Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic arrived at the scene and in his first reaction to the attack on this civilian facility he assessed this to be "proof more that the criminals were aiming to kill the citizens and that this pro-fascist movement must be halted. Marjanovic said that "they could not break our people who were defending their state and that he was sure we, all together, would manage to defend it". The fire has been extinguished and for the moment there is no information as to whether there were any people in the building at the moment of the attack.

In a criminal attack on a refugee settlement near Djakovica, killed were at least 10 and injured 16 refugees from Republika Srpska, who have been living in it since 1995, Tanjug has learned from police sources in Pristina. Rescue teams are at the scene of the tragedy and are trying to clear the ruins and bring out the casualties. There were no military facilities or targets in the vicinity of the refugee settlement which the enemy planes razed to the ground on Wednesday morning, Tanjug reports.

The targets over the aggressors' overnight attacks were also civilian facilities in Novi Sad, as well as villages in the broader region of Gornji Milanovac, Cacak, Uzice and Valjevo.

Early on Wednesday morning, two missiles hit the Zezeljev bridge, the last of the three bridges that connected Novi Sad with other places on the right bank of the Danube. Hit overnight was also a bridge on the Danube near Beska across which traffic on the international E-75 road has been cut off, while one missile fell not far from a church which is part of the Kovilj monastery complex, an important 13th century spiritual center. Enemy missiles also targeted the Novi Sad oil refinery and Radio and Television of Serbia's relay on Iriski Venac.

Right after midnight, according to Tanjug, the enemy aviation also targeted civilian facilities in the vicinity of Cacak and Kraljevo, where the Yugoslav Army's anti-aircraft defenses fiercely acted and downed at least two missiles.

In the course of the night, the aggressor planes on several occasions overflew Kragujevac and the broader region of Sumadija, once again pounding civilian facilities in Valjevo. Eight highly destructive missiles fell in the district housing the town's biggest company KRUSIK which was completely destroyed in three previous strikes. Fire broke out in the factory, and one person was injured.

On Wednesday morning, the NATO aviation also bombed the slopes of Mokra Gora and, according to incomplete information, hit was the radio and television relay on that mountain. Tanjug reports from Pristina that, in the course of the night, anti-aircraft defense units downed one pilotless aircraft in the Vucitrn municipality and one missile in the region of the village of Ajvalija.

At 1:55 p.m., NATO's criminal aircraft launched two missiles on a railway bridge across the Sava river in Ostruznica near Belgrade. Just before this, at 1:50 p.m., the aggressor fired three missiles in the wider region of the village of Jakovo near Ostruznica. At 2 p.m., fascist NATO warplanes discharged one missile above Obrenovac, which the Yugoslav Army anti-aircraft defence shot down.

***

Spokesman for the Foreign Ministry and assistant minister in the department, Nebojsa Vujovic, told a domestic and foreign press conference that in Tuesday night's strike on the USCE business centre in Belgrade, which, among other things, houses the facilities of a number of private radio and TV stations, there were also human casualties, but that their number was still unknown.

Despite the insane attacks, Yugoslavia is still prepared to seek a political solution for Kosovo-Metohija, but also to defend itself from the air, sea and on the ground, Vujovic emphasized. He reiterated that direct political talks between the state and the Kosmet Albanian political leaders was the only way towards a political settlement, stressing the necessity of an immediate halt to the mindless aggression. We are all targets, said Vujovic, pointing to the transparent intention of the NATO aggressor to silence Yugoslavia with the threat of hitting TV stations, because Yugoslavia was fighting against the domination of one power over the entire continent. The return of over 23,000 Albanians and Serbs to the region of Podujevo is the result of the Serbian and Yugoslav governments efforts, which have prepared a programme for the speedy return of all refugees together with the International Red Cross and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said Vujovic. Speaking about the propaganda campaign against our country, Vujovic said that means were not chosen in the war against Yugoslavia. This is also attested to by the case of the abduction of a Yugoslav soldier, kidnapped by members of the terrorist so-called KLA and handed over to US forces in Tirana, which is clear proof of coordination and cooperation of Brussels and Washington with Kosmet terrorists, although the aggressor's officials are trying to deny this. At Wednesday's briefing, Vujovic denied claims that the Yugoslav Army had allegedly entered the demilitarized zone on Prevlaka, branding them as pure fabrications.

