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SERBIAN MASSACRES

• 100 albanian civilians killed by the Serbs in Rahovec, Kosovė
• 15 innocent civilians, victims of serbian terrorism
• At least 20 serbian terrorists have killed in Mitrovicė, 5 of them were high ranking officers
• Muhamet Bajraktari, a USA citizen, has been killed by Serbs
• Bodies of massacred Albanian civilians found in Studime and Shallc of Vuhtrri (Vucitrn)
• Cook blames Serb forces for deaths in Korisa
• U.N. mission planning to inspect Kosova
• Schroeder makes unplanned trip to Finland, Kosova on agenda
• Refugees reportedly prevented from leaving train, sent back into Kosova
• Poor weather slows NATO air campaign over Yugoslavia
• Bulgarian, Greek defense ministers call for diplomatic solution in Kosova
• BBC: Nato 'must use troops'
• NATO Not Yet Prepared For Occupation, Invasion
• Rugova: 'We Can All Live Here Together'
• NYTIMES Refugees Tell of 100 Civilians Massacred by Serbian Forces
• NYTIMES Milosevic Is Said to Be Ready for Deal but Not Humiliation

100 albanian civilians killed by the Serbs in Rahovec, Kosovė

Rahovec, 16 May (Kosovapress)

During the last offensive in the southwestern part of Kosova, over 100 civillians have been killed, and many others have dissaprared. A massive execution took place a the place called "Dheu i Kuq" in the village of Krushe e Madhe. The civilians were gathered in that area after they were excpelled from their houses by the Serbs. The Roma (gypsie) population was in the area and since they refused to separate from the Albanians, they were executed as well.

Until now, the following people have been identified: Nazif Vesel Hoti (80), father of Ukshin Hoti, Fahredin Shemsedin Hoti, doctor, Kreshnik Fahredin Hoti, Adem Mursel Hoti, Zejnullah Adem Hoti, Emrullah Adem Hoti, Kujtim Emrullah Hoti, Florim Emrullah Hoti, Baki Emrullah Hoti, Beqir Ymer Hoti, Agim Sejfullah Hoti, Valon Beqir Hoti, Shaban Qamil Hoti, Ramadan Sahit Hoti, Asllan Nezir Hoti, Abdullah Idriz Hoti, Fahri hajrullah Hoti, Ymer Haxhi Hoti, Xhavit Isuf Hoti, Xhemali Xhavit Hoti, Shukri Xhavit Hoti, Fehmi Sejfullah Hoti, Asaf Nexhat Hoti, old man Haxhi Hoti, Petrit Durak Hoti, Salih Durak Hoti, Bashkim Imer Hoti, Hydaj Avdullah Hoti, Arben Hoti, Sami Hoti, Hazėr Bajrush Shala, Mentor Hasan Shala, Arif Danė Shala, Sami Sadik Nalli, Salih Sadik Nalli, Agim Abdyl Nalli, Rexhep Jakup Rexhepi, Hajriz Begush Veliu, Habib Latif Duraku, Jeton Abdyl Duraku, Ibrahim Latif Duraku, Eqrem Jemin Duraku, Muharrem Emin Duraku, Agim Muharrem Duraku, Ismet Emin, Duraku, Osman Hasan Sefullahu, Beselet Jakup Krasniqi, Rrustem Sadri Reshiti, Selman Krasniqi, Selim Bajram Taha, Dahim Bajram Taha, Qamil bajram Taha, Selajdin Islam Dina, Fahredin Selajdin Dina, Florim Selajdin Dina, Vera Duraku, Bashkim, Ramadani, gipsy, Petrit Skėnderi, gipsy, Bali Skėnderi, gipsy, Xhavit Mahmuti, gipsy, Fatmir Mahmuti, gipsy.

All of them are of Krusha e madhe. Zenel Bajrami, from Carraleva, Astrit Bajrami, from Gjakova, Agron Halil Krasniqi, from Opterusha, Fahredin Shemsedin Hoti, from Mitrovica, three women of family Behra, the wife of Shyqyri Halitit and three women of family Krasniqi. The disappeared people are the following people:Isuf Ahmet Gashi, Maxhun Zenun Gashi, Nehat Zenun Gashi, Nexhmedin Sylė Gashi, Agim Sylė Gashi, Selman Ramadan Gashi, Hilmi Sefer Gashi, Rrustem Ibrahim Ibrahimi. Seven dead bodies have been fund in yard of Haxhi Sinan Halitit,but we do not have any information about their identity. they have been buried by KLA soldiers.Meanwhile 17 dead bodies have been found in the yard of Haxhi Qerimit and of Nallaj, but they could not be buried because serb were present. Police has burned them in a massive grave.All these people have been killed by a grenade which has been thrown inside the house. There is suspected that there are more killed people. Meanwhile there are 4 killed KLA soldiers: Fitim Islam Duraku, Enver Eqrem Duraku, Bekim Ismet Gashi and Dalip Isuf Behra.

15 innocent civilians, victims of serbian terrorism

Ferizaj, Shtime, Suharekė, 16 May (Kosovapress) During the serbian hordes attacks over the civil albanian population in the villages of the municipalities of Shtime, Ferizaj and Suharekė, who were placed in the gorges of Topilės, Lanishtit and Mollapolcit, serbian criminal bands have executed 15 albanian citizens. From all these people, up to now we have confirmations only about these executed people: Danush Ramadani (72), from Luzhaku, Mehmet Shashivari (73), from Jezerci, paralized, Shaip Daka (56), paralized from Vėrsheci of Suharekės, Hajrie Bajrush Ukėsmajli (60), from Jezerci with her 6 year son, Lirie Ukėsmajlin, Halil Hyseni (49), from Petrova, Nazmi Ukėsmajli (29), from Jezerci, Hasan Beqa (15), from Raēaku, Mehdi Salihu (56), sick, from Mollapolci, Sherif Hazir Buēaj (32), Halil Buēaj (38), Osman Bajraktari (45), Hamdi Palushi (60), Ali Palushi (60), all from the village of Budakovė. According to the witnesses a number of these citizens has reached to escape in Albania. Along the way to Albania, albanian column with civil people has been stopped in the entrance of the village Balinc and in the exit of the village Raēak and as result some 150 civilians were taken by them. According to the witnesses, serbian police was wearing KLA uniforms. The people that have been taken from civilian column are mainly young people but there are also some young girls among them. There are no reports about their fate.There are suspection that large number of albanian people are disappeared, thus KLA units are searching the terren looking for them. As result of the mines which are placed along the roads by serbian police, on Friday 14 May in the village Dremjak, Agim Tahiri from this village was wounded. Meanwhile, today at 00.30 o`clock for the same reason Blerim Ismaili and Islam Ismaili from the village Mollapolc have been injured.


