ad info

CNN.com
 MAIN PAGE
 WORLD
   africa
   americas
   asianow
   europe
   middle east
 U.S.
 LOCAL
 POLITICS
 WEATHER
 BUSINESS
 SPORTS
 TECHNOLOGY
 NATURE
 ENTERTAINMENT
 BOOKS
 TRAVEL
 FOOD
 HEALTH
 STYLE
 IN-DEPTH

 custom news
 Headline News brief
 daily almanac
 CNN networks
 CNN programs
 on-air transcripts
 news quiz

  CNN WEB SITES:
CNN Websites
 TIME INC. SITES:
 MORE SERVICES:
 video on demand
 video archive
 audio on demand
 news email services
 free email accounts
 desktop headlines
 pointcast

 DISCUSSION:
 message boards
 chat
 feedback

 SITE GUIDES:
 help
 contents
 search

 FASTER ACCESS:
 europe
 japan

 WEB SERVICES:

 

World - Europe

NATO: Yugoslav army now on defensive in Kosovo

Aftermath
NATO says it bombed this Yugoslav army barracks in Kosovo Friday night

related videoRELATED VIDEO
Listen to NATO spokesmen at the April 10 alliance briefing

Col. Konrad Freytag describes Yugoslav targets hit overnight
Real 28K 80K
Windows Media 28K 80K

Jamie Shea assesses the first 17 days of strikes
Real 28K 80K
Windows Media 28K 80K

Jamie Shea talks about humanitarian efforts
Real 28K 80K
Windows Media 28K 80K

       Windows Media Real

       28 K 80 K
InteractiveIMAGE GALLERY:
Burning flags and rock concerts:
Protesting the NATO strikes

Devastation of Kosovo capital

The Serbs and Kosovo
 ALSO
Yeltsin warns of possible world war over Kosovo

Rally, L.A. police support captured U.S. soldiers

Cypriot envoy faces political backlash over failed mission

Rugova says he was coerced into Belgrade talks

Army urges Orthodox church to defend Yugoslavia

 MESSAGE BOARD
Crisis in Kosovo
 MAPS
NATO officials describe attacks from day one through day 17
 

April 10, 1999
Web posted at: 4:59 p.m. EDT (2059 GMT)

Neighboring countries reportedly stabilized


In this story:

NATO ministers to meet Monday

Britain: Russia vows to keep clear

Civilians to take over refugee camps

'The usual story'

RELATED STORIES, SITES icon



BRUSSELS, Belgium (CNN) -- NATO air raids have forced the Yugoslav army into a defensive posture in Kosovo, where it is hiding tanks and armored vehicles between village houses in an attempt to protect them from missiles, NATO officials said Saturday.

"Overall, the Yugoslav forces appeared to be focusing on defensive and force protection measures against NATO attacks," said Col. Konrad Freytag, a NATO military spokesman.

Meanwhile, international aid efforts have improved the refugee situation and prevented Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic from upsetting the stability of neighboring countries by sending a flood of ethnic Albanians out of the province, NATO said.

Seventeen days of bombing have halved the amount of fuel available for the Yugoslav army, severely disrupted military communications and intelligence and damaged roads and bridges needed to resupply troops in the field, Freytag said.

He said that targets of NATO's latest overnight raids included Yugoslav army and Serb special police forces barracks, two oil depots and a broadcasting facility in Pristina, Kosovo's capital.

Freytag said the broadcasting facility was used for military communications.

Earlier, Yugoslav charge d'affaires Vladislav Jovanovic told CNN that the facility was for a television transmitter and called the NATO attack a violation of conventions on press freedoms.

Bad weather forced the cancellation of three out of four planned waves of attacks, according to NATO. The remaining wave was carried out by cruise missiles fired from U.S. and British ships in the Adriatic Sea.

NATO ministers to meet Monday

Allied ministers are scheduled to meet Monday in Brussels to discuss the progress of the campaign against Yugoslavia, which aims to end fighting between Serb forces and ethnic Albanians guerrillas in Kosovo.

NATO and British military officials said Saturday the bombardment will continue until Milosevic agrees to all the terms of a peace plan outlined for Kosovo. Those terms include an end to attacks on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops and the admission of a NATO-led military force to the province to oversee a plan for its autonomy.

