NATO warns of 'humanitarian disaster'

Refugees in Morina, Albania, try to revive a woman after she collapsed RELATED VIDEO Clinton says he supports broadened NATO campaign on Sunday, March 28 Windows Media 28K 80K NATO Air Commodore David Wilby briefs the media on events in Yugoslavia on Sunday, March 28 Part 1: Windows Media 28K 80K Part 2: Windows Media 28K 80K Part 3: Windows Media 28K 80K British Defense Secretary George Robertson briefs the media on Yugoslavia on Sunday, March 28 Part 1: Windows Media 28K 80K Part 2: Windows Media 28K 80K   To view the latest video streams on the strikes in Yugoslavia, use the arrow buttons below to scroll through the video gallery. Real Windows Media Quicktime Movie: NATO releases video of airstrikes 1.6M / 21 sec. / 240x180  ALSO: NATO, British leaders allege 'genocide' in Kosovo Primakov to try to halt NATO bombings NATO stealth missions continue after crash Russia: NATO strikes hurting relations with U.S. Clinton: NATO must keep up air campaign Anti-NATO protests in Australia, Austria, Russia Report: Police detain suspects in embassy shooting  MESSAGE BOARD Crisis in Kosovo

March 28, 1999
Web posted at: 10:34 a.m. EST (1534 GMT)

BRUSSELS, Belgium (CNN) -- The NATO bombing campaign in Yugoslavia is now aimed at heading off "a major humanitarian disaster" in Kosovo, allied officials said Sunday.

NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said Yugoslav troops in Kosovo, a majority-Albanian province of Serbia, are forcing tens of thousands of refugees into neighboring Albania and Macedonia, threatening to destabilize those countries.

"Whether we like it or not, we have to recognize we are on the brink of a major humanitarian disaster in Kosovo, the likes of which have not been seen in Europe since the closing days of World War II," Shea said.

NATO members the United States and Britain are moving more aircraft into the Balkans and to British bases to participate in the bombing campaign, now in its fifth day.

The alliance is giving increasing attention to reports that the Serb-led Yugoslav army, Serb police and paramilitaries have embarked on a campaign of "ethnic cleansing." In a new phase of bombings announced Saturday, NATO officials say air raids will focus on Yugoslav and Serb forces on the ground south of Belgrade.

"We are acting in a just cause. We are convinced of that," Shea said.

NATO attacks Saturday night were concentrated near Belgrade, with other strikes running south in a line through Pristina to the Macedonian border. The attacks were carried out "without significant collateral damage to civilian life or infrastructure," said Air Commodore David Wilby, a British member of NATO's staff.

"What is going on in Kosovo is not an improvised affair," Shea said. He bristled at suggestions that NATO military action may have made the situation worse, noting that the Serb offensive "started a long time before NATO ever got to air strikes."

Sixty-six NATO aircraft attacking in two waves struck 17 major targets on the fourth day of allied air operations against Yugoslavia.

Wilby, briefing reporters at NATO headquarters, said allied forces flew a total of 253 sorties in the last round of attacks, hitting 11 targets in the region of Belgrade and six others scattered across the country.

For the most part, those targets were still parts of Yugoslavia's integrated air defense system and command-and-control headquarters, and headquarters of Serbia special police units, who are responsible for much of the horror taking place in Kosovo.

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic met government and army leaders Sunday and declared the country fit to continue its resistance. Tanjug news agency said the people and armed forces were linked by "strong unity, a high patriotic conscience and determination to endure in the just struggle against the criminal aggressors."

Allied countries began sending reinforcements in aircraft and equipment to help in stepped-up strikes.

The Royal Air Force will commit another 12 combat planes and a tanker to the allied action in the Balkans, and the U.S. Air Force has been given permission to fly more B-52 heavy bombers out of British air bases, British Defense Secretary George Robertson said.

As bombs dropped, people in Belgrade gathered for a rock concert Sunday

Those planes will be part of NATO's attempt to stop attacks on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, he said.

The British commitment includes eight Tornado fighter- bombers, four additional Harrier ground attack planes and a tanker, Robertson said. The combat planes will be ready to participate in NATO attacks by Monday.

