U.S. not surprised after talks on freeing U.S. soldiers fail

Kyprianou, left, and Milosevic met in Belgrade  ALSO Serb media battles NATO with scenes of destruction The Geneva Conventions: Prisoners of war Clinton: Yugo peace claim is 'illusion' U.S. casts doubt on Cuban base as refugee site Britain says Milosevic 'feeling the heat' Yeltsin warns of possible world war over Kosovo Serbs reportedly planting land mines to create Kosovo 'no man's land'  MESSAGE BOARD Crisis in Kosovo Ramirez, left, Stone and Gonzales   Close bond between Cyprus and Yugoslavia Cyprus, an island in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, has close ties with Yugoslavia. Both are founding members of the Non- Aligned Movement. Also strengthening their bond is the Orthodox Christian religion that Serbia shares with the Greek Cypriots in a region where the general perception is that Orthodoxy, the bedrock of their culture, is under threat. Spyros Kyprianou, who was president of Cyprus from 1978 to 1988, has been a vocal critic of NATO airstrikes on Yugoslavia. He has accused the alliance of violating international law with its air raids.

April 10, 1999
Web posted at: 1:20 a.m. EDT (0520 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House is disappointed but not surprised after the failure of an attempt to obtain the release of three captured American servicemen now in custody in Yugoslavia.

An effort by Cypriot envoy Spyros Kyprianou, who met with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic on Friday, did not obtain the release of the three servicemen.

Press secretary Joe Lockhart said afterwards, "As we have said all along, there was no basis for taking them, there is no basis for holding them, and we will hold President Milosevic personally responsible for their care."

White House deputy press secretary Barry Toiv, traveling with President Bill Clinton in Philadelphia, said the administration "did not have great expectations" for the diplomatic mission of the Cypriot parliament speaker. Toiv reiterated the administration line that "they were taken illegally and need to be released."

Kyprianou blamed continued NATO air strikes for the outcome.

"Under the circumstances created and the fact that the message received by the Yugoslav leadership and people is that the relentless bombardments will continue, (they) can't proceed with a new peace gesture," said Spyros Kyprianou, a Greek Cypriot who is the parliament speaker on the Mediterranean island.

Kyprianou said he would cease his efforts to free the captive soldiers "for the time being" since "it is impossible to achieve any results in the present climate."

"But I cannot exclude anything in the future, depending on developments," he added.

His meeting with Milosevic began around 5 p.m. (11 a.m. EDT/1500 GMT) Friday and lasted about an hour and a half.

Earlier, Yugoslav officials took Kyprianou to the coal-mining town of Aleksinac, where a NATO airstrike gone awry killed civilians earlier this week.

Even before he traveled to Yugoslavia, Kyprianou had suggested that NATO should curb its bombing campaign if the three American servicemen were freed. He also urged NATO to observe a cease-fire over the Orthodox Christian Easter holiday, which is now under way. NATO refused.

Some Yugoslav officials had said a release was unlikely. U.N. envoy Vladislav Jovanovic said Friday it would be "unnatural" to expect the Yugoslav government to free the servicemen while NATO continues to bomb his country.

Vice Premier Vojislav Seselj, leader of the influential Serbian Radical Party allied with Milosevic, had told reporters Thursday that releasing the Americans was "out of the question."

The 19-nation NATO alliance demands that Milosevic accept terms of a U.S.-brokered peace accord, withdraw his military police and paramilitary forces and allow hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians to return to their homes in Kosovo, accompanied by a NATO-led security force.

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 Army 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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