At least 20 serbian terrorists have killed in Mitrovicė, 5 of them were high ranking officers

Mitrovicė, 16 May (Kosovapress) As we have reported before, today serbian terrorist forces placed in Mitrovicė have attacked albanian civil population in the ward of Tavnik in this city. KLA special units of the OZ of Shala came there to protect civil population from barbarious serbian attacks. About 16°°o`clock, in the so called place "Ura e Gjakut",(Blood Bridge) in Mitrovicė, fierce confrontations between KLA units and serbian terrorist forces took place. As result of these confrontations, at least 20 serbian terrorists have been killed, 5 of them were high ranking officers in the Yugoslav military. The combats in the city of Mitrovicė are still going on with an increasing intensity.

Muhamet Bajraktari, a USA citizen, has been killed by Serbs

Gllogocė, 15 May (Kosovapress)
According to our sources, during the latest serbian offensive, the soldier Muhamet Osman Bajraktari (52) from Gllogoci, USA citizen has been killed.
This person, according to the witnesses, has collaborated very closely with OSCE Verification Mission in Kosova.

Bodies of massacred Albanian civilians found in Studime and Shallc of Vuhtrri (Vucitrn)

Vushtrri, 15 May (Kosovapress)
In the village Studime, municipality of Vushtrri, serbian police has killed these civil albanians: Jetullah Muliqi from village Sllakoc, Bedri Shahin Beqiri, from Sllakoci, Ramadan Hysen Zeneli, from Vushtrria and two other unidentified young albanians.
Also, the soldiers Hamdi Krasniqi from Zhilivoda have been killed while going from Vushtrria to Shalė of Bajgora.
On 5 May in Shallc, the following 5 inhabitants of this village killed by serbian police, have been found: Hamdi Fazliu (54), Fahredin Fazliu (22), Avdullah Fazliu (60), massacred as well as Enver Mehmet Rrustolli from Dumnica. Their dead bodies were found inside their houses. Also Bedri Fazliu (27), was taken as hostage but he was released later.


Cook blames Serb forces for deaths in Korisa
BRUSSELS, Belgium

After meeting with NATO Secretary General Javier Solana, Cook said the alliance has «now documented 80 different cases reported by the refugees of the use of human shields by the Serb forces.»

The question of whether Serb forces use civilians as human shields has been topical since NATO's attack last Thursday of a target outside the Kosova village of Korisa. Belgrade claims 87 ethnic Albanians were killed in the bombing.

Since the attack, NATO has been suggesting the civilians in Korisa were placed there by Serb forces to be used as human shields but has steered clear of asserting that this is what happened in this case.

Cook however firmly laid the blame for the civilian deaths at Milosevic's door. «What happened at Korisa was a human tragedy (but) it was the Serb forces that took those refugees off the hillside, it was the Serb forces that concentrated them near the command post, it was the Serb forces that made them not go back to their dwellings but made them assemble within those two courtyards.»

Cook also said he received reports of declining morale within the Serb military. He spoke by phone last Friday with Kosova rebel leader Hashim Thaci, who was «the most upbeat I've known him.»

Thaci headed the ethnic Albanian delegation at the Rambouillet peace talks in France and is prime minister of the so-called government established by the Kosova Liberation Army this year.

Cook said he was told by Thaci of Serb forces being «highly demoralized.»

«There are large numbers of continuing desertions from within the VJ (the Yugoslav army) army inside Kosova,» Cook said.

«NATO is doing more damage to (Yugoslav President Slobodan) Milosevic's war machine than he dares to admit. Two weeks ago, we calculated that we had destroyed in Kosova the equivalent of the weapons and equipment of an entire army brigade,» Cook said.

Over the past 24 hours, and particularly Sunday night, poor weather forced the cancelation of most NATO flights over Yugoslavia, NATO officials said.

«Overnight ... we had bad weather. It affected NATO operations, in fact three-quarters of the strike packages had to be canceled as a result of the bad weather,» NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said.

Shea said NATO aircraft flew 343 sorties over the preceding 24 hours, half the number of sorties normally flown in a 24-hour period over the past weeks. Of these, only 83 were strike sorties.

A statement said the sorties that did take place occurred in southwest Kosova, where the weather allowed pilots to detect targets more easily.

Since Sunday, a small number of Serb armor, military vehicles and artillery positions were struck. Strategic strikes included the airfield at Sjenica, the Alliance said.

All NATO aircraft returned safely to their bases.

Bad weather has hampered NATO air operations over Yugoslavia since late Saturday. The Alliance said it expected better weather in the region over the next few days, which would allow for more intensified operations.

(as-rac)

17.05.99 12:24

U.N. mission planning to inspect Kosova

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia

As por weather forced the cancelation of most NATO flights over Yugoslavia over the past 24 hours, diplomacy moved into high gear Monday in attempts to settle the conflict in the embattled Serbian province.

«Overnight ... we had bad weather. It affected NATO operations, in fact three-quarters of the strike packages had to be canceled as a result of the bad weather,» NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said in Brussels.

Shea said NATO aircraft flew 343 sorties over the preceding 24 hours, half the number of sorties normally flown in a 24-hour period over the past weeks. Of these, only 83 were strike sorties.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder made an unexpected trip to Finland on Monday, increasing speculation that Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari is preparing to take a central role in seeking a solution to the Kosova crisis.

Ahtisaari and Schroeder held talks Monday morning. There were no immediate details on what was discussed, but Kosova was believed to be a prime subject.

Ahtisaari on Tuesday is to meet with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and Viktor Chernomyrdin, Russia's Balkans envoy. It would be Ahtisaari's second meeting within a week with each of them.

Chernomyrdin said Monday he would go to Yugoslavia and Finland within the news few days to continue Moscow's efforts to resolve the crisis.

