BELGRADE, March 25 (AFP)
NATO slammed Yugoslavia with bombs and missiles Wednesday, making good on a long-standing threat to punish President Slobodan Milosevic for the crisis in Kosovo.
The government declared �a state of war� for the first time since World War II, in the face of what official media called an �act of aggression� by the United States and its European allies.
One Yugoslav MiG-29 fighter was shot down, the US Defense Department said, adding that another two might also have been downed in air-to-air combat.
General Nebojsa Pavkovic, commander of Yugoslav forces in Kosovo, claimed that two NATO warplanes were shot down, along with six of the cruise missiles that spearheaded the attacks.
But NATO commanders said they had no information of any lost aircraft, in the 19-nation trans-Atlantic alliance�s first offensive against a sovereign state in its 50-year history.
Some 40 sites were targeted, Yugoslav military headquarters in Belgrade said, about six hours after the air strikes began under cover of night.
They included five airports, five military bases, several communications and command centers, storage depots and two weapons factories.
But in a statement carried by the Tanjug news agency, the headquarters said: �The effects of the bombing have been minimal.�
Relentless bombing rattled Belgrade, Kosovo�s capital Pristina, and many other cities and towns not only in Serbia, but also in Yugoslavia�s smaller republic of Montenegro.
Serbia televison aired dramatic pictures of buildings engulfed in flames, with smoke billowing high into the night sky.
While lights went out in Pristina, the mood in Belgrade was tense. Many people stayed in their homes, ignoring official calls for them to move to bomb shelters.
Yugoslav domestic media said targets included an aeronautical factory near Belgrade, and the country�s biggest weapons factory, situated at Kragujevac, in central Serbia.
One soldier was reported killed in northern Montenegro, with three others suffering serious burns, official radio in Podgorica reported.
Tanjug news agency alleged that relatives of military personnel, including women and children, were killed when housing units were hit.
In Pristina, the Serbian-run media center said civilians had been wounded.
The UN Security Council met in an emergency session in New York, where Russian ambassador Sergei Lavrov said Moscow �vehemently demands the immediate cessation� of NATO strikes.
�The Federation of Russia demands the immediate cessation of this illegal military action,� he said.
In Moscow, President Boris Yeltsin suspended Russia�s military cooperation with NATO and threatened �military measures� if NATO�s air strikes against Yugoslavia led to an extention of the Kosovo conflict in Europe.
In Washington, US President Bill Clinton blamed Milosevic for pursuing a policy of war in Kosovo, where an ethnic Albanian majority � stripped of their autonomy a decade ago � has been fighting for self-rule.
�Kosovo�s crisis now is full-blown, and if we do not act, clearly, it will get even worse,� Clinton said. �Only firmness now can prevent a greater catastrophe later.�
�Our strikes have three objectives,� he said.
�First, to demonstrate the seriousness of NATO�s opposition to aggression and its support for peace.�
�Second, to deter President Milosevic from continuing and escalating his attacks on helpless civilians by imposing a price for those attacks.�
�And third, if necessary, to damage Serbia�s capacity to wage war against Kosovo in the future by seriously diminishing its military capabilities.�
The attacks follow Milosevic�s refusal to accept a peace accord hammered out at Rambouillet chateau near Paris in February, and a parallel Serbian offensive against Kosovo rebels.
The Rambouillet accord called for broad autonomy in Kosovo, plus the deployment of 26,000 NATO-led peacekeepers in the province.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan backed Wednesday�s air strikes, but lamented that the UN Security Council was not consulted.
�It is indeed tragic that diplomacy has failed. But there are times when the use of force may be legitimate in the pursuit of peace,� Annan said.
The European Commission�s president-designate, former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi, called for a new Kosovo peace conference once the bombing is over.
In Berlin, British officials at a European Union summit said eight NATO member states took part in the opening wave of attacks � Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States.
But a US congressman, Ike Skelton, said the total number was 14 member nations.