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At its session on Wednesday, presided over by Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic, the Yugoslav government adopted concrete measures and decisions ensuring the financing of the Yugoslav Army within the framework of the set measures and the monetary policy goals, announced the federal information secretariat.

The federal government has concluded that, despite the aggression, economic life was proceeding in accordance with plans and regulations, adopting measures enabling the full use of the country's production potentials. The federal government also passed a Decree on enforcing the Law on collecting and presenting information on all the crimes against humanity and international law committed during the NATO aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, entrusting the Committee for Collecting Information with preparing legal documentation on this, the statement says.

***

The Yugoslav representative with the United Nations, Vladislav Jovanovic, has said in an interview to the Chinese HSINHUA news agency that the urgent cessation of the bombing represents a precondition for a political settlement of the situation in Kosovo-Metohija.

Jovanovic called on the international community to contribute to the halting of the NATO aggression in order for peace and security to be restored in the Balkans. Yugoslavia is open for a political solution that can be found in direct talks between the government and representatives of the Kosmet Albanians, Jovanovic, adding that international representatives "would be invited only as witnesses, and not as mediators", due to the hitherto bad experience that they wish to impose a solution. According to Jovanovic, a political solution must respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and to guarantee the equality of all citizens and national communities in the province.

***

America's goal is to control Europe and create a gigantic military base in the Balkans. Nato aggressors have already prepared a scenario to drag other Balkan states into this war, the chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Yugoslav Assembly's Chamber of Citizens, Ljubisa Ristic, said at a meeting with a delegation of Bulgarian parliamentarians headed by deputy head of the National Salvation Department and the leader of the Green Party, Aleksandar Karakachanov.

Ristic also cautioned Nato would seek Yugoslav neighbours to attack Yugoslavia. The two countries' parliamentary delegations called for the creation of a Balkans which would belong to the Balkan nations and opposition to those who wished to realize their interests by invading and abusing the nations' in the region compelling the Balkan states to renounce their sovereignty.

***

The Foreign Minister of the South African Republic Alfred Nzo saw in Pretoria Yugoslav ambassador Zoran Bingulac, the Yugoslav foreign ministry announced.

Minister Nzo said that the South African Republic was one of the first states in the world clearly to condemn the aggression against Yugoslavia and the bypassing of the UN which was the only authorized body for maintaining peace and security in the world. The South African Republic is in favour of putting an end to the bombing of sovereign Yugoslavia confident that the conflict could be resolved exclusively at the negotiating table and agreement between the interested parties. It is to this aim that the South African Republic will continue its engagement in the UN and the Non-aligned movement, a statement said.

***

The Bulgarian and Yugoslav "Green" parties on Wednesday spoke in favour of halting NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia, branding it an aggression against humanity in a joint statement.

The president of the Green Party of Bulgaria, Aleksandar Karakacanov, and the president o f the Yugoslav "Greens", Jelena Vukovic, warned in Wednesday's talks in Belgrade that, by bombing economic facilities in FRY, NATO caused an ecological catastrophe, form which the neighbouring countries could not be spared.

***

Russian President Boris Yeltsin has ordered the resolute realization of his policy line, directed towards a political settlement for the situation in the Balkans, said Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.

