PRESS CONFERENCE OF
NATO SPOKESMAN JAMIE SHEA
AND AIR COMMODORE DAVID WILBY, SHAPE
6 APRIL 1999

Jamie Shea: Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. I apologise for being a
few moments late today. Air Commodore Wilby will begin the briefing today.

Air Commodore Wilby: Thank you Jamie. Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.

Our air operation has gained further momentum with the improving weather
situation and additional asset participating in the campaign. The number
of sorties has increased significantly. We have achieved good results
against a broad range of targets throughout Yugoslavia. All of our
aircraft have returned safely to their home bases.

In Kosovo yesterday, Serbian army and special police armoured brigades
continued to concentrate their efforts in the west between Pec and
Djakovica and along the Kosovo-Albanian border. The situation of the UCK
remains the same.

NATO forces in Kosovo are making enormous efforts to assist the refugees
still pouring into Macedonia. This image, taken yesterday, shows some of
the thousands of people waiting at the border to enter the former Yugoslav
republic of Macedonia. Our efforts are in full swing and yesterday some
33 humanitarian relief flights landed in Macedonia and unloaded their
cargoes of food, tentage, medical supplies, sleeping bags, mattresses and
cots. More than 20,000 refugees have been settled in the tented village
created by the ARRC at a small airfield in the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia; total bed spaces now number 32,000. So far the ARRC has
supplied and moved 36 tons of food, 7 tons of medical supplies, a water
purification plant and 100 tons of tentage.

Turning to our air operations, these have intensified during the last two
days and yesterday we attacked a full range of targets throughout the FRY
and Kosovo, the target areas are shown here. Targets included bridges, air
defence radars and communications, airfields, police headquarters and more
petroleum facilities. To illustrate the success of our attacks on his fuel
supplies, this is a "before" - and you can see in red the targets that we
were going for, the aim points - and here is an "after" shot and you can
see the extent of the damage.

Incidentally, the building with the chimneys, bordered in blue, is the
heating plant that the FRY authorities accused us of targeting. You can
see that this facility was not targeted but it may have been partially
damaged by the fires that raged in the fuel depot. This second image is of
a storage depot that has virtually been destroyed; this, once again, is a
"before", and "after" shot and I think the pictures will tell their own story.

Last night we struck a military facility at Aleksinac home of the 203rd
mixed artillery brigade. It is possible that one of our weapons fell short
of the target. Despite our meticulous and careful pre-attack planning, the
law of statistics will, at some stage, go against us and we will be exposed
to technical defect. Thus, while the cockpit indications and release
parameters may have been achieved successfully, after release, technical
failure such as a guidance fault in the final stages of trajectory, could
cause an impact error.

We have not been able to complete a full investigation into last night's
incident, but it is possible that such a rare fault might have occurred.
Equally, weapon trajectory could also be affected by enemy fire from ground
defences. Whatever the reason, any unintended damage to civilian property
or loss of life is very much regretted.

We also continued our attacks against Serbian fielded forces. Yesterday,
I think it is fair to say that despite good weather, although our attacks
have restricted the units from combat duties, we have not achieved the
level of damage on these forces that we would have liked. However, we are
continually adapting our tactics to resolve this frustrating situation. I
would like to show you some imagery which illustrates that we are moving
very close to achieving our aim by locating fielded forces operating in
Kosovo.

You will see in the circles in red various tanks and radar units on the
ground. Air defence activity was light yesterday and, once again, all our
aircraft returned safely. Whilst we claim no airborne claims, we can now
confirm that two days ago, we destroyed four MiGs on the ground.

I can show you cockpit video of one of yesterday's attacks. As you will
see, the clip shows a very successful strike on an ammunition storage area,
ammunition that now will never be used again in Kosovo. Watch for four
bombs coming in from the left of the screen.

Even as I speak operations are ongoing against Serbian armoured forces on
the ground in Kosovo and I can tell you from a telephone call which I
received only 15 minutes ago that already today we have had encouraging
results.

I look forward to updating you further tomorrow. I can assure you that our
pursuit and attack of these units, which have caused so much distress to so
many, will be relentless.

Jamie.

Jamie Shea: David, thank you very much.

Ladies and gentlemen, from the political side today, first of all NATO
Ambassadors meeting earlier warmly welcomed the quick and very important
decision of the Albanian government to authorize the stationing of the US
Apache helicopters in Albania. We now will ask our military commanders to
coordinate directly with the Albanian government for the practical details
of this deployment and we hope obviously to have the Apaches there in the
extremely near future.

