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May 10, 1999
Web posted at: 7:59 p.m. EDT (2359 GMT)

In this story: Quiet over Belgrade EU approves sanctions Serb day in court RELATED STORIES, SITES

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Saying it had defeated the Kosovo Liberation Army in Serbia's southernmost province, the Yugoslav army announced Monday it would begin a partial withdrawal of military and police units from Kosovo.

NATO and U.S. officials called the partial pullback a "half-measure" and said NATO would continue its bombing campaign.

Yugoslav government sources confirmed to CNN's Brent Sadler that the pullout began Sunday night, but did not say how many troops were being withdrawn or how the maneuver was taking place.

The Yugoslav army said the withdrawal was possible because its campaign against the KLA has been "completed" and it was now willing to consider a U.N. mission in Kosovo as opposed to a NATO peacekeeping force. If that happens, the army said, it could reduce its Kosovo presence to peacetime levels.

Sadler said the announcement by Belgrade could be seen as a "tactical step" that Yugoslav officials hope would be interpreted as a "goodwill gesture" designed to show a willingness to negotiate a diplomatic solution.

However, NATO was not impressed by the announcement and said there would be no interruption in its air campaign unless Yugoslavia withdrew all its forces and agreed to allow an international security force in Kosovo.

"Operation Allied Force will continue until those conditions have been fulfilled and fulfilled in full," NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said.

In Washington, White House officials said they've seen no evidence of any such withdrawal.

U.S. President Bill Clinton cautiously welcomed the move but said it was not enough.

"I'm encouraged by any good word," the president said. "But I think that the conditions that we set out are the minimal ones to make this work."

Clinton's remarks came after U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright dismissed the move as a "half-measure."

Russia praised Belgrade's announcement, saying it was largely the result of Russian diplomatic efforts.

The decision to pull back "can be considered one of the most serious advances in the process of settlement of the Balkans," said an aide to former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, who is serving as Moscow's special envoy to the region.

Members of the KLA said they doubt Yugoslav forces were withdrawing from Kosovo.

"My personal opinion and my experience is that when (Yugoslav President Slobodan) Milosevic talks about movement of troops, he says one thing and does another, as in Croatia and Bosnia, for example," said KLA spokesman Shefki Abdullahu.

Moderate ethnic Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova told CNN he would be pleased if the Yugoslav army and Serb police began leaving Kosovo but said the most important step to resolving the crisis would be to establish an international force to ensure the safe return of Kosovar refugees.

"If we don't have an international force there, there will be an empty Kosovo, and that is what the extremists in Belgrade want," Rugova said in Rome after meeting with Pope John Paul II. Rugova has been in Italy since last Wednesday.

At the bombed embassy, the father of one of the victims holds a bloodstained bed cover

Though NATO bombs fell elsewhere in Yugoslavia on Monday, there were no airstrikes on the Yugoslav capital overnight, as relatives of those killed in NATO's bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade arrived to claim the bodies of their loved ones.

Three journalists were killed in the Friday attack, and about 20 others were wounded.

At the embassy compound, the father of one victim, holding a bloodstained bed cover, wept uncontrollably in the room where his daughter and son-in-law died.

He was part of a delegation of leaders and others from China who visited the heavily damaged compound. The delegation, led by the deputy foreign minister, has been guaranteed safe passage by U.S. officials as they prepare to take the dead and wounded back to China by airplane.

U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen said the embassy attack was a result of outdated maps that showed the embassy in another part of the city.

News Highlights: Gallery: The conflict in review News story archive Yugoslavia's Future: What's next for Yugoslavia Map: Who controls what The Peace Settlement: A guide to the peace plan Map: Serb troop withdrawal The Military Campaign: Strike damage assessment Atlas: NATO and the Balkans Background: Timeline: Trouble in the Balkans A who's who of key players Map: Kosovo and its neighbors A history of the KLA

"NATO had no intention of hitting the Chinese Embassy," Cohen said. "This tragedy happened because a number of systems designed to produce and to verify accurate data failed," he said. "It was not a human error or a mechanical error. It was an institutional error."

Clinton issued a public apology to China on Monday, calling it an "isolated, tragic event."

"I apologize. I regret this," Clinton said. "But I think it is very important to draw a clear distinction between a tragic mistake and a deliberate act of ethnic cleansing, and the United States will continue to make that distinction."

China has suspended arms control and human rights talks with the United States and demanded a "full official" apology and investigation.

China also has demanded a halt to the bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, joining Russia and the Serbs in opposition.

While diplomatic efforts to end the Kosovo crisis continued, NATO welcomed news that the European Union finance ministers had formally approved a package of sanctions against Yugoslavia.

That package included travel bans on Milosevic, his family and hundreds of Yugoslav officials.

"It's not simply NATO which is isolating President Milosevic," said Shea. "Rarely in history has one state been so isolated, politically, militarily, economically and geographically. This cannot be something the Yugoslav people need or want at this time."

The sanctions also ban certain exports that might "enable the (Yugoslav) government to conduct its policy of internal repression" and all commercial flights between Yugoslavia and the EU.

The bombed Chinese Embassy in Belgrade

Russian Balkans envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin, fresh from talks with European leaders last week, went to Beijing on Monday to discuss the Yugoslav situation with officials there.

Also Monday, the World Court in The Hague began hearing claims from Yugoslavia that the NATO allies involved in the bombing campaign were guilty of "a crime against peace and also the crime of genocide."

Yugoslavia is seeking an order to immediately halt the bombing campaign.

Shea condemned Yugoslavia's action as "frivolous and cynical."

"It's a telling irony that the worst violator of human rights that Europe has seen in half a century and the person responsible for driving 1.5 million Kosovars from their homes should believe that it is his rights that are being violated."

British Defense Secretary George Robertson called the suit "nauseating hypocrisy."

Correspondents Brent Sadler, Gayle Young and Jill Dougherty contributed to this report.

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