Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Belgrade, April 17 (Tanjug) - The Federal Foreign Ministry held a meeting on Saturday with the heads of the diplomatic missions in Belgrade to inform them about the numerous civilian casualties and the extensive damage to civilian facilities since the start of the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia on March 24.

Assistants to the federal foreign minister, Zlatan Kikic and Nebojsa Vujovic, and Ambassador Miroslav Milosevic informed the foreign diplomats (35 ambassadors and charges d'affairs) about the need for the urgent halting of the air raids in order to stop the suffering of the civilians in Yugoslavia, end the threats to international peace and security and protect the U.N. Charter, brutally violated by NATO.

The meeting concluded with expressions of regret at the absence of any engagement by the U.N. Security Council in preventing and stopping the aggression on a sovereign country.

"The non-engagement of the Security Council and the blocking of its work only encourages the leaders of the aggression and contributes to the dangerous threats to international peace and security, thus threatening the international legal order and the very existence of the United Nations," Ambassador Milosevic said.

He set out that since the start of the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia, NATO carried out more than 6,000 air strikes using 700 aircraft, of which 530 war planes. NATO launched over 1,500 cruise missiles and dropped more than 5,000 tones of explosives, which caused huge destruction and civilian casualties.