Tuesday April 20,1999

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic received at the White Court on Tuesday His Holiness, Patriarch of Moscow and all of Russia, Alexy II. The reception was also attended by His Holiness, Patriarch Pavle of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

After the reception, President Milosevic said the following: "I am very pleased to be able to greet His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, whose visit is appreciated by our entire nation as an expression of great solidarity of the Russian nation, the Russian Church and him personally in these difficult days when our nation is fighting for the freedom and independence of its country. We have known Patriarch Alexy for a long time now. We know he is a great patriot. He demonstrates this in every respect. His efforts to fight for peace must undoubtedly accomplish results and we believe that he and his endeavours will contribute to establishing peace as soon as possible and that Russia will also contribute to the establishment of peace and to putting an end to this aggression which is not based on any moral, legal or any human principle. We have discussed many issues. In our talks so far, as well as here, today, I can says that we agree very well on all these issues. We have also spoken about the issue of the union of Russia, Belarus and Yugoslavia. I am very pleased I was able once again to hear from Patriarch Alexy what I knew already - that he personally, the Russian Church and the Russian people wholeheartedly support the soon establishment of a union between Yugoslavia, Russia and Belarus. We estimate that the union will be of great importance to all the three states, to all the nations living in them, to peace, stability, progress, development and in all other aspects. I wish to thank His Holiness Patriarch Alexy for his decision to visit us in these hard times and I wish once again to wish him a welcome to Belgrade, to Yugoslavia. I also wish to thank His Holiness, Serbian Patriarch Pavle for his contribution and all he is doing in order to reach peace in our country", said President Milosevic.

The Russian Patriarch thanked President Milosevic for his warm words of welcome and expressed satisfaction with the huge response to the service he held together with Patriarch Pavle in front of the St. Sava Temple in Belgrade. Peace-loving people are dying in Yugoslavia, Alexy II said, speaking in favour of doing everything to end the escalation of the conflict and to prevent its spreading. We want to see the gradual return of refugees to their hearths, to end all the clashes in order for the citizens of Kosovo-Metohija to live in peace and understanding. The Russian Patriarch expressed regret that Orthodox holy places are the target of the aggressor in Kosovo-Metohija, from where people are taking flight for fear of NATO military operations and of the so-called KLA which is stepping up its weaponry. The Russian Patriarch expressed hope that the Lord would bless this country with peace and unity and finally bring to senses and prevent all those who have come down upon Yugoslavia nations and their country. "We have visited Belgrade to show that our Serbian brethren are not alone in this difficult struggle", said Alexy II after talks with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

***

His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and all of Russia, Alexyi II has told the pro-Vatican daily AVENIRE that NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia represents violence which is detrimental to the aggressor as well, since innocent civilians cannot be killed in order for others to be saved.

The Catholic Christians who are taking part in the war against Yugoslavia are making a big mistake before God, at the same time violating international law as well. A group of states, without obtaining any legitimacy from the United Nations, has given itself the right to decide what is good and what is not, said the Russian patriarch, adding that violence could not bring about peace.

***

NATO aggressor planes on Tuesday bombed civilian facilities in downtown Bujanovac, while Pristina was targeted three times. One civilian was killed in the Pristina excursion place of Grmija, and it is feared that there are more casualties under the ruins of the civilian facilities and in the town's vicinity. A number of missiles on Tuesday pounded the area of the Belacevac coal mine, the village of Lukare, and the Slatina civilian airport.

Early on Tuesday morning, targeted was the bridge in the vicinity of Donja Bistrica, near Nova Varos, which is not usable for civilian traffic, and four workers of the Bistrica hydro-electric power plant were injured.

In the repeated bombing of Nis, one civilian was killed, while 11 citizens were severely or slightly wounded. It is feared that there are more casualties under the ruins of about a dozen houses, while just as many have been damaged. Several missiles hit the Nis tobacco factory which is completely incapacitated for production and a construction material storage where a fire, which was soon extinguished, had broken out. Facilities of the construction and architectural, engineering and electrical engineering faculties are no longer usable for regular classes. In the seven bombings of Nis, the complex of technical faculties were four times the most direct targets of NATO criminals. The technical faculties' laboratory is a ruin, said the dean of the Electrical Engineering Faculty, Professor Miodrag Arsic. Considerable damage was also inflicted on the secondary technical schools in the vicinity, student facilities, as well as a memorial complex.

Housing facilities in Kursumlija were also pounded on Tuesday. Fifteen missiles overnight hit the production halls of the METALAC metal factory, the medical center, the electric power distribution building, and also damaged was the church of the Holy Pentecost.

Overnight bombings were directed at Kraljevo, Uzice, Cacak and Valjevo, where eight missiles hit the Krusik Holding Corporation, the biggest company in Valjevo. Also targeted were the Tornik and Cigota heights on Mount Zlatibor.