After his meeting with Boris Yeltsin, Ivanov informed reporters that Russia was in constant contact with its West European partners and Washington for the purpose of realizing this task. He did not rule out the possibility of Victor Chernomyrdin, who is winding up on Wednesday his short tour of countries belonging to the Commonwealth of Independent States, visiting Belgrade in Thursday. Yeltsin's special representative Chernomyrdin has set out the Commonwealth of Independent States' readiness to take part in a joint peace mission in the Balkans.

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Russia's President Boris Yeltsin has decided that the Russian delegation does not take part in a session of the joint Russia-Nato permanent committee since the western military alliance, by having launched an aggression against sovereign Yugoslavia, dealt a blow to world and European safety, the Russian foreign ministry announced on Wednesday.

"We do not wish to return to cold war times and we do not intend to confront with the West but we will not support self-will with our reticence either", a statement from the Russian foreign ministry said setting out Russia's readiness to continue actively to co-operate with Nato countries in the search for a peaceful settlement of the crisis in Yugoslavia. The Council's session is to be held in the framework of the jubilee summit of Nato due in Washington from April 23 to 25.

***

A summit of Nato scheduled for Friday to mark its fiftieth anniversary might be one of failure and the alliance's slow disintegration due to an increasingly great discord within it, the Spanish ABC daily newspaper.

France, Italy and Greece refused to give a go-ahead for the EU's imposition of an oil and petroleum products embargo against Yugoslavia, the newspaper writes. The governments in Rome and Athens believe this would harm the civilians in Yugoslavia whom the aggressors allegedly have nothing against and France seeks that the UN takes decision on this. ABC concluded that for the first time in recent days, the three countries' stand deterred the fulfillment of direct orders and dictate of the US in Nato and the EU.

***

Official Paris representatives were at their wits' end to explain the USCE business centre in New Belgrade was bombed on Tuesday night.

At a joint press conference at the ministry, French Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Anne Gazeau-Secret and Defence Minister Jean-Francois Bureau offered a variety of answers for the aggressor's attack, which did not meet with the journalists' approval. Gazeau-Secret said the bombing of the building represented "a general aim of breaking up the Serb military machinery". A number of times, journalists insisted on the fact that a civilian target was in question and that many private firms, radio and TV stations were located in the multi-storey building in New Belgrade. However, Bureau and Gazeau-Secret had no answer to this.

***

Labour Party member of British Parliament Alice Man who personally toured the bombing sites in Serbia, said in British Parliament that Nato's aggression had made the situation in Kosovo-Metohija worse and that with its mindless destruction it had endangered the lives of innocent people across Serbia and Yugoslavia.

The testimony of Alice Man, who is also the chairperson of the British committee for peace in the Balkans, and her trip to Serbia had shocked the British government and labour party members who support the aggression since the truth poses a threat to their aggressor policies.

***

The German government has postponed the decision on sending in 400 Bundeswehr troops to Albania, government spokesman Uwe-Carsten Heie said in Bonn.

The government's reluctance to reach a decision on the dispatchment of troops to Albania is linked to the opposition of the Greens, coalition partners of the Social-Democrats in the government, to any attempt at expanding the Bundewehr's mandate in the Balkans.

***

On Wednesday, with the adoption of a document of the coalition partners - the Social Democratic party and the People's Party of Austria, Austrian Parliament spoke in favour of a peaceful and political settlement of the crisis in Kosovo-Metohija.

In the paper, MPs called on the Austrian government to advocate all possibilities be used within the EU in offering help aimed at overcoming the problems in the entire region. In parliamentary debate on the situation in the Balkans, the head of the Green Party's MP Club, Madlen Petrovic, criticized the Austrian government's support to NATO's aggression on Yugoslavia, emphasizing that backing the aggression represented a breech of the Austrian Constitution, which proclaims the country's neutrality.

***

The Communist Parties of Albania, Yugoslavia, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, and the "Georgi Dimitrov" Communist party headquartered in Sofia condemned in a joint declaration NATO's aggression against FR of Yugoslavia and requested the cessation of killing and destruction, it was stated in Sofia.

