NATO answers Yugoslavia cease-fire with bombs

A NATO official said the armoured vehicles were attacked during the day yesterday in the alliance8217;s first direct strike against units involved in carrying out the mass expulsion of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo under the orders of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

There was uncertainty over the fate of some 40,000 ethnic Albanian refugees who up to Tuesday had been stranded in no-man8217;s-land on the Yugoslav-Macedonian border. Reporters saw the area completely empty except for piles of garbage.

Yugoslavia closed the main border crossing from Kosovo into Albania early today and told refugees it was safe for them to return home, western monitors said.

The NATO official said alliance planes had also struck at other strategic targets, including an explosives factory which Serbia described as a chemical works. He said all NATO aircraft had returned safely to base.

The raids came amid renewed efforts by Russia to end the two-week-old NATO bombing campaign.

United States officials have rejected an announcement by Belgrade that it was marking the Orthodox Easter with a unilateral cease-fire from last evening, as well as offering to allow refugees to return to Kosovo.

President Bill Clinton insisted Milosevic accept all NATO demands on Kosovo.

8220;Mr Milosevic could end it now by withdrawing his military police and paramilitary forces, by accepting the deployment of an international security force to protect not only Kosovar Albanians8230; but also the Serbian minority in Kosovo,8221; he said.

A spokesman for the Yugoslavian foreign ministry, speaking on US television, insisted however that Belgrade would not accept foreign troops on its soil.

8220;We don8217;t need foreign troops,8221; he said. 8220;We are not accepting any foreign troops on our soil. No NATO, no UN, no any other umbrella,8221; Nebojsa Vujovic said on ABC8217;s Nightline

programme.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov was quoted as saying President Boris Yeltsin had sent a message to several foreign leaders today with proposals to try to end the conflict.

8220;Ivanov said President Boris Yeltsin today sent a message to the leaders of a number of states containing initiatives on a peaceful solution to the conflict in Yugoslavia,8221; Ria news agency said, without specifying the proposals.

Serbian state television reported a number of civilian deaths overnight when it said NATO missiles exploded in a residential area of Kosovo8217;s capital Pristina.

8220;There are both dead and injured. It was the most severe attack on civilians in Pristina,8221; the television said. The report could not be independently confirmed.

The Yugoslav state news agency Tanjug said two strong explosions had reverberated through Novi Sad, northern Serbia8217;s largest city, after missiles hit a fuel depot and a garage at the oil refinery near the city this morning.

The television showed huge flames lighting up the sky over Novi Sad 8212; a constant target since the alliance started bombings two weeks ago.

Tanjug said the industrial area of the southern city of Nis came under attack at 4.40 am 8.10 am IST and that at least 10 powerful explosions were heard in the area.

Yugoslav state television said that all Yugoslav army units in Kosovo were complying with its cease-fire.

Yugoslav officials said refugees, who have flooded into neighbouring countries telling of being ordered from their homes and seeing relatives murdered by Serb forces in Kosovo, would be welcomed back. One said an amnesty might be declared for the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army KLA.

French President Jacques Chirac said a European Council meeting on April 14 should consider an emergency plan to help Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro deal with the 430,000 refugees the UN says have fled Kosovo since strikes began on March 24.

The no-man8217;s-land at the border between Macedonia and Yugoslavia, where international aid agencies said at least 40,000 Kosovo Albanians were stranded was completely deserted.

It was not immediately clear whether the Macedonian authorities had changed their stance and brought the refugees into the country or had sent them abroad. Another possibility was that the refugees, hearing about a cease-fire offered by Belgrade, had gone back to their homes.

Washington called for Belgrade to 8220;release8221; moderate Kosovo Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova, in a first indication that the US believes he is being held by Yugoslavia.