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Serb television said this food processing plant in Valjevo was hit by overnight strikes RELATED VIDEO CNN's Satinder Bindra reports on the tension in villages along the Yugolsavia-Albanian border Windows Media 28K 80K Russia and the United States -- at odds over Kosovo. CNN's Richard Roth takes a look. (April 13) Windows Media 28K 80K Most of the 'collateral' damage inside Kosovo has been caused by the Serbs, NATO says. CNN's Patricia Kelly has the report from Brussels (April 13) Windows Media 28K 80K To view the latest video streams on the strikes in Yugoslavia, use the arrow buttons below to scroll through the video gallery.        Windows Media Real        28 K 80 K IMAGE GALLERY: The Kosovo refugees Protesting the NATO strikes Devastation of Kosovo capital The Serbs and Kosovo  ALSO Serb troops cross into Albania, officials say U.S., Russia can't bridge Kosovo gap  MAPS Gen. Wesley Clark describes NATO air campaign

April 14, 1999
Web posted at: 9:50 a.m. EDT (1350 GMT)

In this story: Milosevic appears outside his home Britain: Arkan invading Kosovo More rapes reported Diplomatic push NATO vows to intensify attacks Mass killing allegations RELATED STORIES, SITES

BRUSSELS, Belgium (CNN) -- European leaders were preparing to meet with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan at a crisis summit on Kosovo Wednesday, while Serb authorities reported that southern Yugoslavia was starting the first food rationing since NATO airstrikes began last month.

Annan planned to brief the 15 European Union leaders on his plan for restoring peace to the war-torn Serbian province.

Both NATO and Russia -- which has been sharply critical of the bombing campaign -- have indicated they view Annan as a possible mediator.

Belgrade described Annan's visit as the "last chance" to peacefully settle the NATO-Yugoslavia standoff.

Germany, which is chairing the meeting as current holder of the EU presidency, also is expected to outline its own peace plan. Bonn's six-point initiative reportedly calls for a 24-hour halt to NATO airstrikes to give Yugoslavia a chance to start withdrawing its forces from Kosovo.

British Defense Secretary George Robertson told CNN that EU partners, most of whom also belong to NATO, planned to show they were still firmly committed to the NATO action.

"What will come out of today's summit will be the united resolve of European countries and all the NATO countries that (Yugoslav President Slobodan) Milosevic is going to be defeated," he said.

Milosevic appears outside his home

Meanwhile, Milosevic on Wednesday made his first open-air appearance since NATO attacks began March 24. He welcomed Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko in front of his Belgrade residence.

The meeting was an apparent step toward cementing Milosevic's wish to join an alliance with fellow Orthodox Slav nation Belarus and its much larger neighbor Russia.

Shortly after Milosevic's public appearance, a rare daytime air-raid signal sounded in Belgrade. It was apparently a false alarm started when NATO jets broke the sound barrier, rattling windows in the capital.

Britain: Arkan invading Kosovo

British officials said Wednesday that Arkan, one of Serbia's most notorious paramilitary leaders, was scouting prisons for volunteers to join his unit in Kosovo.

Arkan

"This brutal thug is releasing hardened criminals from Serb jails to terrorize the people of Kosovo," Robertson said.

Robertson said Arkan, whose real name is Zeljko Raznjotovic, was wanted by the International War Crimes Tribunal for the alleged massacre of 250 men taken from the hospital of the Croatian town of Vukovar in 1991. Full details of the indictment had been secret.

Robertson also said Gen. Ratko Mladic, an indicted war criminal and former commander of the Bosnian Serb army during the war in Bosnia, was now commanding a "gang of paramilitaries" in Kosovo.

More rapes reported

Increasing reports of systematic, mass rapes are coming out of Djakovica in southwestern Kosovo, said Clare Short, Britain's secretary of state for international development.

"Sometimes the rapes are performed in front of children, fathers and brothers," she said.

More than 800,000 ethnic Albanians are now believed displaced within Kosovo, Short said.

"The situation is grim," she added. "I fear it will get worse. There is no humanitarian solution without military success. We cannot bring relief without reversing Serb aggression and this can only be done with the military."

Diplomatic push

But at NATO headquarters in Brussels, CNN's Jim Clancy reported a new drive by alliance members to push for a diplomatic solution.