***

The Greek Vradini newspaper alleges that in the course of 28-day-old military operations in Yugoslavia, Nato and the US have lost 81 soldiers. At issue are the airmen of planes and the crews of helicopters downed by Yugoslav air defences.

The newspaper said that the losses of foreign mercenaries - Mujahedin coming to the ranks of the terrorist KLA from Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Afghanistan, were not included in this number. The Greek newspaper claims that the western public is not informed about allied losses in Nato's operations against Yugoslavia in order to avoid alarm and unwanted sharp reactions and condemnation from the public opinion of the countries involved in the aggression.

***

The provisional executive council of Kosovo-Metohija on Wednesday delivered humanitarian aid in food and hygiene products to 30,000 Albanians who have returned to their villages in the vicinity of Podujevo and Istok over the last two days.

Tanjug has learnt from the provisional executive council that Albanian returnees can receive medical treatment in health care centers in Sajkovac near Podujevo and Dobrusa near Istok. The largest number of Albanians said they had fled for fear of Nato's criminal bombings and under pressure from terrorists, Tanjug reports.

***

Serbian Minister in charge of national minority rights Ivan Sedlak said in Vrsac on Tuesday that inter-ethnic relations in multi-ethnic environments in Yugoslavia were unchanged and that the aggressor could not harm them and weaken our defence.

He pointed to the resolve of all the citizens of Yugoslavia, regardless of their national affiliation, to defend their fatherland. This is testified to by the great response of conscripts and the citizens' regular carrying out of their working duties. The provincial secretary in charge of national minority rights Pavel Domonji said that cultural goods were being created in Vojvodina in 12 languages, that 35 religious communities were co-operating well and that they jointly condemned Nato's aggression against Yugoslavia.

***

On the occasion of April 22 - Planet Earth Day, the Serbian ministry of environmental protection on Wednesday called on all responsible people in the world to fulfill their obligation and try to halt NATO's destructive campaign against Yugoslavia, says Wednesday's proclamation of the Serbian ministry of environmental protection.

The appeal points to the bitterness over what has been happening, for a month now, in Yugoslavia, which NATO criminals are increasingly devastating and threatening with new tons of explosives, at the same time expressing concern over the future of the broader regions of the Balkans and Europe and large, as well as the whole planet. It is also warned about the dramatic and in history unprecedented facts that bombed are goals whose destruction can bring about an ecological catastrophe of broader proportions. Even though it is obviously familiar with the intentional bombing of the chemical industry and oil installations and warehouses in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the world ecological movement seems to be turning a blind eye to a possible ecological catastrophe with unforeseeable consequences, the statement says.

29th DAY OF THE AGGRESSION

This Wednesday marks the 29th day since the beginning of the US-led Nato aggression against sovereign Yugoslavia. These are terribly hard times for our country when people are getting killed in their homes, on their jobs, in trains, in the refugee convoys... The Nato bombs are razing civilian buildings in city centers throughout the country. In Belgrade, a popular multi-storey office building by the confluence of the rivers Sava and Danube, was destroyed last night. Also, many buildings were destroyed in Zemun, Pancevo, Novi Sad, Kraljevo, Valjevo, and Pristina which has been relentlessly bombed for days on end. The aggressor is razing chemical plants, regardless of the fact that they are causing an ecological catastrophe in Yugoslavia but also in neighbouring countries.

'We knew what we were doing' said Italian general Marini when a journalist asked him: 'Was the Alliance aware of the danger that might ensue from bombing the petro-chemical plants in Pancevo and Baric?' The Russian National Committee for Ecological Safety has warned Nato that its bombs are seriously endangering the whole region including the Adriatic coast. 'Razing petro-chemical complexes and chemical industry plants leads to the release of very hazardous noxious fumes and substances' said the Director of the Russian National Committee For Ecological Safety, Victor Flerov.

