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Yugoslav deputy PM breaks ranks as NATO intensifies air strikes

BELGRADE, April 26 (AFP)

Yugoslav Deputy Premier Vuk Draskovic has broken ranks with the Belgrade government, accusing its leaders of lying to the people, as NATO intensified its air raids.

Draskovic�s comments late Sunday, an encouraging sign for NATO policy-makers, came as the Alliance achieved one of its key military objectives � destroying the last bridge over the Danube at Novi Sad, in northern Serbia.

Draskovic, a former opposition leader, did not mention Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic by name but hit out at �those who are ruling� the country and �lying to the people� by making them believe that Russia would risk a third world war to defend Serbia.

�The men running this country must tell the people clearly where we stand and with whom we stand, tell them what will become of and what will remain of Serbia in 20 days if this dreadful bombing goes on,� Draskovic said.

In an interview with the private Serbian television station Studio B, he said it was the Yugoslav people who were the victims of a month of NATO bombing �not those who are leading them�.

�We should tell them; don�t expect anything from world opinion, nor from the collapse of NATO, nor from Russia. We are alone,� Draskovic said.

The apparent split in the Serb leadership will be welcomed by NATO which has had precious little to show for its air campaign in Yugoslavia launched on March 24. Milosevic shows no sign of backing down and the ethnic cleansing of Albanians which NATO had hoped to avert continues.

Draskovic�s comments came as ethnic Albanian Kosovar refugees arriving at the Albania-Montenegrin border Sunday, confirmed rumours of Serbian killings and atrocities in Montenegro which have triggered a new influx of refugees into Albania.