That announcement came a day after NATO's supreme commander, U.S. Gen. Wesley Clark, was given permission to attack Yugoslav troops in the field south of Belgrade, the Yugoslav capital. Robertson said the allies have new reports of attacks in Kosovo from refugees and international aid workers, and he said Milosevic bore the responsibility for the violence.

"We are increasingly swinging our attention to the military thugs that are causing so much misery and suffering directly at Milosevic's orders," he said.

Robertson said areas of Kosovo along the Macedonian border were "in flames," thousands of refugees were streaming across the border into Albania, and some were being used as human shields.

Meanwhile, Reuters quoted a senior government officials in Macedonia as saying that country was expected to ask NATO to admit it urgently as a member because of security concerns over the crisis in Kosovo on its northern border.

NATO began the air strikes Wednesday after the Milosevic government refused to sign a pact ending a year of ethnic strife in Kosovo. Representatives of the province's ethnic Albanian population have already signed the agreement.

NATO announced the second phase of its air campaign on Saturday -- a move that presents more danger to NATO pilots, who will be flying lower and more slowly in order to attack Yugoslav army positions south of Belgrade, Shea said.

The attacks will be carried out primarily in Kosovo and areas just to the north of the province, though attacks on air defenses and other military facilities will continue in other parts of Yugoslavia, Shea said.

Serbian TV showed pictures of the downed F-117 Sunday

Robertson and Gen. Sir Charles Guthrie, the British chief of staff, said the loss of a U.S. F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter shows that Yugoslav air defenses are still a threat. But Guthrie added, "The fact that this change is possible is a result of our attacks so far."

"The pressure and tempo (of NATO attacks) will not diminish. Indeed, they will increase," Guthrie said. "Their unacceptable actions in Kosovo come at a very high price."

Wilby said the F-117 aircraft that went down in Yugoslavia is the only allied plane lost since the airstrikes began. The pilot was recovered by a special search and rescue team.

More reports of attacks on civilians in Kosovo emerged Saturday and early Sunday. A village in Kosovo just north of Macedonia was on fire Saturday, and residents who fled across the border told CNN that police had ordered them to leave their homes within two hours or be killed.

Thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees left Kosovo and poured into neighboring Albania and Macedonia, telling of forced roundups and expulsions. Independent confirmation of those reports was difficult, because most international journalists and observers have been expelled from Kosovo by the Serbian government.

Robertson repeated the warnings against war crimes that Western officials have issued in recent days, and he urged Serb troops to second-guess their officers when given orders to attack civilians.

He called the Serb offensive "murderous" and said a veteran Serb commander in ethnic wars that wracked Bosnia and Croatia has been spotted in Kosovo.

"I don't use the term murderous lightly," Robertson said. "What we see happening, and what we hear from those who have managed to escape and from the reports of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and from the Red Cross are enough - - and more than enough -- to convince us that we are confronting a regime which is intent on genocide.

"These airstrikes have one purpose alone, and that is to stop the genocide."

Milosevic asks for 'all necessary assistance'

On state television Saturday, Milosevic lambasted the NATO attacks and called for international support.

"It is the duty of all free countries to stand up to the military despotism of NATO, led by the United States, which is destroying the United Nations system and represents the most serious threat to international peace and security since World War II," Milosevic said.

He had met with Ukrainian defense and foreign ministers, who came to Belgrade to try to mediate Yugoslavia's standoff with the West.

"As an attacked country, Yugoslavia should get all necessary assistance," added the defiant Yugoslav leader, alluding to traditional allies of Serbs, including Russia and Ukraine.

But President Milo Djukanovic of Montenegro, one of the two republics that make up the Yugoslav federation, called on Milosevic Saturday to resume peace talks with the Kosovar Albanians.

After Djukanovic met with his Cabinet in the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica, the leadership issued a statement that "conflict with the world, which has kept Yugoslavia isolated, is no policy for the future of our people and our state."

Djukanovic has been a longtime critic of Milosevic, but he also called on NATO to end the air offensive. Although Montenegro declared neutrality in the dispute, military targets in Montenegro have been bombed.

Correspondents Christiane Amanpour, Brent Sadler, Chris Burns, Chris Black, Jeanne Meserve and Patricia Kelly contributed to this report.

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