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NATO hits Milosevic party headquarters a second time
April 26, 1999
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Blasts early Tuesday shook the former headquarters of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's ruling Socialist Party for a second time in less than a week. The official Tanjug news agency also reported a series of explosions around Sombor, near the Hungarian border, and in Yugoslavia's second largest city, Novi Sad. In Belgrade, CNN's Brent Sadler reported the rooftop of the 23-story building, which supports an array of television and radio antennas, was struck. "There was a tremendous explosion," Sadler said. "I can confirm that the top floor, the roof of that building where this array of antennas was situated, has been attacked." Serbian television, which was knocked off the air by NATO airstrikes twice in three nights, remained on the air, Sadler said. On Monday, the government ordered commercial stations to rebroadcast two national Serbian television newscasts at specific times and also imposed military censorship, according to Yugoslav officials. The measures were seen as an attempt to minimize disruptions of the state-run network by NATO bombing raids. However, they drew protests from Yugoslavia's deputy prime minister, Vuk Draskovic, whose party owns the private Channel, Studio B. Deputy premier: Yugoslavia should accept compromiseIn comments earlier Monday, Draskovic appeared to criticize the Yugoslav government, saying that his country was too small to challenge the powerful NATO forces and must be willing to compromise over Kosovo. "Our role is very often ruled by the law of power instead of the power of law," Vuk Draskovic said on CNN. "We are too small to change things. We must be very brave to approach compromise." Yugoslavia must be prepared to "accept a U.N. mission under the flag of U.N. international forces here for the establishing and protecting the peace in Kosovo," Draskovic said. Draskovic avoided the question of whether his statements were in agreement with Milosevic, except to say that he was "not an advocate of Milosevic." Milosevic has repeatedly rejected a plan calling for U.N. peacekeepers in his country. His party, the deputy prime minister said, sought democratic reforms in Yugoslavia, striving to change "misunderstandings with Europeans and Americans into understandings, all disagreements into agreements." But, he said, the "aggression against my state must stop." He held NATO responsible for "the consequences of aggression and for the aggression."
The latest raid in NATO's monthlong bombing campaign took out the last of three bridges connecting Novi Sad with the Serb heartland in the south, NATO said Monday. NATO airstrikes are targeting the Serbs' ability to communicate and resupply. "My country Serbia looks very close to Hiroshima," Draskovic said. "Very soon all Serbia will look like Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Why, why this collective punishment against one small and innocent nation?" Draskovic denied saying Sunday on Serb TV that Milosevic was lying to the country. "I didn't mention Mr. Milosevic as a man lying to our people," he said. "I just protested against the fact that some leaders in our country are not ready to face every moment, every day our nation to send them the truth -- the truth about casualties of NATO aggression, the crimes against our poor innocent nation." Apache helicopter crashesA U.S. Apache helicopter crashed on a nighttime training mission in Albania on Monday, the Pentagon said. Initial reports said the helicopter may have hit a tree and gone down about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northeast of the Albanian capital, Tirana. Army sources said the two-man crew escaped and was evacuated by helicopter to a mobile hospital unit, where the men were reported in good condition. The Pentagon said the incident was being considered an accident and had no indication the Apache was brought down by hostile fire. Red Cross visits U.S. servicemenWhile NATO's air campaign continued to rain bombs on Yugoslavia, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it had been allowed to meet with three U.S. servicemen captured more than three weeks ago by the Yugoslav army. "I had the occasion to see them and shake their hands, and I had a short talk with all three," ICRC President Cornelio Sommaruga said. "It was not possible to have a full-fledged ICRC visit in accord with the provisions of the Geneva Convention." The Red Cross has been promised a longer visit with the servicemen on Tuesday. Yugoslavia had pledged to abide by Geneva Conventions rules about the treatment of prisoners of war, but until this point had not allowed a visit from the ICRC, one of the conventions' requirements. Staff Sgt. Christopher Stone, Staff Sgt. Andrew Ramirez and Spc. Steven Gonzales were captured, reportedly while on a routine patrol as part of the peacekeeping mission in Macedonia. Novi Sad bridges all destroyed
The bombing campaign targets included sites in Pricevic, Valjevo and Smederevo, according to Internet reports, as well as the bridge at Novi Sad. "In spite of continuing poor weather in the operational area, NATO continued with its air campaign," British chief of defense staff Gen. Charles Guthrie said. "A number of targets in Serbia were attacked, including destroying the third and last remaining bridge over the Danube in Novi Sad." NATO had struck all three spans before, rendering two of them unusable, before wrecking the final span, the Zezeljev Bridge, on Sunday night. Yugoslav anti-aircraft batteries were said to have responded to the attack, but NATO said all its planes returned safely from the mission. NATO also confirmed an attack on a fuel depot at Pricevic. Attacks took place at Smederevo, according to Internet reports, while Serb TV reported attacks at Sombor near the Hungarian border and the Slatina airport outside Pristina. Correspondents Brent Sadler and Jamie McIntyre contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES: French waver on NATO plan to choke Yugoslav oil imports RELATED SITES: Extensive list of Kosovo-related sites:
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