Kosovo File

BELGRADE: In the first sign of a military pullout, about 120 Yugoslav troops in a convoy of trucks and buses were seen leaving Kosovo tod...

BELGRADE: In the first sign of a military pullout, about 120 Yugoslav troops in a convoy of trucks and buses were seen leaving Kosovo today.

Foreign reporters taken to a border post at Merdara saw the small convoy roll out of Kosovo, and a Serb army officer there blamed constant NATO bombing for the 8220;slow pace8221; of withdrawals since Yugoslavia announced a partial pullout had been ordered on Sunday.

NATO, which has rejected as unverified the Yugoslav troop withdrawal statement, has stepped up bombing raids on the some 40,000 Serb troops and military police deployed in Kosovo, part of Yugoslavia8217;S dominant Serb republic.

UNITED NATIONS: Taking a tough stance, China last night said it would block a humanitarian resolution by Muslim countries in the Security Council until the Council issued a statement on Friday8217;s NATO strikes on its embassy.

Beijing8217;s deputy UN representative Shen Guofang told reporters the three-week-old resolution on the Kosovo crisis would not be completed until the Council had dealt with the Chinese statement.

BEIJING: Chinese diplomats have found an unexploded NATO missile from the ruins of its embassy in Belgrade, official Xinhua news agency reported today.

quot;An unexploded missile has been found in the debris of the NATO-hit Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia,quot; it said while maintaining that the US-led NATO deliberately hit the Chinese diplomatic mission.

Story continues below this ad

The missile was discovered when embassy staff members, led by ambassador Pan Zhanlin, were clearing up the ruins of the five-storey embassy building, which was destroyed by four NATO missiles on Friday night.

Three Chinese journalists were killed and over 20 injured in the attack.

Regarding previous reports of three NATO missiles hitting the embassy compound, a Chinese diplomat said five missiles struck the embassy complex from different angles shortly before midnight on May seven, with four of them blowing up and one failing to explode.