French waver on NATO plan to choke Yugoslav oil imports

NATO plans to search ships bound for Yugoslavia in an effort to enforce an oil embargo
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Chirac: Intercepting ships 'act of war'

April 24, 1999
Web posted at: 7:22 p.m. EDT (2322 GMT)

In this story: Clark to develop search procedures Shea: Serbs siphon gas from refugees' cars Strikes go on despite bad weather Belgrade mourns Serb TV staff NATO military leader gains flexibility Ground troops not discussed at summit Nis hard hit in overnight attacks RELATED STORIES, SITES

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- NATO military planners have been ordered to prepare for inspections of ships bound for Yugoslavia in an effort to cut off the oil fueling the country's armed forces.

But at least one NATO leader, French President Jacques Chirac, expressed reservations Saturday about using military force to board ships that don't voluntarily comply with the oil embargo on Yugoslavia, which has been endorsed by both NATO and the European Union.

"Intercepting a ship on the high seas is an act of war in international law. That raises some problems," Chirac said.

Despite Chirac's comments, NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana said NATO's "unanimity is total" on the decision to try to keep oil shipments from entering Yugoslavia's ports.

Clark to develop search procedures

NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said Saturday that the procedures for how ships will be searched, and which ships will be boarded, will be developed over the next few days by NATO Supreme Commander Gen. Wesley Clark. His plans will then be submitted to the alliance's political leadership for approval.

Shea did not give a date for when the so-called "visit-and-search regime" to interdict oil shipments would begin.

Of particular concern is the possible reaction of Russia if any of its ships were to be intercepted. Russia has been a major supplier of oil to Yugoslavia.

"I hope that will not be necessary," said Solana, of the possibility of intercepting a Russian vessel. He said NATO officials would begin immediate discussions with the Russians in an effort to get them to honor the embargo.

"I hope very much we will get a common position with the Russians," he said.

Shea: Serbs siphon gas from refugees' cars

Shea said NATO considers oil "arms-related material" that is covered by a U.N. arms embargo imposed on Yugoslavia.

"It's very important to us to continue ... to tighten the taps -- to switch off the oil taps completely," Shea said. Yugoslavia's two oil refineries have been rendered inoperable by a month of NATO airstrikes and about 70 percent of its oil supplies have been destroyed, he said.

At a press conference Saturday afternoon, U.S. President Bill Clinton defended the decision to intercept oil shipments.

"How can we justify risking the lives of the pilots to go up and destroy the refinery and the supply capacity of Serbia and then say, 'But it's okay with us if people want to continue to supply this nation and its outlaw actions in Kosovo in another way,'" Clinton said.

In what NATO believes is an illustration of the growing fuel problems in Yugoslavia, Shea said there have been reports that the Yugoslavs are siphoning gasoline from cars abandoned by ethnic Albanians who have fled Kosovo.

"That's the final act of robbery that they seem to be perpetrating against the Kosovar Albanians who have been forced to flee," he said.

While the alliance ordered Clark to carry out intensified attacks on oil pipelines and tanker trucks in Serbia, he was instructed to stop bombing facilities in Montenegro, the other, pro-Western republic that makes up the Yugoslav federation.

Strikes go on despite bad weather

NATO missiles struck an oil refinery in Novi Sad

Despite bad weather, NATO launched a series of strikes late Friday and early Saturday that included an attack on an oil refinery in Novi Sad, a fuel storage facility in central Serbia, three airfields and radio and television transmission towers.

Military vehicles in Kosovo were also hit, said Col. Konrad Freytag, a NATO military spokesman.

A spokesman for British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Saturday that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has put a number of high-ranking military officers -- including generals -- under house arrest. Shea confirmed that report, characterizing the arrested generals as retired.

"There are many retired generals in Yugoslavia, because Milosevic retires generals all the time. He doesn't seem to have much trust in them. I wonder if they have much trust in him, and that is the real reason," Shea said.

Belgrade mourns Serb TV staff

In Belgrade, several thousand people turned out Saturday to mourn journalists and technicians who died in a NATO missile attack early Friday on the building housing Serbian state television. Yugoslav officials said at least 12 people died.

Clinton defended the decision to bomb the headquarters of Serbian TV, saying NATO military planners had determined that it was "an essential instrument of command and control" for military forces.

"It is not, in a conventional sense, a media outlet," Clinton said.

With leaders of NATO countries in Washington for the alliance's 50th anniversary summit, several hundred pro-Yugoslav demonstrators held a rally Saturday in Lafayette Park across from the White House.

They carried Yugoslav flags, waved the three-finger Yugoslav salute and chanted anti-NATO protests, including "Stop the bombing. Stop the War" and "Hey, hey, U.S.A., how many kids have you killed today?"

Many in the crowd wore T-shirts bearing bulls-eye targets, which Yugoslavs have adopted as a show of defiance.

NATO military leader gains flexibility

Shea also said Saturday that NATO defense ministers have agreed to give Clark "all of the operational assets that he requires in terms of extra assets to prosecute the air campaign with maximum effect."

He also confirmed that Clark has been given additional "operational flexibility" to attack a wider range of military targets without having to first seek approval from NATO's political leaders. But Shea said that does not include any decision to introduce ground forces into Kosovo.

In an interview with CNN, Albanian Foreign Minister Paskal Milo said his country would be willing to let NATO use its territory and facilities to launch a ground offensive against Yugoslavia.

"We have a responsibility to collaborate with NATO" as a member of the alliance's Partnership for Peace program, Milo said.

Ground troops not discussed at summit

But Shea again emphasized that while NATO is reviewing contingency plans for the possible use of ground troops, any talk of a ground offensive is "premature."

"The air campaign is our best means of achieving our objective of degrading substantially the Yugoslav forces and obliging them to quit Kosovo," he said. "There is no other option that can do this as quickly and as decisively."

NATO diplomats tell CNN that the question of deploying ground troops has not been raised by any of the leaders at the NATO summit, despite public suggestions by Britain and France that ground troops should be used.

Diplomatic sources said there would be no move toward ground troops because major allies say they do not have public support for the deployment of combat forces in Kosovo.

In another diplomatic development, Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy said he may travel to Moscow in an effort to move forward efforts to resolve the Kosovo crisis.

Axworthy told reporters that he will carry no "secret plan" or initiative but rather will exchange ideas with Russians on recent peace proposals put forward by former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and others.

Nis hard hit in overnight attacks

Belgrade radio said a NATO attack early Saturday morning on Nis, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) southeast of Belgrade, ripped through an industrial zone and knocked out electrical power and running water to nearby areas.

In Novi Sad, Serbia's second-largest city, an oil refinery and the last remaining bridge were attacked in what Belgrade radio said was NATO's 12th strike on the city.

Two oil storage tankers were ablaze. Belgrade radio said six missiles were fired at the bridge but it appeared to have withstood the assault.

In the village of Bogutovac, near the central Serb city Kraljevo, a fuel depot owned by Beopetrol was struck. Twenty explosions jolted the southwestern Serb town of Novi Bazar, near Montenegro.

Belgrade radio also said 15 missiles hit Pristina, Kosovo's provincial capital, causing extensive damage to civilian areas.

Correspondents Wolf Blitzer, Ralph Begleiter, Brent Sadler and Patricia Kelly contributed to this report.

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