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Date sent: Thu, 20 May 1999 11:51:10 -0700
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From: Sid Shniad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: WAS SHE A HUMAN SHIELD OR JUST A NATO MISTAKE?- The Guardian
The Guardian Sunday May 16, 1999
WAS SHE A HUMAN SHIELD OR JUST A NATO MISTAKE?
By Patrick Wintour and Ed Vulliamy in Washington
Severe doubt was cast last night on Nato claims that it had attacked a
legitimate military target when it dropped 10 bombs on the village of
Korisa, killing 87 civilians and injuring a hundred more in the worst
blunder of the air campaign.
In an attempt to deflect political damage, Nato implied yesterday that
Serb forces had either coerced or tricked a 500-strong refugee convoy,
travelling through southern Kosovo, to park in a military compound turning
them into a form of human shield.
Expressing regret for the deaths, the Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said
one death is one too many but insisted: 'There were real clear military
targets on this site. There were 10 pieces of artillery, armoured personnel
carriers, dug-in positions and a command post.
'The Serbs have to explain why so many civilians were so close to what was
plainly a Serb military position.'
But journalists taken to the area by Serb officals 24 hours after the
attack - including The Observer's Lindsey Hilsum - said the site was an
open field in which it seemed unlikely that Serb troops would have placed
artillery.
There was no sign of military activity around the targeted buildings. The
only vehicles visible were tractors, and there was nowhere obvious in the
vicinity to hide military equipment.
One of the survivors told The Observer that the only Serbian officials
present before the attack were police who guarded them after ordering them
into the building.
The villagers had been attempting to flee to Albania during a Serb
military attack on supposed KLA supporters, when they were forced to return
to their village, and herded into the buildings where many of them were to
die.
The eyewitness accounts will lend support to critics of the bombing
campaign, much of which has been conducted from the relative safety of
altitudes above 15,000 feet.
A Nato spokesman, General Walter Jertz, said that as the site had been
already confirmed as a legitimate military target, the pilot, operating
just before midnight last Thursday, did not need to identify individual
vehicles.
He said: 'When the pilot attacked the target he had to visually identify
it through the attack systems in the aircraft. It was night. He did see the
silhouettes of vehicles on the ground, and as it was - by prior
intelligence - a valid target, he launched the attack.'
The furore over the deaths came as an attempt by President Slobodan
Milosevic to negotiate himself immunity from prosecution by the
International War Crimes Tribunal was summarily rebuffed by the West
yesterday.
Cook said: 'We cannot give such immunity. Who the War Crimes Tribunal
indicts is a matter for the War Crimes Tribunal, and we cannot get into any
bargaining that compromises its integrity or authority.
Nato reinforced its message of resolve yesterday by announcing an extra
2,300 British infantry, gunners and engineers were being put on standby to
reinforce the troops already in the Balkans. In the first sign that Nato
may be considering a parachute drop as part of a Kosovo invasion, the
Ministry of Defence said 680 of the troops would come from from the
Parachute Regiment based at Aldershot.
Prime Minister Tony Blair, interviewed by The Observer, yesterday refused
to rule out the use of ground troops. 'Nato is busy updating planning for
all contingencies,' he said. Asked if Nato soon faced a deadline by which
it would have to make a decision on ground troops, he said:'We are all well
aware of the harshness of the Balkan winter and the impact it has.'
Blair, who is to visit refugee camps in Albania this week, denied he was
the hawk within Nato or that he was laying his whole political reputation
on the war's successful outcome. He said: 'The whole of Nato and Europe has
staked its reputation on this. I believe politicians should do and say what
they believe, regardless of consequences.'
The latest bombing blunder is bound to increase Russian pressure on the G7
group of industrialised countries to agree a pause in the air campaign in
order to open negotiations with Belgrade over a full withdrawal of Serb
troops from Kosovo.
[PEN-L:7092] (Fwd) WAS SHE A HUMAN SHIELD OR JUST A NATO MISTAKE?- The Guar
ts99u-1.cc.umanitoba.ca [130.179.154.224] Thu, 20 May 1999 19:11:45 -0500
