Serb action may draw NATO8217;s intervention

BRUSSELS, JAN 17: In the alliance headquarters NATO ambassadors gathered for an emergency session to take stock of the Racak massacre and...

BRUSSELS, JAN 17: In the alliance headquarters NATO ambassadors gathered for an emergency session to take stock of the Racak massacre and to devise a strategy to deal with the unraveling cease-fire, and in the village itself Serbian police armoured vehicles moved in.

As mortar and machine-gun fire erupted again around the mosque where 45 bodies lay, international monitors withdrew from Racak triggering off a crossfire of accusations between the Serbian authorities and the Western monitors.

And from Brussels ominous signs of a fresh threat of NATO attacks emanated that had quietened since October after the ceasefire. NATO Secretary-General J Solana condemned the Friday massacre and expressed his outrage and revulsion at 8220;the deliberate and senseless killing of ordinary civilians.8221; 8220;NATO is watching the situation very closely and will not tolerate a return to all-out fighting and a return to a policy of repression in Kosovo,8221; he said.

8220;This was a deliberate and indiscriminate act of murder designedto sow fear among the people of Kosovo. It is a clear violation of the commitments the Serbian authorities have made to NATO. There can be no justification for it,8221; the White House said.

Serb Accusation: Early AFP reports from Belgrade that Serbian President Milan Milutinovic retaliated accusing the international observer group of lying about a mass murder of ethnic Albanians to sensitise the crisis there. In a personal attack on American diplomat William Walker, who heads the observer team, Milutinovic said: 8220;He has made accusations against the organs of our state so as to divert attention from terrorists and kidnappers, and once again to bring those people under his protection.8221;

There had been a shaky cease-fire in Kosovo since October when US mediator Richard Holbrooke brokered an agreement with then Yugoslav president Milosevic. That deal was reached under threat of a bombing campaign as 400 NATO warplanes stood by.

The cease-fire, monitored by hundreds of verifiers from the 54-nationOrganization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, has been fragile and unstable. OSCE and NATO have been careful in laying blame for earlier breakdowns in the cease-fire, saying that ethnic Albanian provocation also played a role. This time they wasted no time in blaming the Serbs.