Some 70 aircraft including 10 F1-17 �Stealth� bombers took off from the big NATO air base at Aviano, northern Italy, in successive waves, spokesmen said. Others left bases in Istrina, Gioia del Colle and Piacenza.
The wide variety of of warplanes included Mirages, Tornados, A-10 and F-18 fighters, and an AWACS airborne radar craft, plus American B-52 bombers.
by Angus MacKinnon
BERLIN, March 24 (AFP)
EU leaders on Wednesday appointed Italy�s Romano Prodi as the next president of the European Commission, drawing a line under the crisis created by last week�s resignation of the current EU executive.
Announcing the decision, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said the 59-year-old Prodi was �great quality� with a �reform-oriented� record that made him ideally qualified for the job in Brussels.
The unexpectedly quick decision on a successor to Jacques Santer was proof that Europe was capable of acting decisively in a crisis situation, Schroeder said.
Prodi reacted to news of his appointment with delight. �It will be a great challenge. But there is also enormous satisfaction for my country that there was unanimity.�
A former Italian prime minister, Prodi will take over from Jacques Santer within the next month, subject to a vote of approval from the European parliament.
Santer and the 19 other commissioners resigned last week after the publication of damning criticism of their handling of fraud and corruption.
The outgoing president has said he wants to leave his post by the end of April.
Schroeder said Santer should not be made to exclusively take the blame for what went wrong in Brussels. �He cannot be held responsible for everything personally.�
Wednesday�s decision means there will be enough time for Prodi to be approved by the parliament before it breaks up in May for June elections. Schroeder said he expected a vote on Prodi�s appointment in the week of April 12-16.
What will happen to the other 19 EU commissioners, who are currently continuing to do their jobs in a caretaker role, will be decided at a special informal meeting of EU leaders in early April, Schroeder said.
The talks will also focus on British-led demands for a radical overhaul of the way business is done in Brussels.
Jose-Maria Gil-Robles, the speaker of the European Parliament, said earlier Wednesday that any commissioner criticised in the independent report on corruption should be forced to quit Brussels alongside Santer.
Euro-MPs are particularly determined that former French prime minister Edith Cresson should not be allowed to carry on.
Cresson was severely criticised in an independent report on mismanagement which last week triggered the mass resignation of the commission.
The report accused the French commissioner of blatant nepotism and concealing information relating to corruption in programmes for which she was responsible.
Although France�s leaders have effectively disowned Cresson, Paris is reluctant to make a rushed decision on her successor. A possible solution would involve her responsibilities being transferred temporarily to another commissioner.
Provided some sort of temporary arrangement can be worked out to remove Cresson from the scene, Prodi will start work with the existing commission.
The full team will then face an approval vote by the new parliament in July.
This process will then have to be repeated at the end of the year, when the next five-year commission term is due to begin.
Around half of the current commissioners are expected to retire then.
The appointment of an entirely new commission at the same time as Prodi is regarded as not feasible by most EU governments.
Belgium and Portugal have indicated that they do not want to make decisions on replacements for their current commissioners to carry on until after elections later this year.
Britain has also indicated that it wants its two commissioners, Neil Kinnock and Sir Leon Brittan to continue to the end of the year.
Brittan is due to retire from public life then but Kinnock is expected to be named for another five years.
SANTIAGO, March 24 (AFP)
Foes and supporters of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet welcomed Wednesday�s ruling by Britain�s House of Lords upholding his arrest but throwing out most of the charges against him.
The Lords, Britain�s highest court, ruled that the 83-year-old former strongman should face proceedings on extradition to Spain, but only on two charges of torture and conspiracy to torture during the last two years of his rule.
The remaining 30 charges, relating to the period from when he seized power in a coup in 1973 to 1988, when he handed over to civilian rule, were dropped, in decision broadcast live on television and radio here.
The Lords decided that Pinochet � currently under house arrest at a secluded mansion southwest of London � could not face charges dating from before Britain signed international legislation against torture in 1988.