Let me also state once more the well-known NATO position that NATO will
view with the utmost seriousness any attack by Yugoslavia on Albania,
particularly as a consequence of its support for Alliance operations.
Again, the focus of the meeting today was very much on the humanitarian
situation in and around Kosovo. We see an almost identical figure of
people leaving Kosovo yesterday - 40,000 - exactly the same as the previous
day. 22,000 of these displaced, deported persons have gone to Albania,
bringing the total now to 244,000, and just to give you a rough impression
of what that is like for a country such as Albania in terms of a percentage
of its population, if we took more or less the same proportion to Turkey it
would mean an extra 6,000,000 people; to Germany an extra 8,000,000 people,
and to the United States it would mean over 20,000,000 extra people. So
you can well imagine the considerable burden that these deported refugees
are placing on Albania, and therefore the urgency with which NATO is
responding to the situation in terms of providing all of the assistance
that we can. Already we have established - the NATO forces in Albania have
established - three camps which are providing refuge for 10,000 people. We
are going to expand that capability in the next few days, so that there
would be provision for 25,000. Helicopters are being flown by NATO pilots
between Tirana and Kukes, providing of course emergency supplies, but at
the same time evacuating those that are sick and need urgent medical
attention, and we are providing rations, medical care and water sanitation
facilities to the refugees in Albania.

The Deputy Secretary General, Ambassador Balanzino, who is on a tour of the
area, as you know, will be in Tirana later today and he will be going up to
Kukes tomorrow to make a first-hand assessment of the situation. I should
add that this morning Ambassador Balanzino has been in Skopje in the Former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and of course has also been visiting General
Jackson, talking to the troops there, encouraging them in the very good
work they're accomplishing and also assessing the situation at first hand.
Of course, we continue to be very preoccupied with the serious situation of
the deported, displaced persons in the so-called no-man's-land between the
Albanian border and the border of the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia; in Kosovo itself, where 65,000 people are still currently
trapped waiting to be able to leave, and of course we're very worried at
the prospects of disease and the fact that as they wait, more and more may
be in a very life-threatening situation indeed. Incidentally, over the
last days we've also noted a significant increase in the number of refugees
going to Bosnia Herzegovina - it was 7,900 in the past few days.

Now, NATO continues to play its full role, as I was stressing a moment ago,
and just before coming along I was on the phone to the headquarters of the
Allied forces in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and I think that
they are now beginning to have a big impact on the situation. There has
been an appreciable difference since NATO got involved in this situation.
A refugee assistance centre has been set up at Brasde - it now has 20,000
refugees and more can be accommodated as we go ahead. Six sites have been
established - veritable tent cities - to receive refugees and certain
elements of the Marine Expeditionary Unit have now arrived in the Former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and they are also directly assisting with
tents and humanitarian relief. You've probably seen the pictures on TV,
which I can assure you are totally authentic, of NATO soldiers working all
night, through the night, cooking meals for the refugees and bringing in
supplies from the airports and putting up tents. So they're making a
superhuman effort to cope with the situation and David gave you some
figures. I have some more, which I think are just as impressive as David's,
if I may say, on what General Jackson and the men and women under his
command have been able to do . They have been able to deliver 355 tonnes
of food and water, 13 tonnes of medical supplies, 700 tonnes of tentage -
this is since the beginning, I think David's figures relate to the last 24
hours - but this is since the beginning of their involvement - i.e. over
the last three days - 80 tonnes of beds and blankets, 125 tonnes of general
stores. This adds up to a fairly staggering 1,373 tonnes of humanitarian
relief. And this is the good samaritan at his very best.

At the same time we are still working on essential aspects of coordinating
our assistance with the other institutions, organizations. Today in
Geneva, as you know, there is a major meeting under the chairmanship of
Madame Ogata, of the UNHCR. NATO of course is participating. At the same
time, this morning the Military Committee passed on to the North Atlantic
Council two Concepts of Operations. The first one is for a NATO-led
humanitarian airlift operation, the second one is for an establishment of a
NATO headquarters in Albania, to be followed by a small but significant
NATO force to help coordinate the humanitarian relief and I expect these
two concepts to be approved by the NAC in the very near future indeed.
Incidentally, as part of our ongoing consultations, exchange of information
with the countries in the region, we are anticipating having here on Friday
a 19+1, in other words a NATO+1 meeting with the Foreign Minister of the
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Now, at the same time, this morning the NATO Ambassadors once again turned
to the very painful, but unavoidable, topic of the human rights abuses,
violations of international humanitarian law and war crimes, which have
been going on in Kosovo over recent months and with greater intensity of
course over the last few days and weeks. NATO governments and
international organisations, non- governmental organisations, are
accumulating more and more evidence of the strategy of Milosevic to deport
not just individuals, but the entire population of Kosovo. The type of
population transfers that we have not seen since the times of Stalin. In
other words, we now know a number of different categories where these basic
principles of humanitarian law and human rights have been violated.

