WASHINGTON: Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini on Friday termed NATO's bombing of Serbian state television ``terrible'' in the first apparent break in allied unity on the subject. ``I disapprove,'' Dini said, adding that he believed the television station had not been on the list of targets for the Air campaign.The bombing of Radio and Television Serbia in downtown Belgrade killed at least nine people and wounded 18, with 20 more still missing, according to the Yugoslav Government. Amnesty International has demanded an ``urgent explanation'' of why NATO had bombed an ostensibly civilian target.US General Wesley Clark, the commander of the operation, has said the television station was a legitimate target because of its links to the Serb military and its message. ``We have said from the very first day that there was no sanctuary and we were going to go after military targets and targets connected to the higher-level command and control systems,'' he said. ``That is what that was.''MOSCOW: A bomb wentoff early Saturday near the building that houses the US and British Consulates in Ekaterinburg in the Russian Urals region, reports say. The blast caused damage but there were reportedly no casualties. While no group has claimed responsibility for the incident, investigators suspect the attack was meant to protest NATO's air strikes on Yugoslavia.
WASHINGTON: The brother of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic confirmed on Friday that Yugoslavia is ``ready to accept'' an international mission in Kosovo but only after NATO bombardment stops and without the participation of the ``aggressor countries''. Borislav Milosevic told this to CNN's Larry King Live. NATO leaders meeting in Washington for a 50th anniversary summit rejected the offer as insufficient.
MOSCOW: Russia has written to NATO states accusing the alliance of violating the 1975 Helsinki Final Act by bombing Yugoslavia, Interfax reported. The strikes were ``a flagrant violation of at least seven of the 10 basic principles of internationalrelations set out in the Helsinki Final Act,'' said the statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry.
WASHINGTON: The Pentagon dismissed on Friday a report from Belgrade claiming that a NATO warplane had been hit by Serb anti-aircraft fire. ``We have had no reports of any NATO aircraft being hit, being damaged, being shot down,'' spokesman Colonel Richard Bridges told AFP. The US also announced it was sending more combat troops to Albania, including M-1 Abrams battle tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles and artillery to protect the AH-64 Apache attack helicopters there.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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