The dual nature of the ruling left both sharp critics of Pinochet�s grim rule in Chile and staunch backers of the retired general with something to celebrate.
�Pinochet will remain in custody� in Britain, declared Sola Sierra, president of an association of families of people who �disappeared� under Pinochet�s regime, which carried out violent repression against perceived opponents.
Still, Sierra moderated her joy: �Now we will see many cunning legal arguments, so that (British Home Secretary Jack) Straw can reverse his prior position and block the extradition process,� Sierra warned.
Meanwhile, in the offices of the foundation that bears Pinochet�s name, diehard supporters let out shouts of joy on hearing the ruling, apparently focused on the dropped charges, as leaders of Chile�s political right said they were satisfied.
�What has been bolstered here is Chile�s government and its defense of general Pinochet�s sovereign immunity,� said Senator Andres Chadwick of the conservative Independent Democratic Union.
�The Lords have recognized that (Pinochet�s) sovereign immunity was in full effect up to 1988,� he added.
Frei�s government pushed for Pinochet � who was arrested five months ago � to be set free on the grounds that he had immunity from such prosecution.
�This decision clears the way for general Pinochet�s certain return to Chile,� stressed Alberto Espina, who lead the rightist National Renewal Party.
But Pinochet�s son, Marco Antonio Pinochet told Chile Canal Siete television from London that the ruling was �unjust,� adding: �It is not a victory,� even though it �reduces the problem� of mounting a judicial defense.
SINGKAWANG, Indonesia
March 24 (AFP)
Hundreds of fresh troops were deployed Wednesday in Indonesia�s West Kalimantan province to halt grisly ethnic violence as the first shipload of 2,000 refugees arrived at the Javanese port of Surabaya.
�The battalion from Java has already been deployed in several areas in Sambas district now and this seems to have calmed down the situation here,� said Master Sergeant Marno of the military command here.
A total of 745 soldiers and police flew from Jakarta to Pontianak, the main city of West Kalimantan, on Tuesday to help 2,000 security forces in the province halt violence that has pitted the local Malay and Dayak communities against Madurese settlers.
They were immediately sent to their new postings.
Business was as usual here with markets crowded despite rumors that Dayak tribesmen from around the area were planning to converge on this mainly ethnic Chinese town to search for Madurese settlers seeking refuge here.
The bloodshed which erupted on March 15 had claimed 184 lives by late Tuesday, according to local press reports citing the military. It has sparked an exodus of Madurese settlers to various towns, including this city and Pontianak.
Madurese settlers have been mutilated and decapitated by their ethnic rivals amid eyewitness reports of ritual cannibalism.
�Our latest data shows that there are still 10,851 refugees in several towns in the Sambas district,� said Sayuti, an official at the coordination centre for the unrest at the local district office.
In Pontianak, officials at the provincial refugee coordination centre said that by early Wednesday, a total of 12,434 had been sheltered in nine separate locations in town.
�Hundreds more have joined their families and many have also already left the province for other cities,� said one official.
In Surabaya, East Java, separated only by the Madura Strait from the island of Madura, some 2,000 mostly Madurese migrants arrived by ferry from Pontianak early Wednesday, a witness said.
But authorites in Malaysia�s Sarawak state in Borneo on Wednesday sent a boatload of 411 Madurese back into international waters. They were now heading for Pontianak.
There were no immediate reports of violence in Sambas district early Wednesday. But some local journalists said tensions were high in the Semalantan sub-district southeast of here, where at least four Dayaks were shot dead during a firefight with soldiers Tuesday.
The shoot-out took place as a convoy of military vehicles was touring the area to rescue stranded Madurese settlers from menacing Dayak and Malay groups.
Some Dayaks opened fire with home-made muskets on the rescue convoy in Simpang, a hamlet near the town of Menterado. Six Madurese refugees were cowering under tarpaulins in the trucks at the time.
In 1997 tensions between the Dayaks and the Madurese erupted into violence, leaving 300 dead according to the official toll. As many as 4,000 were killed, according to independent tallies.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
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