President Slobodan Milosevic has allowed a U.N. delegation to make a first inspection of Kosova since nearly half the province's population was driven out and NATO launched an air campaign against Yugoslavia.

The 15-member team, driving a fleet of white four-wheel drive vehicles with a diesel fuel tank behind, arrived in Belgrade Sunday and said they would assess humanitarians needs throughout Yugoslavia.

It was not known if and when the team would meet President Slobodan Milosevic.

«We are worried about the hundreds of thousands that are said to be on the move in that province,» U.N. team head Sergio de Mello said Sunday. «It's the first time we are able to embark in this kind of way and right in the middle of a war _ we are determined to do as professional a job as possible.»

NATO, hampered by bad weather, hit three Serbian towns early Monday, local media reported.

The state-run Tanjug news agency said 10 explosions were heard early Monday near the town of Cacak, about 110 kilometers (70 miles) south of the capital Belgrade. The agency cited a local crisis center as saying a NATO missile was shot down.

State-run and private media also reported attacks close to the western town of Uzice, some 120 kilometers (75 miles) southwest of Belgrade, with three missiles hitting the military airport in Ponikve. The alliance also targeted a fuel depot near Kraljevo in central Serbia.

An all-clear sounded in Belgrde shortly after dawn Monday. The city was not targeted during the night, but air defense in its wider area fired at unmanned spy aircraft spotted above the capital, Tanjug reported.

Meanwhile, a senior Pentagon official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said two Yugoslav soldiers held by NATO in Germany would be released.

The pending release of the Serb soldiers comes after the release earlier this month of three U.S. Army soldiers captured along the Kosova-Macedonia border, but there was no indication of any link between the two releases.

On Sunday, NATO intensified raids on Kosova, saying its air campaign is hitting Serb tanks and troops on the ground and there will be no let up despite risk of civilian casualties.

NATO targets included Kosova's second-largest town, Prizren, which is near Korisa, the village where Yugoslavia reported 87 civilians killed late Thursday. American and British officials expressed increasing suspicion that Serb forces deliberately trapped civilians next to a military command post in Korisa to use as «human shields,» knowing it would be a target. Yugoslavia called such charges crazy.

Yugoslavia protested Sunday that the intensive bombardment is obstructing a partial withdrawal of its troops from Kosova. NATO dismissed the complaint.

NATO says there is no evidence of any of the estimated 40,000 Serb troops and special police withdrawing from Kosova, a province of Yugoslavia's Serb republic.

NATO launched its air campaign March 24 aimed at forcing Milosevic to accept a peace plan. The demands include total withdrawal of Serb forces, the return of refugees and the deployment of an international peacekeeping force.

Some 790,000 ethnic Albanians _ nearly half the population _ have since been expelled by Serb forces or fled Kosova.

Beta, the private news agency, reported Sunday evening that according to unofficial estimates 95,000 people _ 35,000 Serbs and 60,000 ethnic Albanians _ have left Pristina, the capital. Before the current crisis, the population was 240,000.

American and British officials maintained there is new evidence from Korisa survivors that Serb police ordered some 600 ethnic Albanians down from hideouts in the hills and held them in a concentrated area in Korisa until NATO attacked.

17.05.99 11:51

Schroeder makes unplanned trip to Finland, Kosova on agenda

BONN, Germany Schroeder left early Monday for Helsinki, the government press office said. >From there, he will fly directly to Bari, Italy, for pre-planned German-Italian consultations that are also expected to focus on diplomatic efforts over Kosova.

A NATO official in Brussels told The Associated Press last week that Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari is being seen as a possible European Union envoy for Kosova and that the issue was likely to be discussed at an EU foreign ministers' meeting on Monday. Finland is not a NATO member.

A senior German Foreign Ministry official, Wolfgang Ischinger, said on German television the trip to Finland was part of efforts by western powers and Russia to pass a Kosova peace plan in the U.N. Security Council.

Ahtisaari is to meet with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and Viktor Chernomyrdin, Russia's Balkans envoy, on Tuesday. It would be Ahtisaari's second meeting within a week with each of them.

In Bari, Schroeder and Premier Massimo D'Alema will discuss the Italian leader's new proposal that NATO call a cease-fire against Yugoslavia if Russia and China pass a U.N. resolution backing the allies' peace terms, German officials said.

If Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic then refuses to compromise, «we would need to send ground troops,» according to an Italian newspaper interview with D'Alema published Sunday.

Germany deputy foreign minister Guenter Verheugen said the idea still needed clarification because it departs from NATO strategy.

In particular, any move to send ground troops «contains incalculable political and military risks,» he told InfoRadio Berlin-Brandenburg.

17.05.99 12:36

Refugees reportedly prevented from leaving train, sent back into Kosova

BLACE, Macedonia

Serb forces refused to allow hundreds of ethnic Albanian refugees to disembark from a train Monday morning and cross into Macedonia, then turned the train around back into Kosova, international aid officials said.

«This is quite a worrisome development,» said Ron Redmond, spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

A train with four or five wagons, each crammed with 200 to 300 people, arrived Monday morning at Djeneral Jankovic, the last station on the Yugoslav side of the border with Macedonia, Redmond said.

Ten elderly men were allowed to disembark and cross into Macedonia. But others were prevented from leaving the train.

«We are not sure why the Serbs are not allowing people off,» Redmond said. «They can turn this off and on like a tap.»

The train was quite full when it departed Kosova Polje, near the provincial capital of Pristina. When it reached the town of Urosevac, some 40 kilometers (32 miles) from the border, hundreds more crammed aboard, Redmond said.

But at Djeneral Jankovic, Serb forces prevented the refugees from leaving the train and walking the last 1 1/2 kilometers (1 mile) to the Blace border crossing.

A pensioner who was allowed to cross said he had seen the train head back into Kosova.

At midday, a series of explosions were heard on the Kosova side of the border, but no information was available on the source of the explosions.

One person who managed to cross the border Monday morning was Besa Pajaziti, 23, a Pristina university student.

She said her parents, who earlier had fled the city, arranged for a private car to drive her to Macedonia.

When asked about living conditions in Pristina, she replied, «I can just say it's hell.» She said residents didn't have enough to eat and the city was full of Serb police, who had taken over the library and civilian homes.

A group of 800 refugees, most from Urosevac, arrived Sunday in Macedonia, reporting constant food shortages, sporadic killings and the ever-present fear of a knock on the door from Serb authorities.

