-Caveat Lector- <<Will this be Romania's & Bulgaria's ticket to ride on the NEATO train?>> : From Int'l Herald Tribune : : Paris, Wednesday, April 21, 1999 : NATO Gets Right To Use Airspace Bordering Serbia : Romania and Bulgaria Approval Will Allow Campaign to Expand : : -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- : ---- : By Joseph Fitchett International Herald Tribune : -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- : ---- : PARIS - Seeking to throw more airpower into the Kosovo campaign, NATO got : approval Tuesday from Bulgaria and Romania to use their airspace in an : expanded bombing campaign. : The move came as allied officials acknowledged that Serbian strength in the : province was largely undented after four weeks of bombing and missile : attacks. : : Albania, another non-NATO country, already has made its military facilities : available to NATO for the alliance's aid to refugees and its attacks on : Serbian forces in Kosovo. : : Serbian and Albanian forces briefly exchanged fire on the border as U.S. : Apache helicopters, unexpectedly reinforced with 500 men from the 82d : Airborne Division, started arriving in Albania. : : The Czech Republic and Hungary, the two NATO allies closest to Serbia : geographically, also were being asked for help. The Czech government, which : : has opened its airspace, was reported Tuesday to have approved letting : allied forces cross the country by road and rail, presumably from Germany to : Hungary. : : Hungary, the only NATO country that shares a frontier with Serbia, could be : used as a launching point for a ground drive into Serbia. More likely, : officials said, NATO forces in Hungary would tie down Yugoslav troops and : deter any cross-border incursions. : : As the allies sought to tighten the noose on Yugoslavia militarily and : economically, NATO reported that Serbian forces were pursuing ''ethnic : cleansing'' against the remaining civilian population of ethnic Albanians in : Kosovo and, for the first time, expanding the expulsion campaign to : Montenegro, Serbia's partner in the Yugoslav federation. : : Serbian forces also were reported to have crossed via Montenegro into the : peninsula of Prevlaka, a finger of Croatia that has been a demilitarized : zone under United Nations control since the end of the fighting in Bosnia : three years ago. : : Croatia's official news agency reported the incursion, which increased the : Serbian military pressure on Montenegro, which has Yugoslavia's only : seaport. The incursion would mark the first time that President Slobodan : Milosevic of Yugoslavia has challenged the territorial lines that emerged : from the Dayton peace accords on Bosnia, lines that are enforced by NATO. : : Officials of neighboring countries said that ethnic tensions were near the : flash point, notably in Macedonia, raising the specter of a wider conflict : if Serbian forces push out a final wave of Kosovars and send hundreds of : thousands of desperate, ill refugees into Macedonia and Albania. : : With both sides escalating their offensives at what could be a crucial : moment in the conflict, Western officials said that they were increasingly : fearful about the fate of several hundred thousand military-age men in : Kosovo. : : NATO air strikes once again were hampered by adverse weather, and officials : at alliance headquarters admitted that bombing, no matter how effective, : would not deprive Serbian armored forces of fuel completely as long as : Belgrade was able to import gasoline and lubricants via Montenegro. : : NATO is considering a naval blockade to cut deliveries by tankers, many of : which operate under flags of convenience. France has led objections in the : alliance to such an interdiction, arguing that NATO has no legal basis to : expand its campaign to the sea without a UN Security Council mandate. : : Hubert Vedrine, the French foreign minister, said that Paris backed an : allied study to pinpoint sources of vital supplies for Belgrade's military : machine and suggested that the European Union might be able to provide a : basis for action against the suppliers. : : NATO also could bomb facilities at ports in Montenegro used to unload : petroleum, but allied officials so far have preferred restraint as a way of : protecting the pro-Western government in the tiny republic from being : overthrown by the Serbian military. : : Hungary has not cut off a pipeline running across its territory that takes : oil to Belgrade, apparently because of fears for the Hungarian minority in : Serbia. : : In their effort to sustain morale in NATO countries, Prime Minister Tony : Blair of Britain and other Western officials hammered away at the themes of : Serbian barbarity and their own faith that the air war would shake Mr. : Milosevic and scatter his forces in Kosovo. : : But their show of confidence had to contend with new disclosures about the : shortcomings of NATO's air campaign. : : As Mr. Blair announced that raids had destroyed half of Serbia's fleet of : Russian-made MiG-29s, Western officials in other countries reported that : Serbian forces had stepped up their use of helicopters and low-flying : aircraft to intensify their repressive campaign against civilians in Kosovo. : : Overall, the air war has destroyed only about a tenth of the Serbian : military capabilities, General Jean-Pierre Kelch, chief of the French : general staff, said Tuesday in Paris. : : NATO's civilian spokesman, Jamie Shea, said that despite the air attacks, : Belgrade had been able to send ''about 8,000'' more troops into Kosovo. : : A Pentagon spokesman later lowered that estimate, putting the Serbian : reinforcements at 3,000, based on satellite observations. But the U.S. : official, who put total Serbian military strength in Kosovo at 43,000 men, : said that Belgrade had managed to beef up the paramilitary police units that : were continuing to drive out inhabitants, burn buildings and in some cases : execute male Kosovars. : : In what Mr. Shea called ''a kind of anti-humanitarian corridor,'' Serbian : forces apparently were driving about 150,000 Kosovar refugees away from the : province's northern border near Serbia and toward Pristina, the provincial : capital, implying that Mr. Milosevic was pursuing a systematic emptying of : the area near Serbia, perhaps with an eye to partition, and also perhaps : rounding up the civilians as a final shield against allied air attacks. : : With Western officials still ruling out any attempt to use ground troops to : confront the Serbian forces or even create limited perimeters of safe haven : for Kosovars, NATO sought to gain more angles of attack for its growing air : armada in enlisting the cooperation of Bulgaria and Romania. Both are : non-NATO countries that want to join the alliance, so parliamentary approval : of the governments' consent is likely, officials in Brussels said. : : Albania, straining under the refugee influx and threatened with Serbian : attacks, already has sought to cast itself as a country that has become a : ward of NATO as it has handed over its military facilities to alliance : needs. It issued an appeal for massive Western aid after the conflict. : : The spearhead of a low-level air assault on Serbian tanks, 24 U.S.-made : Apache Longbow attack helicopters were due to arrive at their newly built : base in Albania on Tuesday, three weeks after NATO asked for them. : : Hampered by mud in their improvised base, which U.S. advance teams : apparently built in a low-lying area near a larger airfield, the Apaches : will only become operational in a week, officials said. : : : -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- : ---- : : : : : ~~~~~~~~~~~~ : A<>E<>R : : The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking : new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust : + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + : Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved : the absolute rejection of authority. -Thomas Huxley : + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + : Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed : + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + : In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material : is distributed without charge or profit to those who have : expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information : for non-profit research and educational purposes only. : DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. 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