NATO aviation once again pounded the civilian telecommunication system near Ivanjica for telephone and television lines with other countries and continents.

The criminal jets on several occasions overflew the region of Kragujevac, but the attack was averted by a fierce response from the anti-aircraft defenses. Two enemy aircraft were downed.

The Yugoslav Army's anti-aircraft defense also fiercely acted in the Aleksinac region, while, according to eyewitnesses, one enemy plane was downed on the slopes of Mount Jastrebac.

NATO aviation also acted in the region of Batajnica, in the broader region of Belgrade, and in Gornji Milanovac.

For the fourth time over the past six days, the region of the Novi Pazar spa was once again the target of the NATO fascist aviation. Overnight, four highly destructive missiles pounded the region in the immediate vicinity of the special hospital for patients suffering from dystrophy from all over Serbia. A new attack took place on Tuesday morning around 10 o'clock. This health institution suffered considerable damage. The glass on the windows burst, the window panes were blasted out and pieces of bomb fragments fell everywhere. The aggressor's bombs even fell on the nearby villages where two persons were injured and where numerous civilian facilities were hit. Damaged were over 30 houses. According to the first estimates, the material damage is enormous.

***

NATO must halt the bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and accept the fact that the problems of a sovereign country cannot be resolved by military means, said Yugoslav Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic in an interview to the Podgorica TV EL MAG.

Bulatovic assessed that NATO was directly responsible for destabilizing the situation in the entire region, for the suffering of citizens in Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and other countries. He pointed out that NATO could never defeat Yugoslavia, since it was an example of a heroic resistance and struggle for freedom and independence.

***

At its session on Tuesday chaired by Mirko Marjanovic the Serbian government reviewed the performance of the state's social functions in a state of war.

The Yugoslav Information Ministry announced it had been concluded that measures being taken in the exercise of the citizens' rights in the sphere of social welfare were successful.

***

At Tuesday's meeting with the leaders of a number of regions in the Russian Federation, Russian President Boris Yeltsin said that Russia unconditionally condemned NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia and was in favor of a peaceful resolution of the situation, said the Russian president's press secretary, Dmitri Yakushkin.

The head of state has called on the leaders of Russian regions to join in the quest for a political settlement of the situation in the Balkans, whereby he stressed that the experience of all the politicians must be used in this regard. After their meeting with Yeltsin, the leaders of 19 Russian provinces and regions stated that they fully supported the president's stand on the necessity of resolving the crisis in the Balkans by peaceful means.

***

Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov on Tuesday said that a unified team in Russia, following a unified course, was working on resolving the crisis concerning Yugoslavia, whereby certain functions have been divided.

This is the response Primakov gave when asked by a reporter who the government and the foreign ministry would coordinate work with Victor Chernomyrdin, who set off, on Tuesday, on a two-day visit to the member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent states, in an effort to have the Commonwealth form a joint stand regarding the deterioration of the situation in the Balkans and the intensification of NATO's barbarian attacks on Yugoslavia.

***

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov has said that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan would visit Moscow at the end of April in an effort to find a peaceful solution for the Kosmet problem.

After his talks in Moscow on Tuesday with a delegation of the Organization of the Islamic Conference's Contact Group for Bosnia and Kosmet, Ivanov informed reporters that consent had been reached that the Kosmet problem could not be resolved by force, but rather by political means. It was jointly concluded that the UN had not played the role it was supposed to and that differences existed: while the delegation of the Islamic conference devotes the greatest attention to an imminent resolution of the problem of refugees, Russia is in favor of the urgent cessation of the aggression and the renewal of the negotiating process, since the problem of refugees cannot be resolved without this, Ivanov said.

***

The Russian president's special representative for resolving the crisis over Yugoslavia, Victor Chernomyrdin, had a telephone conversation, on Monday evening, with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretiene about the situation in the Balkans.

According to Chernomyrdin's assistant, Valentin Sergeyev, a topic of discussion was also NATO's intention to bring its troops into Yugoslav territory. Speaking about this, Chernomyrdin cited Russian President Boris Yeltsin as saying during his conversation with Bill Clinton on Monday that the problem of the return of refugees, as well as the issue of international presence, must be resolved exclusively with the Yugoslav leadership's participation.

***

Nato member-countries will have to pay reparations to Yugoslavia at least for the destroyed civilian facilities, believes the Russian State Duma's international relations committee, Itar-Tass reported.

The same source said that a regular session of the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe will be held in Strasbourg on April 26 at which the Russian delegation will insist on the civilized countries' acknowledging the ban on air-raids which are aimed at terrorizing the civilian population and destroying private property of no military significance.

***

Nato aggressors on Tuesday owned up to having bombed chemical plants in Yugoslavia which have nothing to do with military facilities despite the fact that the criminal alliance was aware this could cause an ecological catastrophe and civilian casualties.

