Kosovo File

"Our key objective is not to deprive the Serb people of their electrical grid but to be able to disrupt and degrade at will the power which drives the military machine, so that it is shut off for significant periods of time and theYugoslav army has to go to enormous trouble to try to restore that power," the official said. He said NATO "regretted any inconvenience" to the Serbian people, who found large parts of the country suddenly blacked out on Sunday night by what Serb officials said were graphite-spraying air burst bombs.

"We want to worry the government and I think we did that last night," the official said. "We want to spare inconvenience to the Serb people but we have to go after the fundamental objectives," the official said.

WASHINGTON: The powerful wife of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, Marinja Markovic, said Yugoslavia was on the point of being destroyed in her first television interview on Sunday. Yugoslavs were being killed while they were sleeping, and bombs were falling on schools, nurseries and hospitals, Markovic, dubbed Lady Macbeth of the Balkans, told correspondent Dan Rather of CBS Television’s 60 Minutes. Casualties from the month-long NATO bombing campaign were highest among women andchildren, she said.

BUCHAREST: Romania gave NATO permission on Monday to use airports on its territory for operations against Yugoslavia, following a parliamentary vote on opening the country’s airspace, a statement said. Permission to use the "air space includes airports", said a Defence ministry statement, referring to a vote in parliament last month to grant NATO air access "with out restrictions and for an unlimited period." Bucharest has not said whether NATO has requested to use its airports for its campaign on neighbouring Yugoslavia. The airports closest to the border are at Timiso ara, Arad and Caransebes in western Romania. Romania, which is hoping to join NATO, has given the alliance full support sincethe start of Operation Allied Force against Yugoslavia.

BEIJING: China stepped up its campaign against NATO’s expansionist’ action plan and the ongoing air strikes against Yugoslavia with the state-run human rights organisation protesting Washington’s "hegemonistic"behaviour.

"It is undisguised hegemonism," the China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS) said in a statement released through the official Xinhua news agency. The CSHRS statement came in the wake of similar statements issued by the government-backed All China Journalists Association (ACJA) and the Chinese People’s Association for Peace and Disarmament (CPAPD) separately last week, condemning the military aggression against Yugoslavia.

NEW YORK: Slobodan Milosevic, Jiang Zemin and Fidel Castro topped the list of “enemies of the press” released by the committee to protect journalists. The presidents of Yugoslavia, China and Cuba were cited along with seven others for regimes that knowingly acted to suppress information through countless violations against journalists, including censorship, imprisonment, physical attack and even murder,” said Ann K Cooper, executive director of the advocacy group. The list was released yesterday for world press freedom day, which is today. Milosevic was citedfor suppressing the press through intimidation, assault, crippling fines, and license denials.

WASHINGTON: US President Bill Clinton said NATO would keep bombing Yugoslavia despite its release of US soldiers but invited a Russian envoy to washington tomorrow to discuss Moscow’s diplomatic efforts to end the Kosovo conflict. US officials said Belgrade’s release of the three soldiers, who flew to Germany today after US civil rights leader Rev Jesse Jackson secured their freedom would have no effect on the NATO air campaign that began on March 24. But the White House suggested that a diplomatic effort by Russia to end the Kosovo conflict might be bearing some fruit.