«In our village, they separated the men from the women and some 40 people were gunned down,» said Ajim Gasi, pleading Sunday for Western help «to save the people still inside. It's a very harsh situation _ a catastrophe.»

The refugees told of Serb police seeking out men suspected of links to the ethnic Albanian Kosova Liberation Army, which is fighting for independence from Serbia, the dominant republic in Yugoslavia.

Some said they had moved from house to house to protect men sought by Serb police and troops, who made regular searches, sometimes kicking down doors and demanding to know where the men were.

«It got riskier and riskier all the time,» said Xhevahire Osmani, 37, who sent her six children to a Macedonian camp seven weeks ago but remained behind hoping to protect the family home.

NATO's air war against Yugoslavia began March 24. About 790,000 ethnic Albanians have since been expelled by Serb forces or fled Kosova.


17.05.99 11:09

Poor weather slows NATO air campaign over Yugoslavia

BRUSSELS, Belgium «Overnight ... we had bad weather. It affected NATO operations, in fact three-quarters of the strike packages had to be canceled as a result of the bad weather,» NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said.

Shea said NATO aircraft flew 343 sorties over the preceding 24 hours, half the number of sorties normally flown in a 24-hour period over the past weeks. Of these, only 83 were strike sorties.

A statement said the sorties that did take place occurred in southwest Kosova, where the weather allowed pilots to detect targets more easily.

Since Sunday, a small number of Serb armor, military vehicles and artillery positions were struck. Strategic strikes included the airfield at Sjenica, the Alliance said.

All NATO aircraft returned safely to their bases.

Bad weather has hampered NATO air operations over Yugoslavia since late Saturday. The Alliance said it expected better weather in the region over the next few days, which would allow for more intensified operations.

Separately, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook was meeting with NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Shea said.


17.05.99 13:26

Bulgarian, Greek defense ministers call for diplomatic solution in Kosova

SOFIA, Bulgaria

The defense ministers of Bulgaria and Greece called Monday for a diplomatic solution to the Kosova crisis that would include deployment of international peacekeepers under the auspices of the United Nations.

«We agreed that the solution to the Kosova problem must be achieved in a peaceful, diplomatic way,» Georgi Ananiev of Bulgaria said after talks with his Greek counterpart, Akis Tsochadzopoulos.

«We expect the diplomatic dialogue (on Kosova) to be enhanced,» Tsochadzopoulos said. «The use of ground forces and the escalation of the conflict are not acceptable.»

Although Greece is a NATO member, it has refused to take a direct role in the alliance's air campaign against Yugoslavia. That reluctance reflects strong pro-Serb sentiment among Greeks, who share the Orthodox Christian religion with Serbs.

Ananiev said a diplomatic agreement on Kosova must be guaranteed by deployment of international peacekeeping troops in the province under the auspices of the United Nations.

He added those troops must include contingents from NATO and from countries that are members of its Partnership for Peace Program.

Tsochadzopoulos said participation of Russia and Ukraine in the international force would be «of particular importance.»

Ananiev and Tsochadzopoulos also signed an agreement aimed at bringing quality standards of the Greek and Bulgarian defense industries into conformance. ,<[


BBC: Nato 'must use troops'

Newsweek magazine says the Joint Chiefs of Staff wrote to Defence Secretary William Cohen some weeks ago saying that ground troops must be committed to "guarantee fulfilment of the administration's political objectives".

Military planners say time is running out for a decision if the Kosova-Albanian refugees are to return to their homes before winter. "A ground war would have to commence by the beginning of August, and the forces required must start assembling by the beginning of June," the magazine quoted Pentagon sources as saying, in its Monday edition.

The report - which has not been confirmed by the Pentagon - was published as America's former military chief Colin Powell criticised the conduct of the war in Yugoslavia.

General Powell - who led United States forces during the Gulf War - told American television that the exclusive use of air power had given Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic the decision as to when the Kosova conflict would be ended.

"Go all out ... war involves casualties," he said, echoing complaints by many military strategists that an air operation will never be enough to force President Milosevic to back down.

Defence Secretary Cohen responded by saying that Nato was going all out with its air campaign. Washington, however, remains determined not to send in ground troops to fight a war.

Exactly how and when troops might enter Kosova will be discussed when UK Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, visits the United States later this week.

British officials have denied reports that they are frustrated by the Clinton administration's refusal to commit ground troops to the conflict.

Bombing 'is working'

Nato chief Javier Solana said the bombing campaign was working and they would stick with it. He told the BBC he wanted Kosova Albanian refugees to return this year. "It is our wish, and we are doing our best so they can return home as soon as possible, in any case before the winter."

In a joint editorial in Sunday's Washington Post, Robin Cook and the US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, said the "brutality" of President Milosevic made them more determined than ever to continue the attacks.

And in the wake of the bombing of the village of Korisa in which more than 80 civilians were reported killed, they also warned that more civilian casualties could result from the Nato campaign as "perfection is unattainable".

On the 55th night of bombing, Nato said its operations against Yugoslavia had been limited by poor weather to targets around south-west Kosova. It said its planes had attacked some Serbian artillery and military vehicles.

Explosions were heard around Belgrade and the Serbian towns of Cacak, Kraljevo and Uzice. Two explosions were also reported in the Kosova capital, Pristina.

Heavy anti-aircraft fire was reported throughout the country. Over Belgrade, the guns were said by local sources to have fired at a number of reconnaissance drones which flew over the city in the early hours.

The search for a diplomatic solution to the Kosova crisis turns on Monday to Brussels, where European Union foreign ministers meet their Russian counterpart and the Kosova Albanian political leader, Ibrahim Rugova.

Ministers will discuss a German plan to bring long term stability to the Balkans, once the conflict is over.

BBC Europe correspondent David Shukman says the meeting will be a chance to get relations with Russia back on track after the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade earlier this month.

Apache deployment puzzle

Nato officials have been forced into denials that the Pentagon is refusing to allow the deployment of its 'tank-busting' Apache helicopters in Kosova for fear of taking casualties.

The fleet of 24 Apache AH-64s was declared ready for use last week after training in Albania, but has not yet gone into action.

Nato's military commander Wesley Clark is reported to have been refused permission to use them, but spokesman Jamie Shea said he was "not aware" of any disagreement on the issue.