He said the proposed German plan reportedly incorporated the demands being made by NATO but involved a peacekeeping force that would be mounted under U.N. auspicice and include Russian troops.

Russia has strongly opposed the NATO attack on Yugoslavia and has repeatedly pledged his support for Milosevic.

The existing requirements of NATO have been that NATO provide and oversee any peacekeeping force.

Clancy also reported that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was due in Brussels Wednesday to participate in the meeting with European leaders.

A role for the United Nations could be seen as a compromise that could be implemented by both sides in the dispute. "They (NATO countries) feel that perhaps under the weight of continued airstrikes Belgrade may be more interested in diplomacy," Clancy reported.

Annan is expected to push for a fast-track resolution to the crisis.

From the Yugoslav capital Belgrade, CNN's Alessio Vinci reported that the visit by Lukashenko was expected to look at ways of finding a political solution to the crisis. The Belarus leader is also expected to announce a humanitarian assistance package for Yugoslavia.

Meanwhile, NATO has pledged to press ahead with the most extensive bombing of the allied campaign against Yugoslavia as U.S. officials said they had photographic evidence of a suspected mass grave in Kosovo for some 100 massacre victims.

Pre-dawn air raids resumed Wednesday with Serbian TV reporting attacks on the Bistrica hydroelectric plant near the southern Serb town of Nova Varos, about 125 miles (200 km) south of Belgrade. A nearby bridge on a main railroad line that runs from Belgrade to the Montenegrin port of Bar was lightly damaged, the report said.

Serbian TV said the largest factory in the town of Valjevo, about 70 miles southwest of Belgrade, was hit and that at least two people were wounded. Four explosions also were reported in the central Serb town of Pozega.

On Tuesday, Albania reported Serb troops crossed its border and seized the town of Kamenica after firing at border guards and setting fire to homes. Other monitors said the troops withdrew to the Yugoslav side of the border after 40 minutes.

Yugoslav officials denied there was any incursion -- claiming its forces have been under attack in the area by Kosovo Liberation Army rebels. U.S. and NATO officials played down the significance of the incident, calling it just the latest in a series of skirmishes that predate the NATO offensive against Yugoslavia.

But sources said NATO was watching that border closely because it must protect its troops in Albania -- soon to number as many as 10,000 -- and it feels obligated to Albania for taking the risk of serving as a staging area.

In predawn raids Tuesday, NATO flew triple the usual number of planes in attacks that struck oil refineries, a fuel depot, bridges and a factory in five Yugoslav cities and an area near the Kosovo capital of Pristina.

Following a briefing of congressional leaders, President Clinton told reporters at the White House that NATO was taking its air campaign "to the next level" because "all of us would like the conflict to end, especially for the suffering people of Kosovo."

"Our campaign is diminishing and grinding down Mr. Milosevic's military capabilities," Clinton said.

"We have weakened Serbia's air defenses and command and control. We have reduced his ability to move, sustain and supply the war machine in Kosovo."

In Brussels, NATO Supreme Military Commander Gen. Wesley Clark said the alliance has photographic proof of a "systematic" campaign of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.

And in Washington, sources said the Pentagon has aerial photographs of what appears to be a second mass grave in Kosovo, in the southwestern town of Velika Krusa, which may contain as many as 100 bodies.

U.S. officials say the evidence of a mass grave is consistent with accounts from Kosovar Albanian refugees. Sunday, NATO officials showed pictures of a possible mass burial ground in Pusto Selo southwest of the Kosovo capital of Pristina.

The before-and-after aerial photos seemed to show "freshly turned earth" similar to what was seen at massacre burial sites in Bosnia during that conflict.

Damage in Valjevo

In Brussels Tuesday, Clark showed aerial photos of troops going into the homes of ethnic Albanians, throwing grenades, turning on the gas and starting fires.

"It's a whole set of communities which have been devastated," Clark said. "And what you see when you look at this is a widespread systematic pattern of ethnic cleansing. It's a familiar pattern over the last 10 years."

Clark said NATO's air campaign would continue with the intent to "attack, disrupt, degrade" Milosevic's military.

He said he has asked for another 300 U.S. warplanes to participate in the campaign, along with additional planes from other NATO member nations, which would raise the overall aerial contingent to well over 1,000 planes.