Captured US soldiers face trial

The three grim-faced US soldiers, part of a NATO peacekeeping force in neighboring Macedonia, were shown on Serbian television on Thursday dressed in camouflage, with bruises or abrasions on their faces.

The Tanjug state news agency reported the three would face military court proceedings today, but it was unclear when they would start. The charges were not immediately known.

State Department spokesman James Rubin said a Yugoslav court-martial of the three would violate international law.

NATO8217;s bombardment of Yugoslav targets continued today, though officials said it was hampered by poor weather that prevented some planes from carrying out missions. Skies over Yugoslavia have been partly cloudy for the past two days.

NATO missiles hit an army barracks today in the town of Vranje in southeastern Serbia, state television reported. Initial reports said there were no casualties at the barracks, located in a populated area.

A Serb farmer was killed and his brother injured early today when a missile struck their house in the northern Kosovo village of Kursumlija, Tanjug reported. The agency said the house was near a power station and speculated the station was the likely target.

Serbian television reported that 200 refugees 8212; mostly Serbs, Turks, gypsies and some Albanians from the northern Kosovo town of Kosovska Mitrovica 8212; arrived in Belgrade by train early Friday to escape 8220;the terrorists and NATO.8221;

At least eight cruise missiles were fired from US ships in the Adriatic at about midnight on Thursday, and the Pentagon dispatched a dozen F-117A Stealth fighters to the region to join 11 of the radar-evading planes already operating over Yugoslavia.

Meanwhile, opinion in US defence circles was divided over strategies to be employed in the worsening conflict in the Balkans.

NATO could neutralise The Yugoslav army and achieve the alliance objective of 8220;stopping bloodshed8221; in Kosovo by air power without involving ground troops, a top US army official has claimed.

8220;It is possible to destroy the Yugoslav army and leave it unable to threaten the two million Kosovar Muslims of Albanian origin by continued use of air power,8221; NATO8217;s supreme commander General Wesley Clark told mediapersons yesterday.

But US Ambassador to the UN Jean Kirkpatrick, disagreeing with Clark, said ground troops should be used to 8220;drive all Serbian military, security and paramilitary forces from Kosovo.8221;

Former director of the Pentagon8217;s National Security Agency Lt Gen William E Odom felt 8220;ground troops should go ahead and take Belgrade8221;.

8220;The task of taking Belgrade and the whole of Yugoslavia, removing President Slobodan Milosevic from office and replacing him with a democrat will take not more than 30,000 to 40,000 troops,8221; Odom said in an article in the Wall Street Journal.

Former chairman of the house sub-committee on Asia Pacific and ex-Congressman Stephen Solarz, writing for the Washington Post

, also suggested use of ground forces.

One-third of Kosovo population displaced: NATO

One-third of Kosovo8217;s pre-conflict population of 1.8 million ethnic Albanians is now displaced, NATO spokesman Jamie Shea said in Brussels today, AFP reports said.

8220;The latest estimates we have are that the number of internally displaced persons8230; is now upwards of 634,000. In other words, it8217;s reached one-third of the pre-conflict population,8221; Shea said.

He added that NATO wanted to know where all the men aged 16-60 were, especially after reports that they had been herded into camps or used as human shields. 8220;Where are the men?8221; he asked.