US-led NATO Bombing Against Yugoslavia Casts Shadow on Disarmament, Says Chinese Official GENEVA, May 11 (Xinhua) -- The United States-led NATO bombardment against Yugoslavia is among a series of development which has cast a deep shadow over the work of the Conference on Disarmament (CD), said Chinese Ambassador Li Changhe here Tuesday. Speaking at the opening meeting of the second part of the CD's 1999 session, Li said thatNATO began its aerial bombardment of the sovereign state of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) three days before the end of the first part of the 1999 session. NATO's indiscriminate bombing in the past 48 days have caused large-scale civilian casualties and hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing their homes, Li said, adding that this is the biggest humanitarian disaster since the end of the Cold War. In a latest development, Li said, NATO attacked the Chinese embassy in the FRY last weekend by missiles, killing three people and wounding more than 20 others. "The bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia is an extremely grave event," Li pointed out. "The US-led NATO must make convincing clarifications and explanations for this and bear all political, legal and financial responsibilities arising therefrom." Another shadow-casting development is that a certain country announced its plan to speed up work on the "National Missile Defense (NMD)" and "Theater Missile Defense (TMD)" and demanded to revise the "Anti-ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM)", according to Li. "This decision will have profound negative influence on the global and regional strategic balance and stability, and trigger a new round of arms race to the detriment of international disarmament process," Li stressed. Li told the meeting that the Chinese government and its people uphold justice, love peace and are ready to develop mutually beneficial and friendly cooperative relationship with other countries. "However, we will not tolerate any bullying and aggression, neither do we fear any threat and pressure," he said. On March 26, the last day of the first part of this year's CD session, Li recalled, Chinese President Jiang Zemin delivered an important speech at the plenary. As what President Jiang has pointed out, the Cold War mentality still lingers on and that hegemonism and power politics manifest themselves from time to time. The tendency towards closer military alliance is on the rise. And new forms of "gunboat policy" are rampant. Jiang has thus called for the cultivation of a new security concept that meets the need of the times and calls for vigorous efforts to explore new ways to safeguard peace and security.