Britain: Russia vows to keep clear

target
NATO says Yugoslav army is feeling the heat from the airstrikes  

British Armed Forces Minister Doug Henderson said Russia gave new assurances on Saturday that it would not intervene militarily in the Balkans conflict.

Russia has strong historic ties to the Serbs, who make up the majority of the population in the Yugoslav federation. It has strenuously objected to the NATO campaign, and Russian President Boris Yeltsin warned Friday that the conflict could lead to a world war.

But on Saturday, Russia's foreign minister, Igor Ivanov, assured British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook "that Russia had no intention of becoming involved in any confrontation in the Balkans and no wish to see any escalation," Henderson said. "The foreign secretary welcomed that assurance."

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is scheduled to meet Ivanov in the Norwegian capital of Oslo on Tuesday.

Civilians to take over refugee camps

NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said allied relief efforts in Albania and Macedonia have helped not only the Kosovo refugees, but the governments of those countries, which were reeling from the volume of humanity pouring across their frontiers.

"We've prevented Milosevic from using refugees as a weapon to destabilize neighboring countries," Shea said.

The commander of NATO forces in Macedonia, Lt. Gen. Sir Mike Jackson, said Saturday that his troops are ready to turn over the administration of refugee camps to civilian aid agencies.

Jackson's contingent, which will serve as a peacekeeping force in Kosovo if a cease-fire with Yugoslavia is reached, will continue to provide security for the camps.

'The usual story'

About 1,500 ethnic Albanians streamed from Kosovo into Albania in a convoy of tractors, jeeps and other vehicles Friday, according to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

It was the first mass exodus of refugees into Albania since the checkpoint was reportedly closed three days ago. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians have been displaced by the fighting in Kosovo.

refugees

Shea said the latest refugees bring with them "the usual story" of being forced to give up their identity papers and valuables before being marched across the border.

He noted that Sadako Ogata, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, described the reports of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo as worse than those that came out of Bosnia.

"She is the person to know these things better than anybody," Shea said.

Resettling the refugees could be difficult. The sticking point in failed peace talks before the airstrikes was Milosevic's refusal to allow a NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo.

"Everyone agrees, with one exception in Belgrade, we need NATO troops to go in and secure order and security in Kosovo," said William Walker, who led the OSCE observer mission in Kosovo before the bombing began.

The OSCE monitors left Kosovo before the NATO raids started.

"These people won't go back without troops. I won't go back," Walker said.

Correspondents Bill Hemmer, Brent Sadler, Alessio Vinci and Matthew Chance contributed to this report.




RELATED STORIES:
Serbs reportedly planting land mines to create Kosovo 'no man's land'
April 9, 1999
Yeltsin warns of possible world war over Kosovo
April 9, 1999
U.S. casts doubt on Cuban base as refugee site
April 9, 1999
Clinton: Yugo peace claim is 'illusion'
April 9, 1999
Yugoslavia declares 'peace' in Kosovo; NATO airstrikes continue
April 8, 1999

RELATED SITES:
Extensive list of Kosovo-related sites
  • Kosovo

Yugoslavia:
  • Federal Republic of Yugoslavia official site
      • Kesovo and Metohija facts
  • Serbia Ministry of Information
  • Serbia Now! News


Kosovo:
  • Kosova Crisis Center
  • Kosovo - from Albanian.com

Military:
  • NATO official site
  • BosniaLINK - U.S. Dept. of Defense
  • U.S. Navy images from Operation Allied Force
  • U.K. Ministry of Defence - Kosovo news
  • U.K. Royal Air Force - Kosovo news
  • Jane's Defence - Kosovo Crisis

Relief:
  • International Rescue Committee
  • Mercy International USA
  • Unicef USA
  • Doctors Without Borders
  • World Vision
  • CARE: The Kosovo Crisis
  • InterAction
  • International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
  • International Committee of the Red Cross
  • Disaster Relief from DisasterRelief.org
  • Catholic Relief Services
  • Kosovo Relief
  • ReliefWeb: Home page


Media:
  • Independent Yugoslav radio stations B92
  • Institute for War and Peace Reporting
  • United States Information Agency - Kosovo Crisis

Other:
  • 1997 view of Kosovo from space - Eurimage
  • Prayers for peace
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.

 LATEST HEADLINES:
SEARCH CNN.com
Enter keyword(s)   go    help

Back to the top   © 2001 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines.