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July 8, 1999
Web posted at: 1:14 p.m. EDT (1714 GMT)

In this story: NATO did 'enough,' British official says Two-thirds of Kosovo refugees head home RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- A Serb crowd harangued a top Yugoslav opposition leader in Kosovo on Thursday as he sought religious leaders' support for open government and the ouster of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

Angry Serbs interrupted a news conference with jeers and attacked reporters after a meeting between Democratic Party head Zoran Djindjic and Serbian Orthodox Church leaders at a monastery near Kosovo's provincial capital Pristina. British peacekeeping troops quickly broke up the scuffle.

Djindjic said Serbia, the dominant republic in the Yugoslav federation, must open its political system if it is to protect the Serb minority in Kosovo.

"With undemocratic Serbia, they have no chance," Djindjic said. "The Serbs in Serbia do not have a chance and the Serbs in Kosovo are without chance if we do not achieve the democratic changes in Serbia."

But his message did not go over well with pro-Milosevic Serbs, some of whom yelled, "You're trying to destroy our government."

The church already has called on Milosevic to step down, as have demonstrators in cities in southern Serbian cities such as Leskovac and Nis.

In another city, Prokuplje, Milosevic's ruling Socialist Party cancelled a demonstration in support of his leadership, while opposition leaders said they would go forward with a rally of their own.

There is no sign from Belgrade that the Yugoslav leader plans to relinquish power, and the opposition is still small and disorganized.

While protests like those in Leskovac have drawn 10,000 to 15,000 people, those are still small compared to anti- Milosevic rallies in 1996 and 1997 that drew hundreds of thousands of opponents.

Also in Pristina on Thursday, British Defense Secretary George Robertson called Milosevic "a loser" and said the demonstrations show that Yugoslavs are horrified over what Milosevic did in their names in Kosovo.

About 860,000 ethnic Albanians fled or were expelled from Kosovo during a crackdown in the province before and during the NATO bombing attacks against Yugoslavia that began March 24 and lasted 11 weeks.

Milosevic insisted the action was necessary to quell a terrorist-led secessionist movement.

During a visit with NATO peacekeepers in the provincial capital, Robertson turned aside questions about the effectiveness of the allied campaign that led to setting up the KFOR peacekeeping mission in Kosovo.

NATO did 'enough,' British official says

"When people ask us what damage did we do to the Serb troops, the answer to that is 'enough.' We did enough damage inside Kosovo, and inside the federal republic of Yugoslavia, to get Milosevic to capitulate and to get Milosevic to adhere to the objectives and the demands that we set out," Robertson said.

His visit came as the United States -- which provided most of the aircraft used in the air war -- launched an extensive evaluation review of the conflict.

Robertson: "The message of NATO and the message of these demonstrators is very clear: Milosevic is a loser"

The Pentagon is expected to focus on U.S. shortages of precision-guided weapons and electronic-warfare aircraft, and a need for better intelligence, particularly after embarrassing mistakes such as the bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade.

In addition, the study will examine whether NATO's need for consensus among its 19 members allowed time for Yugoslav forces to pursue a campaign against ethnic Albanian civilians, and hamstrung NATO commanders by limiting risks and targets.

But critics are missing the larger point, Robertson said: Yugoslav troops left Kosovo, and displaced ethnic Albanians are returning.

"That is what at the end of the day matters -- not the bean counting, not the number of damaged tanks."

Two-thirds of Kosovo refugees head home

With NATO troops in place around the province and a U.N. administration taking over, more refugees are returning to Kosovo daily. The first planeload of Kosovars who had sought shelter in Germany returned to the Balkans on Thursday.

Nearly 160 Kosovars left Germany for the Macedonian capital Skopje, before traveling on to Kosovo. Germany is paying for their flights and giving each person about $240 in aid.

Of the ethnic Albanians who fled Kosovo, about two-thirds, or 600,000, have returned since the war ended in June, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimates.

Some of those returning knew what had happened to their homes and towns; others were forced to flee by Yugoslav troops before seeing the destruction.

"We only had five minutes to disappear," one woman said.

Many of the ethnic Albanians have turned on the Serbs, many of whom have asked for protection from KFOR troops or an escort out of Kosovo, the UNHCR said Thursday.

The relief agency said the Kosovo town of Strpce has become a sanctuary for about 11,000 Serbs.

Correspondents Alessio Vinci, Jamie McIntyre and Reuters contributed to this report.

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