Meanwhile, speculation is growing that two Serb Army soldiers held as prisoners of war are about to be released by the US military.

Pentagon officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the men - captured by the Kosova Liberation Army and handed over to the US - may be set free as soon as Monday. They are being held in Germany.

After President Milosevic agreed earlier this month to free three American soldiers captured on the Kosova-Macedonia border, President Clinton said the release of the two Serbs was under consideration.

50,000 soldiers needed to apply Kosova peace accord: source

BRUSSELS, NATO military authorities believe that 50,000 soldiers would be needed to enforce a peace accord in Kosova, nearly twice the 26,000 troops previously estimated, sources said Monday. NATO military planners were recently asked to review their estimates to take into account changes on the ground since the alliance air offensive was launched on March 24.

The refugee exodus, the destruction of infrastructure including bridges and the fate of the Serb minority in Kosova are new factors that planners weighed in preparing the mission, the sources said.

NATO's 19 member-states have had a glimpse of the preliminary estimates that provide for a 50,000-strong force deployed in a "permissive environment" to police a peace accord, they said.

Planning for an intervention force before the air strikes were unleashed called for 26,000 troops that were to be deployed in Kosova to ensure a ceasefire and uphold a peace accord between Belgrade and ethnic Albanian separatists in the province.

NATO had dispatched an advance force of 16,000 men to Macedonia to prepare for the eventual deployment.


NATO Not Yet Prepared For Occupation, Invasion

(Refugees' Return Is Alliance's Focus)

By Molly Moore and Bradley Graham Washington Post

Monday, May 17, 1999; Page A1

TIRANA, Albania - Nearly two months after NATO launched an air war against Yugoslavia, the United States and its allies have massed only a fraction of the ground troops needed to oversee a peace settlement in Kosova. And they show no sign of attempting to build any serious force for a ground invasion, according to allied military officials.

NATO political authorities are so wary of casualties that would be incurred in a ground invasion, and sufficiently hopeful that air power can force the Belgrade government to accept a settlement, that planning for the aftermath of a peace agreement has taken priority over updating plans for a possible land invasion, officials said.

Military authorities are focused on what they say are the mammoth problems of entering Kosova in a peaceful setting, and returning hundreds of thousands of refugees to their homeland. (Story, Page A13.)

At the same time, the only major combat forces deployed in Albania - the U.S. Apache attack helicopters and their infantry support units - have not flown a mission in the nearly four weeks that they have been here. And senior Army and Pentagon authorities in Washington continue to resist the wish of Gen. Wesley K. Clark, NATO's military commander, to use the gunships.

NATO appeared to be inching toward the possibility of a land invasion during its summit in Washington three weeks ago when Britain pressed the alliance to at least start formal planning for a ground operation. NATO Secretary General Javier Solana directed Clark to update the assessments his aides drafted last summer that concluded that 75,000 troops would be required to seize Kosova, and a force of 200,000 would be necessary to take all of Serbia.

But a senior Pentagon official said last week that Solana's initiative was meant to head off discussion about the ground war option, not open the way for more detailed planning.

"It was intended to box in ground troop talk before the summit," the official said. "We've been saying all along we have no intention of invading Yugoslavia, and we still don't."

Worried that any move toward a ground war could split NATO and undercut allied support for the air operation, administration officials continue to refuse even to promote public debate about the subject.

"There is no consensus within the alliance for a ground force," Defense Secretary William S. Cohen said yesterday on CBS's "Face the Nation."

Even if NATO decided to launch a ground war, allied forces face formidable military and political obstacles in the region that could require months to overcome. With 27,000 troops in Albania and Macedonia - and at least 25 percent of those dedicated to humanitarian aid operations for the Kosova refugees - NATO does not have nearly enough forces in the region to consider an invasion.

Albania, the country most politically disposed to permit a ground assault from its territory, is a geographical nightmare for military planners. Obstacles include a rugged mountain range dividing the country from Kosova, antiquated port and airport facilities and narrow, potholed roads better suited to the country's numerous horse-drawn farm wagons than heavy military vehicles.

While neighboring Macedonia's terrain is easier to navigate, many political leaders and public opinion oppose permitting the country to be used as the launching site. Hungary, one of NATO's newest members, borders Yugoslavia but is far from the primary target of the invasion, Kosova, which is located in southern Serbia. In addition, the U.S. military - which opposes use of ground forces unless the odds of victory are overwhelmingly in their favor - is being confounded by a tenacious Yugoslav army.

"In Iraq we could see the tanks, the large buildup, the trench lines," said a U.S. Marine pilot who flew combat missions during Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and now flies sorties over Yugoslavia. "Here, it's so different because of the terrain and because the troops are more spread out. They've got a credible force out there."

"The Serbs are digging in and camouflaging," said U.S. Marine Col. Kenneth J. Glueck Jr., commander of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit based on ships off Albania's coast in the Adriatic Sea. "They're in it for the long haul. . . . It's a tough situation that's going to require a lot of patience."

That's partially because the Yugoslav forces remain so entrenched near Kosova's southern borders that the Apache helicopters have not yet been dispatched into battle, according to U.S. officials. The Pentagon is unwilling to authorize their use until Yugoslav forces have been largely pushed back from the area and the threat to the low-flying aircraft has been reduced.

A senior Pentagon official said yesterday that Clark has yet to make a formal request to employ the gunships. But if he did, there is little question it would be rejected at this point.

The official noted that the helicopters were dispatched to the region during a period when heavy cloud cover was forcing cancellation of many bombing runs, with the thought that the low-flying gunships would be less hampered by bad weather. Since then, however, the weather has improved and so has the effectiveness of NATO's air campaign.

"Right now, we are carrying out a very effective air campaign - not only against the strategic targets, those up around Belgrade, but also against fielded forces down in Kosova," Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said yesterday on "Face the Nation."

Shelton also indicated continued concern about Yugoslav air defenses, saying that although "severely degraded," they remain "effective." He said the Apaches would be used when "we will have reduced the risk to the very minimum."

Senior Pentagon officials worry not only about the potential for losing the helicopters if sent on what they consider to be high-risk missions, given the problems of flying very low over mountainous terrain. They also worry about provoking a major counterattack by Yugoslav forces into Albania.

"There's a very good chance that you're going to start a major ground war if you do use the Apaches," a senior Army general said.

