BRUSSELS, Jan 21 (AFP)
NATO has marshalled a fleet of around 200 warplanes, mostly US fighters and bombers based in Italy, to hit possible targets in Serbia which has fewer than 80 at its disposal.
The NATO warplanes are equipped with either cruise missiles or air-to-ground assault missiles, and with air-to-air defence missiles.
The western alliance decided Wednesday to beef up its resources in the region, sending the aircraft-carrier USS Enterprise and eight other NATO warships into the Adriatic which they should reach some time in the next few days.
The allied warships and submarines in the Mediterranean and Adriatic are also equipped to fire cruise missiles, which would play a leading role in the early stages of an allied intervention as they would remove the need to risk the lives of pilots overflying Serbian targets.
The degree of alert at the Italian airbases was reduced Wednesday from 96 to 48 hours.
The air-fleet includes long-range B-2 Stealth bombers, several F-15 and F-16 fighters, and a variety of planes for purposes ranging from refuelling to radar-scrambling.
Other contributors include France, which is sending 10 warplanes, Britain, which has deployed four fighter-bombers and a refuelling plane, the Netherlands and Germany.
Eight German fighter-bombers, Tornado-ECRs specialized in finding and destroying anti-aircraft batteries, left for Italy on Thursday, the defense ministry in Bonn said.
Denmark said it would send four F-16”s later in the week, and Belgium announced Thursday that it would be sending six F-16 fighter-bombers to Italy “in the next few hours.”
At the time of the last Kosovo crisis in October 1998, NATO had around 430 warplanes ready for possible intervention.
By contrast, the Yugoslav air force has 79 Russian-built MiG warplanes as well as a broad air-defense network with surface-to-air missiles (SAM), according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
The Serbs have eight SAM batteries at eight different sites, and their arsenal includes at least 100 SAM with a range of 2-16 kilometers (1-10 miles), the IISS said.
Their SAM 6 has been upgraded recently and Belgrade is believed to have linked its air-defense network with a similar one in ethnic Serb-ruled areas of Bosnia to detect any NATO air raids as early as possible.
Following a possible intervention, NATO military experts believe the implementation of a ceasefire in Kosovo would require land forces of 26,000 men and the prior approval of Belgrade.
The figure is considered politically sensitive by NATO diplomats who have asked their military colleagues to find ways of revising it downwards.
NATO is already heavily committed in Bosnia-Hercegovina, where it has 30,000 troops policing a police treaty, and NATO sources say that the winter conditions would make the deployment of even more troops in the Balkans an extremely delicate exercise.
Gulbanu ABENOVA
ALMATY, Jan 21 (The Globe)
“I will never break this oath. Deriving strengths from our glorious past, we will go towards the next century with a steady gait!” – assured Nursultan Nazarbayev in his solemn speech on January 20 in Astana.
After the head of the state was elected for a new term of office, he took the oath of the President of the Republic of Kazakstan and swore to abide by our laws, our national honour and dignity. “If there had not been the election, one would have invented it in the sake of the moment of verity!” – said Nursultan Nazarbayev The President thanked his adherents, “who had been doing a colossal work for all these months”, paid tribute to the home and foreign journalists and observers, who provided with impartial and honest analysis of the situation. January the 20th in Astana, on the first Wednesday after the election results had been summed up, Nursultan Nazarbayev’s inauguration took place. Wednesday was selected not by chance. According to Kazakh custom Wednesday is considered a lucky day: “Sarsenby – satty kun”. Although, the solemn ceremony produced an impression of dry and official as it is in the western countries without any eastern pomp and extravagances, Russian TV channels showed the white carpet with blue borders, on which the President strode to the Congress Hall. “In the old days the Kazakhs greeted and lifted khans namely on the white carpet”, they commented. They also did not forget about a gift of father of his son-in-law, Askar Akayev. On the first day after election he gifted a huge stick made of a special sort of wood symbolising immense power.
Some mass media calculated that Nursultan Nasarbayev has been in power for 17 years. Let me remind in December 1979 he was appointed secretary of the Central Committee (CC). From March 1984 he was the chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Republic. In June 1989 – the First secretary of the Communist Party’s CC, from April 1990 – the President of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, from December 1991 – the President of the Republic of Kazakstan. According the results of nation-wide referendum in 1995 the President’s office was extended till December 2000. As it is known, on October 8 last year Nursultan Nazarbayev gave a consent to hold prescheduled election in January 1999. According to them the same record-holders were Leonid Brezhnev, who had been in the capacity of party leader and the head of the USSR for 18 years and American President Rusvelt, leading the country four times. Even though, Kazakstani TV channels informed that a large overseas official delegation arrived at Astana, there were not too much officials from the western countries and the USA. President of Kyrgyzstan – Askar Akayev, of Uzbekistan – Islam Karim Karimov, Bashkortostan – Murtaza Rakhimov, Tatarstan – Mintimir
Shaimiyev, Ingushetia – Ruslan Aushev, the Republic of Sakha – Mikhail Nikolayev. Prime Ministers: of Russia – Yevgeniy Primakov, of the Ukraine – Valeriy Pustovoytenko, Moldova – Yon Chubuk, Tadzhikistan – Yakhye Azimov, Georgia – Vaza Lordkipanidze. Representatives from Iran, Turkey and China.
Translation – “Insel” C.V.