"We knew what we were doing", Nato's military representative, general Giuseppe Marani, said in reply to a reporter's question in Brussels whether Nato was aware what it could have done in Pancevo and Belgrade when they bombed the petrochemical plants in Pancevo and Baric. However, he gave no reply to a question as to how could the Nis tobacco factory, also hit by Nato forces, be considered a military target. But this is not the first time that Nato representatives can give no replies to the questions that do not suit them.

***

The US cannot be world gendarmes or mercenaries of the countries which do not wish to assume military responsibility, Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini said.

Europe cannot allow the US to take decisions on an intervention in the name of the defence and interests of the old continent, Dini said and added the war in Kosmet had revealed the fragility of the European economic and monetary construction. Italy is with the allies but it cannot ignore the voice of reason, the Italian Foreign Minister told members of parliamentary commissions for foreign affairs and defence commenting on Nato's aggression against FR Yugoslavia.

***

At the Nato air-base in the Italian town of Aviano, yet another rift among the allies is looming as it is suspected that the Americans are covertly withdrawing from the radiation high-risk zone and are being replaced by Italian troops.

Members of the Italian League for the North Party said the Gulf War Syndrome was possible at the Nato base in Aviano since ammunition with impoverished uranium carried by US A-10 aircraft is stored there. In view of the fact that currently there are 18 such planes in Aviano, it is not difficult to conclude that there is high radiation in this small area, members of the Italian League for the North Party said.

***

China warned of the potential danger which could come from a possible NATO ground aggression on Yugoslavia, requesting an urgent cessation of the present US-led NATO military operation.

The Chinese government calls for a prompt halt to NATo's military action, in order to return the Kosovo crisis to the path of political settlement, said Chines Foreign Ministry Spokesman Sun Yusi. The Chinese media carry a statement by the permanent Chinese representative with the UN, Chin Huasun, who requested an urgent cessation of NATO's bombardment of Yugoslavia after the Security Council session. As regards several proposals which came up at consultations for resolving the Kosmet crisis, the Chinese representative specified two key stands of Beijing - FR of Yugoslavia's agreement to talks on any plan and the immediate cessation of NATO's military action against Yugoslavia.

***

German Environment Minister Jurgen Tritin said in Washington on Monday Nato's aggression against Yugoslavia was a mistake which he said must be rectified as soon as possible.

Tritin, who took part in a lecture held at the Heinrich Bell Foundation in Washington, pinned the blame for Nato's mistake on the alliance's member countries which believed the Yugoslav government could soon be brought to its knees. The way out of the dead-end can be found only within the Alliance and it is to this that German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer's diplomatic initiatives are directed, Jurgen Tritin said.

***

French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine dismissed the possibility of Nato's ground offensive against Yugoslavia and branded it as too complicated.

In an interview with the US International Herald Tribune daily published in Paris Vedrine said a ground offensive needed too much time to be implemented and could cause great loss of life.

***

French Interior Minister Jean Pierre Chevenman indirectly conceded he was opposed to the use of force against Yugoslavia.

AFP reported Chevenman refused to comment the clash over Kosmet at a press conference and that he discussed it within the government while certain unity from the outside was needed. Pending Nato's aggression against Yugoslavia, Chevenman, who is the president of the Citizens' Movement, said he supported a political settlement of the Kosmet crisis.

***

Greek Defence Minister Akis Zohazopulos believes that by militarily intervening in Yugoslavia, NATO has made three strategic mistakes which have led the Kosovo-Metohija crisis into an almost dead-end situation.

In a meeting with US Ambassador to Greece Nicholas Burns, Zohazopulos said that NATO had made the first mistake by basing the possible solution to the Kosovo-Metohija problem on stern threats of bombing Belgrade, without previously using all available political means. NATO's second mistake, according to Zohazopulos, was related to the belief that the bombing of Yugoslavia would lead to the capitulation of official Belgrade, and the third to the fact that NATO, having realized its mistakes, continues the bombardment instead of contemplating a political settlement of the problems. Zohazopulos warned that NATO's unyielding policy led to a totalitarian war, which will have disastrous consequences on all nations in the region.

***

Some three million children in Yugoslavia are suffering traumas and stress caused by the bombardment, and the greatest victims are the ill children, said the chairwoman of the Yugoslav Commission for Cooperation with UNICEF, Margit Savovic.

On Tuesday, she visited the children's ward of the Oncology and Radiology Institute in Belgrade, concluding that, besides the fear they share with others, the ill children have their on personal sorrows and tragedy.

***

At a press conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Yugoslav basketball ace Vlade Divac called on Nato countries to put an end to the bombing of Yugoslavia and to invest efforts in a political settlement of the crisis in Kosovo-Metohija.