Clark has yet to report any revised troop figures for a land invasion. In fact, when asked about the ground war review, he said it has taken a back seat to other efforts at his headquarters and at the Pentagon to update plans for a peacekeeping force that would enter Kosova when the fighting stops.

Despite misgivings among many defense planners about the wisdom of relying on airstrikes to pressure Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic into a peace accord, Pentagon officials insist the air campaign is grinding down Yugoslav forces. Top military officers acknowledge that the sole use of air power goes against all their doctrinal training about the importance of using a mix of land, sea and air forces for optimal effect. But they appear resigned to holding to NATO's course in the hope that the airstrikes will reach Milosevic's breaking point.

"I think there's still an expectation that the air campaign can work," a senior Army general at the Pentagon said. "We still think Milosevic will ultimately quit."

Graham reported from Washington. © Copyright 1999 The Washington Post Company


Rugova: 'We Can All Live Here Together'

NEWSWEEK May 17, 1999 An exclusive account of how an Italian priest helped win the release of a Kosovar leader from the Serbs.

By Vincenzo Paglia

On May 5, Ibrahim Rugova, to all effect the Albanian president of Kosova, was allowed to leave Pristina, where he had been held by the Yugoslav authorities since the war began. Rugova and his family flew to Rome in an Italian military plane, and NATO paused airstrikes while he was in transit. Among the first to talk to Rugova was Msgr. Vincenzo Paglia, spiritual leader of the Community of St. Egidio, a group of freelance Catholic diplomats active in trying to negotiate peace settlements around the world. Rugova, who has long been committed to pacifism as a political strategy, knew him well. They had worked together on an agreement with Milosevic last year to allow Albanian students to attend schools in Kosova for the first time. Paglia's account of the effort to win Rugova's freedom: We had tried so many times to get a line from Belgrade to Pristina that when I finally heard it actually ringing, on April 6, I could hardly believe it. I could picture it: the old black Bakelite telephone on the little table on the second floor of the house of my old friend, Ibrahim Rugova; his study with the collection of rocks from all over Kosova. "Comment vas-tu?" I said, because we speak in French. "Finally, I've reached you."

"I'm at home, as usual," Rugova replied, "staring at the fireplace, with the picture of the pope and me over it. But there are no normal days any more. I'm fine. A little tired and I no longer sleep, but I'm well and so is my family." He recalled our first meeting, with the community's founder Andrea Riccardi at St. Egidio's in Rome, with the magnificent 17th-century paintings he was so fond of, and what he called "the biggest banana tree I've ever seen"-a tree that is a memento of the peace agreement we reached on Mozambique at our headquarters in 1992. We spoke about other friends in Kosova, some of whom had erroneously been reported killed. "But I can't tell you much more," he said. "Communications are so difficult. I'm very worried about my people and their great suffering."

"We are also worried," I told him. "We're here in Belgrade because of this, and we're with you. What would you say if you could leave Kosova for Rome? Would you be able to make a greater contribution to resolving the situation?"

"Why not?" Rugova said. "I would, if and when the authorities in Belgrade let me leave the country."

The important thing was that Rugova was alive, even if he couldn't express himself openly and didn't have freedom of movement. Back in Rome Mario Marazziti, the St. Egidio community spokesman, made sure that the Italian government and the Vatican knew what we were up to. Italy was giving logistical support and encouragement. But it was all up to us: we had a mandate from no one; only our own resolve. Now came the hard part: the government in Belgrade. The first test came during a bombardment, in the half-deserted restaurant of the Hotel Inter-Continental. At a dinner with one of Milosevic's vice ministers, a fellow Socialist Party member, I repeated, like a mantra: "Rugova is a sincere pacifist. If you want to get out of this, he needs to come to the West, to Rome, for instance. Otherwise, everyone will think you have a pistol pointed at his head." For three days there were feverish encounters like that, until I finally got to see Milan Milutinovic, the president of Serbia. I told him: "You've got to understand that if you keep Rugova here he will be like an unloaded gun in the fight for peace." Milutinovic said he'd study our case.

>From April 10 there were contradictory signals. Intermediaries from the Serbs went to see Rugova. His leitmotif was simple: "Serbs and Albanians can and should live together. Albanians must return to Kosova. You must stop forcing my people out of country. This is our land and we can and must all live here together." Meantime, Rugova appeared on TV with Milosevic in Belgrade, and denounced the NATO bombing campaign. Two weeks later, the Yugoslav Ministry of Information declared they were studying Rugova's release, "if and when he can go to Rome, as requested by the Community of St. Egidio."

Though his situation was dire, Rugova played an important role. He used his time under house arrest to try to go over his talks with Milosevic and understand his thinking. Rugova has paid a price for meeting with Milosevic, but he was looking to the future. "I met Milosevic, and told him that if we want to live on this land we have to get beyond shuttle-diplomacy and speak to each other directly," Rugova said. "I said that ethnic war is not inevitable, that this is a war of armies, not of peoples."

Finally last week the call to Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini came from Belgrade: "Mr. Rugova wants to come to Rome. You can come and get him." He put on his silk scarf-the "Rugova look," sort of Sorbonne-existentialist. Then he flew here with his family and his assistant. The Italian government put him up in the ancient Villa Algardi, where Charles and Diana had once stayed. Now Rugova can once again play his role in leading Kosova out of war and into peace. His first words in public were, "Thanks to Italy, to Minister Dini, to Prime Minister D'Alema and to my old friend Monsignor Paglia of the Community of St. Egidio-it is thanks to all of them that I am here today."

Tired, poor and suffering, like his people, he is still the Gandhi of the Balkans: "My people can't remain in eternal exile," he said, in his first statement while in freedom. "They have to go back to their own land. Every effort must be made to allow the refugees to go home and repopulate their land. Serb forces must leave Kosova. Security, for both Serbs and Albanians, must be guaranteed by an international peace force, including some NATO countries and others. All arms must be laid down, on all sides. And that includes the KLA. They are patriots who have shown the necessity of self-defense. But now is the time for politics, and I'm sure even the KLA is a political force which will favor a political solution. The framework will be the Rambouillet agreement, which we signed, and the Serbs did not. It will be hard, but the essentials are clear."

