But even as New Delhi prepares a case against the US-led NATO forces for violating the UN as well as its own charter over its extra-territorial actions, sources here admitted that in a unipolar world there was little India or third countries, including Russia, could do to stop the aggression.The sources admitted that the well-documented cases of human rights violations in Yugoslavia and now Kosovo over the years had lent a certain ``ambiguity'' to the situation. That if it wasn't for these cases, the world reaction against the NATO strikes may well have been stronger.

The sources said New Delhi was in close touch with Moscow and that both sides were informally consulting the Chinese in New Yorkas well. ``Russia is an important player,'' the sources said, pointing at reports which said Russian warships were moving into place.

The sources added, however, that since the Russian-sponsored resolution had been defeated in the Security Council (12-3), any action by Moscow would now also be deemed ``unilateral''.The sheer helplessness of the rest of the world in dealing with NATO seems to be the mood of the day. The ministry sources nevertheless felt that for the first time since the end of the Cold War, the Kosovo bombings had ignited a storm of protest in many parts of the globe, thereby serving notice, for what it was worth, to the Western community.

Meanwhile, Yugoslav's ambassador to India Cedomir Strbac, at a press conference on Thursday indicated his country's gratitude to Moscow's moves, saying that Russia was doing its best to ``save the peace''. Tragically though, he added, the world was perhaps witnessing the ``end of the UN system'' at the hands of America, just as the League of Nations wasearlier destroyed before the the Second World War.

Strbac denied there was any genocide taking place in Kosovo, saying that along with Muslim Albanians about 50,000 Serbs were also fleeing the war-torn province. He talked of a systematic misrepresentation of the situation by the Western media. During the Second World War when Yugoslavia was coming under Nazi aggression, he said, ``we were on the right side of history. Now our own former allies are bombing us.''

Strbac pointed out that NATO's unilateral action had serious international repercussions, and would establish ``precedence'' for outside forces to take action against nation-states. As far as the NATO demand for a referendum only in Kosovo was concerned, he added, ``would the UK accept a referendum in Northern Ireland or Spain in Catalonia and the Basque region?''

Ministry sources, however, were not willing to accept a Kosovo parallel with Jammu & Kashmir. ``Political and constitutional rights of the people of J&K have never been violated,neither has there been any ethnic cleansing in the state,'' the sources said. They would not say whether New Delhi believed a similar situation obtained in Kosovo.

The sources only added that the international community could well monitor the rights situation. ``But NATO cannot take unilateral action, this sets a dangerous precedent for others,'' they said.

Meanwhile, a number of women's groups today, cutting across party lines, served a memorandum to the US ambassador to India, expressing ``the outrage and protest of women in India'' against the bombing of Yugoslavia by US-led NATO forces. ``The people of this world have not elected the US government as the world's policeman... Today it is Kosovo, tomorrow it could be Kashmir,'' they said. The signatories to the memorandum are the All India Democratic Women's Association, the All India Women's Conference, the Joint Women's Programme, Mahila Dakshata Samiti, Jagori, All India Agragami Mahila Samiti, Saheli and the National Federation of Indian Women.