Ramirez, left, Stone and Gonzales RELATED VIDEO CNN's Tony Clark talks with friends and relatives of the captured soldiers Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K CNN's Jim Hill, Ed Garsten and Tony Clark check in on the soldiers' hometowns, where family and friends hope for their safe return (April 7) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K  ALSO Families of captured GIs await word on rescue mission The Geneva Conventions: Prisoners of war Pentagon ready to fill request for more attack helicopters NATO denies causing 'widespread' civilian damage Germany-bound refugees dream of returning to Kosovo Britain accuses Serbs of preventing Kosovars' escapes

April 8, 1999
Web posted at: 4:38 p.m. EDT (1638 GMT)

In this story: Clinton urges captured soldiers' release New developments 'Safe passage' assurance RELATED STORIES, SITES

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- A mission that held promise for the quick release of three U.S. Army soldiers captured by Yugoslavia faced obstacles as a Cypriot envoy flew to Belgrade to see President Slobodan Milosevic. Their meeting was set for Friday.

On his arrival in the Yugoslav capital on Thursday, Spyros Kyprianou, speaker of the Cypriot parliament, said the Americans might be freed during the long Orthodox Easter weekend now under way.

But Yugoslav government sources told CNN there is "no expectation" that the soldiers will be released soon.

Washington seemed to share the same view.

"We don't view (the release of the soldiers) as a done deal," a U.S. official told CNN. "This could drag out. This may go nowhere."

State Department spokesman James Rubin said the release of the three soldiers had to be unconditional.

"We understand Mr. Kyprianou is proceeding on this basis as well," Rubin said, adding that "any attempt to use the three as bargaining chips is both illegal and immoral."

The Cypriot envoy would not reveal details on what he and Milosevic would discuss, but Kyprianou was optimistic about the outcome.

"I expect to have very friendly and constructive negotiations," Kyprianou told reporters in Belgrade. "I hope to have good discussions with President Milosevic on humanitarian aspects."

Clinton urges captured soldiers' release

President Clinton said Thursday that three U.S. soldiers being held in Yugoslavia "never should have been detained in the first place" -- and that he supports "anything honorable that would secure" their release.

The president made his comments as the speaker of the Cypriot Parliament was preparing for talks with Yugoslav officials in Belgrade to try to get the soldiers released.

"We would like to see the servicemen released. They never should have been detained in the first place," Clinton told a news conference held jointly with visiting Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji.

"They had nothing to do with the operations against Serbia. And I will be for anything honorable that would secure their release."

New developments

But as Kyprianou arrived in the Yugoslav capital under a NATO safe-passage promise -- and the Greek C-130 Hercules transport plane that had flown him to Belgrade returned to Athens without him -- there were several other developments that made the release of the soldiers seem less likely.

• Serbian Vice Premier Vojislav Seselj told reporters that freeing the three was "out of the question."

  "The United States is leading an undeclared war against Yugoslavia," Seselj was quoted by The Associated Press as saying. Instead, he said the Americans should be tried as terrorists.

• There was a similar assessment from a key Russian lawmaker, who returned to Moscow after a meeting with Milosevic in Belgrade. Gennady Seleznyov, speaker of the lower house of the Russia parliament, told CNN that reports that Cyprus will gain freedom for the three U.S. soldiers are "rumors" -- and that the soldiers will be treated as "terrorists."

• Cypriot sources told CNN that Yugoslavia was making "negative noises" about the release of the soldiers following the overnight bombing of downtown Belgrade. Kyprianou himself had said NATO airstrikes gave Yugoslav officials second thoughts about turning over the servicemen.

Israel, meantime, asked Russia to use "its full influence" with the Yugoslav government to work for the release of the three servicemen.

Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon, who was to see U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in Washington on Friday, planned to travel over the weekend to Moscow for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.

'Safe-passage' assurance

The plane carrying Kyprianou landed safely in Belgrade despite the continuing NATO air attacks, which, on Thursday, were in their 16th day.

Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon told reporters traveling with Secretary of Defense William Cohen in Germany that NATO had arranged to ensure that no allied bombing missions would interfere with the flight.

"What we did try to do to is maximize security for the mission," Rubin said.

U.S. officials told CNN that a temporary halt in NATO airstrikes on Belgrade -- timed to begin with Kyprianou's arrival -- would last only two hours, until 7 p.m. (1 p.m. EDT/1700 GMT).

Previously, U.S. and NATO officials said airstrikes would not be halted in order to secure the soldiers' release.

Kyprianou had asked for a 24-hour NATO cease-fire while he pursued his mission.

"What Mr. Kyprianou has asked (for) is safe passage to Belgrade and this has been given, so he is flying safely," Erato Marcoullis, the Cypriot ambassador to the United States, told CNN.

"During his stay, it was assured that he will be safe until his return, hopefully with the three GIs," she told CNN from Washington.

Kyprianou arrived in Athens Wednesday -- en route to Belgrade -- after saying the Yugoslav government was willing to turn over the three American soldiers.

His flight from Athens, which left at 3:20 p.m. (8:20 a.m. EDT/1220 GMT) on Thursday, was delayed about four hours as he awaited clearance from the Yugoslav military to fly into Belgrade.

Kyprianou was traveling to Yugoslavia on a humanitarian mission and not as a negotiator, Marcoullis said.

If necessary, the ambassador said, Kyprianou would stay overnight. It will "depend on developments," she said.

Staff Sgt. Andrew Ramirez, 24, of Los Angeles; Spc. Steven Gonzales, 21, of Huntsville, Texas; and Staff Sgt. Christopher Stone, 25, of Smiths Creek, Michigan; were captured March 31 near the border of Macedonia and Kosovo.

Macedonia is an independent country that was once part of Yugoslavia. Kosovo is a province in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia.

NATO says the soldiers were noncombat troops under its command and were on a routine border patrol. Belgrade says they were captured on Yugoslav territory.

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