Newsweek International, May 17, 1999


NYTIMES Refugees Tell of 100 Civilians Massacred by Serbian Forces
By DAVID ROHDE

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- Yugoslav forces have killed more than 100 civilians in three villages in the region that is the birthplace of the guerrilla group fighting for Kosova's independence, refugees arriving in Macedonia in recent days have reported.

The refugees, describing attacks in the Drenica region, said that in one instance, soldiers herded as many as 60 women and children into a house and then threw hand grenades and fired assault rifles through its windows and doors, killing those huddled inside. The civilians were reported to be family members of a rebel commander, and the reports came from villagers who said they had spoken with survivors.

None of the reports could be independently confirmed. But human rights investigators said initial refugee accounts suggest that Drenica is emerging as a second area in Kosova where particularly ruthless attacks are being carried out.

Ben Ward, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, said initial reports suggest that the scale of killings in Drenica may rival those reported to have occurred in a region along Kosova's border with Albania. That area is also a stronghold of the rebel group, the Kosova Liberation Army.

"The emerging picture from Drenica suggests a scale of violence that rivals the killings on the Albanian border," Ward said. "We are extremely concerned about the fate of people still trapped inside Drenica."

The refugees say that the killings occurred in April and that the Yugoslav forces systematically emptied villages around the town of Glogovac as part of an effort to eradicate the rebels from the area, Ward said. After tens of thousands of villagers were herded into Glogovac, they were forcibly expelled to Macedonia during the first week in May, he said.

The most brutal attack occurred in the village of Poklek in late April, the refugees said.

Miradije Haxhiu, 45, said her family and others in the village tried to flee to nearby Glogovac in the early morning of April 30, but were turned back by Yugoslav soldiers.

That afternoon, she said, Yugoslav soldiers entered the village and opened fire on her home and others in the village. She and her children dove onto the floor and then hid in the basement for the next six hours.

"Their shots hit the wall," she said. "They nearly killed one of the children."

When they emerged after dark, the home of Hallil Muqolli, a local rebel commander, was burning, she said. The group made their way to a nearby village, Vasileve, where they found a group of women and children from Poklek.

There, she and other villagers spoke with Lumnija Muqolli, the daughter-in-law of the rebel commander. She said that Ms. Muqolli told her and the others that the Yugoslav soldiers had forced 64 people, most of whom were from the rebel commander's family, into his home. The group consisted of four men and sixty women and children, including five infants, Ms. Haxhiu said she was told.

The Yugoslavs threw hand grenades and fired assault rifles into the house, Ms. Muqolli said. Ms. Muqolli told the other villagers that she, her daughter and another child survived by playing dead and then climbing out a back window before the Yugoslavs set the house on fire. Rebel soldiers later entered the home and found the bodies, according to Ms. Haxhiu said.

Ward and Fred Abrahams, a second Human Rights Watch investigator, said they had spoken to three other villagers who in separate interviews gave similar accounts of the attack and the killing of 60 women and children. None of the villagers personally witnessed the attack, but Abrahams said he found the accounts credible, given the area's history and the fact that the Kosova Liberation Army was active in Poklek.

"The pattern of abuse in Kosova and Drenica specifically make these allegations very credible, although still unconfirmed," he said.

Wiping out members of rebel leaders' families is not unprecedented in the area. In September 1998, Yugoslav forces ended a summer offensive in the Drenica region by killing 21 members of the Delijaj family, including eight women and five children, in the village of Gornje Obrinje, according to Human Rights Watch. The family had several rebel members.

The most recent reports from refugees said that, in addition to the attack involving about 60 people, the Yugoslav forces had killed as many as 40 people in two nearby villages in the Drenica region on April 16 and 17.

Rifat Nika, 73, one of 800 refugees who arrived in Macedonia on Sunday, said that at least 23 men and three women were killed in Glanasela on April 16. Hyra Morina, a 29-year-old mother of three, said she saw her husband and eight other men gunned down by Yugoslav soldiers in Cikatovo on April 17.

Ward said witnesses he had interviewed saw the bodies of 12 men in Cikatovo, and that another 13 men from the village are missing and presumed dead. Unlike Poklek, the village does not have a history of rebel activity.

One refugee reported another mass killing in the nearby village of Vrbovac in late April, though it could not be confirmed. Shqipe Nika, 20, who arrived in Macedonia Sunday, said Yugoslav soldiers killed 26 men, including her uncle. "They made them line up and put their hands on a wooden fence," she said. "We heard them execute them."

NYTIMES Milosevic Is Said to Be Ready for Deal but Not Humiliation
By STEVEN ERLANGER

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- After more than 50 days of bombing and with his troops still entrenched in Kosova, President Slobodan Milosevic is prepared for a settlement, so long as the process can be portrayed as negotiation and not capitulation, Yugoslav officials and analysts say.

There is a consensus that Milosevic has the political room to maneuver over Kosova and to redefine almost any negotiated outcome as a victory to preserve his own grip on power.

"From what I know of Milosevic, there is no line in the sand," said Dusan Mihajlovic, the leader of New Democracy, now a self-described pro-Western opposition party that once was part of Milosevic's government. "Milosevic himself is the line in the sand."

Milosevic is described as frustrated by the slow pace of the mediating effort by the Russian special envoy, Victor Chernomyrdin, adding to Belgrade's already deep mistrust of Moscow's intentions.

Independent analyst Bratislav Grubacic said the difficulty in resolving the crisis will be to find a solution that saves face for all sides involved. For Milosevic, a senior Yugoslav official said, the key will be to underline Serbia's sovereignty over Kosova.

Yugoslav officials make no secret of their annoyance with the Russian envoy, who failed to arrive in Belgrade last Sunday as expected. Instead, after NATO's bombing of the Chinese Embassy here, Chernomyrdin chose to fly to Beijing and then to Moscow for talks with Chinese and American officials. He is now expected to arrive here on Wednesday.

Goran Matic, a powerful minister without portfolio of the Yugoslav United Left party of Milosevic's wife, Mirjana Markovic, said in an interview: "Russia is following its own interests, trying to get back into good graces with the West. Every NATO bomb that drops on Yugoslavia has a Russian stamp on it."

Other Yugoslav officials and analysts, including another senior politician, Milan Bozic, and Grubacic, believe that Milosevic is likely to turn down any first proposal made by Chernomyrdin almost on principle.