Madleine Albright has no intention of suspending her dark messages into the world. At a press conference in Washington she confirmed that the Kosmet crisis has been created intentionally with the aim of serving as a lesson to others and as a pre-view of what the world can expect in the 21st century under the domination of the American super-power. 'In Kosovo Nato has proved its future goals, Madeleine Albright said of the organization founded as a defensive alliance but which has failed to live up to its statute. Albright spoke of this strategy of bombs, destruction and annihilation which Nato is testing in Kosmet and Yugoslavia as a challenge that the Alliance has taken up and is devotedly carrying out.

The truth about the suffering of the Yugoslav people and the destruction of the entire country is slowly breaking through a media blockade imposed by the US and western countries' media. More and more educated people, statesmen, politicians, artists and authors are calling for the immediate cessation of the aggression against sovereign Yugoslavia. The public in the countries participating in the aggression and also in those which are, for the purpose of their future membership in the Alliance ready to put their air-space at Nato's disposal, is showing more and more solidarity with the people of Yugoslavia and resentment towards their own leaderships. One crucial question that all the analysts and people of good will are trying to answer is: 'How is it possible that Europe allows the US to carry out the aggression on European territory, against a sovereign country, which had endangered no one while trying to free itself from terrorism in the same way as all other countries which encounter this problem. Europe with its tradition, history, philosophy, humanitarian heritage, allows those precise values to be annulled by serving the interests of the US which by its financial resources strives to become the ruler of the world. We better leave this fact to history, however.

DINI ON WASHINGTON'S AGGRESSIVE POLICY, A REPORT BY VLADIMIR PERIC,RADIO YUGOSLAVIA'S CORRESPONDENT FROM ROME

In the Italian press on April 21, much attention is devoted to Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini's address to the foreign affairs and defence committees at the Italian Parliament on Tuesday. Although Dini's report was perfectly clear, it seems that in Italy nobody dares to assign the true meaning to his words. Obviously awaiting for the development of the situation in hours and days to come, Italian Foreign Minister, among other things, pointed out that the US could not be a world policeman, nor could it in the pay of countries which do not want to bear such responsibility.

Such a statement, undoubtedly, represents a clearest indication of the distancing of a NATO member country from Washington's aggressive policy. It is evident from Dini's statement that Italy believes the time available for finding a political solution to the Kosmet crisis is slowly running out, since, in two weeks, an unstoppable escalation of the conflict may occur. On that occasion, the Italian Prime Minister said addressing the MPs, and subsequently journalists, that a ground invasion of Yugoslavia has not been considered in the NATO councils and that there are no military plans in that respect. Apart from that, we should underline Dini's words that it was necessary to insist on a political resolution of the crisis, and that they should by no means be imposed.

At the same time, while foreign minister Dini was addressing the MPs, Italian prime minister D'Alema received the renowned Italian journalist Ingro Montanelli at the Chigi presidential palace. In the interview, reported by Corriere Della Sera on Wednesday, D'Alema pointed out that he believed and hoped a ground attack on Yugoslavia would not take place, since it would be an utterly dramatic option without a UN mandate. In this interview, D'Alema for the first time, obviously in consultation with foreign minister Dini, addressed a serious remark to US president Clinton that he failed to envisage the traps brought about by the military operations in Yugoslavia. According to the latest news broadcast on Wednesday on Channel One of the Italian state television RAI, the Tuesday evening's three-hour meeting of Foreign Ministers of Italy, France, Germany and Great Britain in the vicinity of Paris, revealed some important differences of opinions among these countries. RAI's correspondent from Paris reports that, despite scant information, it is almost certain that Italy, France and Germany did not accept Great Britain's proposal for a maritime blockade of Yugoslavia and it is becomming more certain that the three countries' proposals for the UN involvement in finding a political solution to the current situation are a sign of Europe taking a more resolute stand towards the aggressive policy of Washington.

Copyright (C.) Radio Yugoslavia