At this moment it is clear to everybody that the bombing campaign is causing even greater instability in the Balkans and for this reason it must be halted. Divac said that the bombardment only deepened the gap among the people of Kosovo and forced a flood of refugees to flee their homes. Divac reiterated he was not a politician and that he could offer no solution but that he was positive the bombing most certainly was not a solution.

THE VISIT OF PATRIARCH ALEXEI II

Patriarch Alexei II of Moscow and the whole of Russia, now on a visit to Belgrade, has served a Holy Liturgy at the St.Sava church in Belgrade together with Patriarch Pavle of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Present at the liturgy were representatives of the Federal state bodies, among whom Federal Prime Minister, Momir Bulatovic, the Republic of Serbia's Assembly Speaker, Dragan Tomic, and a large congregation.

The Serbian Patriarch thanked his guest from Moscow saying: We know you have come to pray with us at a time when misfortune has befallen our country since Nato began its bombing raids.

In his address to the congregation, Patriarch Alexei of Moscow and the whole of Russia, said: We are witness to a merciless and lawless behavior of certain rich and powerful states, which in their haughtiness take upon themselves to act as a rightful judge of what is good and evil; which are trying to trample on the will of a nation that wishes to live in its own way. Bombs and missiles do not fall on this country because they are to defend someone. Nato's bombs have another aim, and that is to destroy the world order created after World War II which had been paid for dearly in blood and death. They aim to impose on other nations an unfamiliar and outlandish order of things based on the dictate of brutal force. However, injustice and mendacity will never prevail, since as it is said God is not in force, but in truth and justice. It might be that the power of your enemy is greater than yours, but God's blessings and the meaning of all history lessons are on your side. Let us just remember the lesson from recent history, from the Second World War, said Patriarch Alexei.

On the eve of the third millennium from the birth of Christ, we have to be aware of the fact that war cannot be a means of solving any problems. War just multiplies problems as shown by the events that took place in this century. It is only through good will aimed at reaching peace, and free, honorable life for all people - regardless of their nationality, religion or political affiliation, that this bloodshed can be curbed and the integrity of your homeland preserved. Only a just peace can be stable and long-lasting. On this day, at this church I beg you to do everything in your power to promote reconciliation and harmony and make them take roots once more. Again and again I address an appeal to the leaders of all Nato member countries to halt all military operations in FR Yugoslavia and begin a peace process. I believe that the prophet's words: 'The Lord shalt give power to his people' will prove true in this country. God will bless his people with peace', said the Patriarch Alexei of Moscow and the whole of Russia while serving the Holy Liturgy in Belgrade.

APPEAL FOR HUMANNESS

The assistant Yugoslav minister of labor, health care and the welfare policy, and the coordinator for humanitarian assistance, Maksim Korac, has addressed a letter to representatives of international humanitarian organizations who have stayed on in Belgrade, informing them that, due to the criminal NATO aggression against the independent and sovereign Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, urgent humanitarian assistance is necessary at this moment for over 700,000 thousand persons.

It has been 27 days now since the criminal and shameful NATO organization has been razing, burning and poisoning this country and its people, destroying factories, schools, hospitals, bridges, heating plants, oil refineries and killing women, children and the elderly, says the letter to the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, UNICEF, the UN High Commission for Refugees and the World Health Organization.

Due to the destruction of infrastructural and housing facilities on the territory of Yugoslavia, there are already now over 900 thousand persons in need of urgent assistance, since they have been left without their jobs and their demolished homes. Fleeing Kosovo-Metohija due to the bombardment are all the citizens - Serbs, Albanians, Muslims, Montenegrins, Turks, Romanies and Egyptians, mostly to other parts of Serbia.

Korac called on representatives of international humanitarian organizations to inform their superiors, primarily Cornelio Somaruga and Sadako Ogata, about all this, and as eyewitnesses and humanists to be the faithful interpreters of our tragedy and our need for urgent humanitarian assistance to those afflicted the most.

"Tell Sadako Ogata that Yugoslavia can no longer support the 700 thousand refugees who found shelter on its soil from 1992 to 1995, fleeing from Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, the letter says.

Korac especially reminded the World Health Organization that the criminal NATO aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is also threatening to cause an ecological catastrophe which will endanger the 12 million inhabitants of this region.

"We expect you, as representatives of UNICEF, to raise your voices and offer adequate assistance to our children who, at the sounding of sirens, have been going down to shelters for 27 days now, spending sleepless nights there, while young people have been exposing their lives to deadly missiles, defending with their bodies bridges throughout the country. Wake Europe up, Europe which is both your and our donor. With its assistance it will save both us and itself, because it is only in this way that it will remove the blemish from its nations and governments, which have done us so much evil", says the letter of the coordinator for humanitarian assistance of the Yugoslav ministry of labor, health care and the welfare policy, Maksim Korac.

Copyright (C.) Radio Yugoslavia