"The inner circle believes that Milosevic will accept a compromise solution, but it must be a negotiation and not a capitulation to terms," Grubacic said. "He must be seen as a respected negotiator. The struggle is to define a way for all sides to be able to declare some form of victory while allowing foreign troops into Kosova."

It will be important for Milosevic to keep at least some token Yugoslav army and police forces along the borders with Albania and Macedonia, even if they are "shadowed" by international forces, one senior Yugoslav official said.

It will also be important, the official said, that Milosevic feels that a deal protects himself and his family.

Bozic believes that the turmoil in Russia after President Boris Yeltsin fired his prime minister will give Milosevic another reason to dismiss a first offer by Chernomyrdin. "The Russians are in disarray, and he can tell Chernomyrdin to come back when they are serious," Bozic said.

Yugoslav officials regard the chaos in Russia as a more serious obstacle to peace than the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, because they believe that Beijing will not veto any proposal agreed upon by Moscow and Washington. Still, some Yugoslav officials believe that Milosevic's close ties to Beijing may help keep pressure on the Russians to do more than "be a postman for the Americans," one official said.

They note that Yeltsin and Milosevic do not like each other. That distrust stems from early Belgrade support for the attempted coup by conservative Communists against former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in August 1991. The coup's failure eventually brought Yeltsin to power in a dissolved Soviet Union, the very kind of dissolution that Milosevic then feared for Yugoslavia.

The officials also cite Moscow's support for the fundamentals of the draft agreement hammered out in Rambouillet, France, that Belgrade refused to sign.

Mihajlovic said he thinks Milosevic will not, in the end, miss "this chance for peace." The alternative, Mihajlovic said, "is a burned land and an invasion by ground troops that would mean occupation and further destruction, but even that would not have to mean the end of Milosevic."

Mihajlovic believes, like many Yugoslavs, that Milosevic's calculus depends on his political survival, and that "peace will bring him a thousand problems," including a further economic and international isolation of Yugoslavia.

But Milosevic can still portray himself as "a new Prince Lazar, the defender of Kosova" -- the Serb emperor who died in the famous defeat by the Turks in 1389, but who shaped Serbian national myths. By this logic, fighting for so long and so stubbornly against 19 of the world's most advanced nations is itself a form of victory.

"Most Serbs think that what NATO wants from us is wrong, and that NATO does not have the right to ask it of any nation, no matter what we've done in Kosova," said Ljiljana Smajlovic, a journalist who warned before this war that Milosevic would rather be bombed than capitulate to NATO's demands. "Most people believe that, but Milosevic has a lot of latitude."

Radomir Diklic, director of the independent Beta news agency here, said that Milosevic has many strengths, which include the willingness of the Yugoslav army and the Serb population to fight in defense of Kosova and their homeland. "He knows, in a way, that Serb lives are easy to spend, and that the lives of American and NATO troops are very, very expensive," Diklic said.

For that reason, Milosevic is counting on the continuing refusal of President Clinton to sanction a costly ground invasion. The Yugoslav army is being hurt by NATO bombing in Kosova, but not hurt so badly that it will completely withdraw, Diklic said.

Aleksa Djilas, a historian and sociologist who follows Milosevic's career, also thinks the West will find it too expensive, both in blood and money, to mount a ground invasion. "They'd have to pave Albania," he said, referring to the backward state of Europe's poorest country. And he noted that opposition to ground troops is strong among most European members of NATO, save Britain.

Still, he says, Milosevic is feeling pressure from the bombing. "He's a Balkan strongman and not a good guy, but he's not a monster, either," said Djilas. "His strategy for 12 years was to preserve Serbia from bombing and Serbian kids from getting killed. I think the West pressed him into a corner with its ultimatums and he doesn't know how to get out."

Both sides miscalculated and counted on a short war, Djilas said. He remembered Gore Vidal once writing that for Americans, "Winning is not enough -- others must lose."

Djilas mused, "Can we have a solution where NATO wins and we don't lose?"

That is the outcome being floated to any Westerner who will listen by one of the wealthy associates of Milosevic and Mrs. Markovic, Bogoljub Karic, a minister in the Serb government. Karic, like Matic last month, speaks of trying "to do everything to make NATO look like winners," so long as Serb sovereignty over Kosova is absolute and no foreign troops enter without agreement.

Milosevic is also looking to the future, associates say. He is considered likely, in the event of a negotiated solution that brings in foreign forces under a U.N. mandate, to drop the ultranationalist Radical Party and its leader, Vojislav Seselj, from the Serb government, the analysts and officials say.

Seselj, who opposes any foreign troops in Kosova, was the right wing to a government of national unity, where the left wing was the Serbian Renewal Movement of the former democratic opposition leader, Vuk Draskovic.

When Draskovic was fired from the federal government for too openly criticizing the political parties of Milosevic and his wife, Seselj's access to the state media was also restricted. But Seselj was interviewed Friday night decrying noted democratic opposition leaders, including Draskovic, as "traitors."

The most prominent opposition leader, Zoran Djindjic, head of the Democratic Party, has fled Serbia, seeking shelter in Montenegro with its embattled anti-Milosevic president, Milo Djukanovic.

They were fiercely attacked last week as traitors by the state television, a charge Seselj echoed. Djindjic is thought to have done his political future considerable harm by fleeing, while another leader, Vuk Obradovic, head of Social Democracy, remained. But Djindjic says he feared for his life.

"It raises the question of who is the real opposition here," said Mihajlovic. "In general, democracy is in danger of being the collateral damage of the NATO bombings. But political life will begin again after the war stops."

That is why Milosevic, having intimidated or destroyed his democratic opposition and the independent media, is expected by analysts to move to the middle, fire Seselj and portray himself as a sensible moderate who defended Serbia's honor and territory as best he could in the face of a united Western world.

A few seasoned Serb observers are concerned that Milosevic will reject a good deal, in order to have to accept a worse one later.

"Sooner or later, everyone knows that foreign troops will enter Kosova, there will be a form of protectorate before new elections, most Serb forces will be withdrawn and a large number of refugees will return," said a senior journalist at state television. "And in some strange way, Kosova will stay inside Yugoslavia but be outside of it, and it will seem farther away from Belgrade than Northern Ireland seems from London."

He shrugged. "Now it's just a matter of the time and the price, and of how many people have to die while we're waiting."