The first one is the forcible displacement of ethnic Albanian civilians.
Already the bulk of the population of Kosovo has been driven from their
homes even if upwards of a million remain in Kosovo today. That doesn't
mean that they are living in their homes, they are not. The Serb claim
that this is the result of NATO airstrikes is the latest version of The Big
Lie. Refugees have been expelled from their homes at gunpoint. We
believed some months ago, when this conflict first broke out in March of
last year, that the bulk of the refugees were people who had been displaced
by the fighting or to escape Serb reprisals, but now we know better. The
refugees are not the unfortunate by-product of the Serb violence in Kosovo,
they are the reason and object of that violence and it's no longer simply a
matter of small villages being affected, or those areas which had links
with the Kosovo Liberation Army, it's now the entire territory and towns
and cities too, with house-to-house searches, and house-to-house looting,
both before and after the expulsions. Documents have been confiscated,
people have been told to have a last look around because they won't be
coming back, and often not only have their identity documents been taken
away but they've had to trade in their property rights in exchange for a
train ticket to oblivion. And that is now well-documented by all of the
refugees that have been coming over the border. One or two individuals may
not tell the truth, but when you hear the same stories from hundreds of
thousands, they must be on to something true.

The second category is the looting of homes and businesses, particularly to
ensure that Kosovar Albanians will have no incentive to be able to go back
later - and houses, by the way, which were rented to international
personnel such as those belonging to the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe - have been particularly burned in these operations.

The third category is detentions. We know that many, many men of military
age have disappeared, they have been systematically separated from other
groups. Many of the refugees arriving at the borders have been women and
children. We don't know the numbers of the lost generation, as it were, of
young males in Kosovo. It could be anything from tens of thousands to a
hundred thousand plus. But we do know, particularly from human rights
groups, that have meticulously researched this in the last few days, that
there have been important disappearances from the Malevso (phonetic
spelling) area. And we have reports from many refugees of detention
centres being set up in the soccer stadium at Pec or the sports complex at
Pristina. There are even reports of Kosovar women also being detained.
Again, I have to come back to the question I asked a few days ago, and to
which we still don't have a reply, "what has happened to all of these men?"

The fourth category is that of summary executions. Many refugees have been
reporting summary executions in at least 50 towns and villages throughout
Kosovo. We have at least one highly-corroborated report now of a summary
execution at Balekekrusa (phonetic spelling), and again international
organisations are gathering as much information as they can to try to put
the jigsaw puzzle together. I would like again to make it clear that all
Allied governments share the view that those who are responsible for
violations of human rights, international humanitarian law, war crimes,
will be held responsible. There will be no impunity and no hiding place.

Finally, I'd like to stress that we are going to carry on. We've been
carrying on now for 13 days, and we are determined to carry on for as long
as it takes to meet our objectives. The result is not in doubt, it's simply
a matter of when that result is going to be achieved. President Milosevic
has tried, but he has failed in his strategy to weaken the resolve of the
international community. He has not been able to destabilize the
surrounding countries even though he has tried. NATO stands beside those
countries and we will assist them in every way we can. We will not allow
this conflict to spill over. Secondly, he has not divided the Alliance.
That may be something which has surprised him, but it's very, very true.

Thirdly, he has not been able to convince public opinion that Serbia is the
victim. All too clearly we have seen who is the victim and who is the
victimizer, and he remains the person who bears the full responsibility for
the human tragedy that we have witnessed in Kosovo. So he has no
alternative but to meet the demands of the international community. And
NATO will continue until ethnic cleansing has been reversed and justice has
been done. Thank you.

Journalist: Two questions please. After the deployment of the Apache
helicopters, what will be the status of Albania? Is Albania being drawn
into the conflict? Is it a Partner of NATO, is it at war with Milosevic?
That's the first question. The second question is: with the Apaches, it's
lower flights, more vulnerable to war. Does it mean that NATO is more
prepared to accept losses and victims in the war?

Jamie Shea: Well, the first part of that question is the political part,
and then there's a military operational part for David. No, there is no
war with Yugoslavia, and therefore Albania is not being drawn into that.
Quite the reverse. Albania is simply assisting the international community
to put a stop to the human tragedy which has also affected Albania in a
very direct and immediate way, as we know. And we are very grateful for
that support and for that solidarity. Anything that helps us put a stop to
this situation as rapidly as possible is going to help everybody, so we're
grateful once again for that measure. As for NATO's position vis-à-vis
Albania, I think I made it clear in my remarks.

Air Commodore Wilby: As to the risk of the environment, you will know that
we have now spent some 13 days - 14 if you include today - attacking the
integrated air defence system. By the time the Apache helicopters enter
the fray, then I can assure you that we will have done severe damage and
disruption to that particular system, and I think you should also bear in
mind that the Apache is very much optimized, it's designed to operate in
that sort of environment to go in on the ground with very sophisticated
aids, and they're very well-trained for it. So, I think it's a case of
using the best assets when you can.

Journalist: Air Commodore, you mentioned that you had had some successes
last night against the Serbian forces on the ground in Kosovo, but you
omitted to go any further, to explain just how successful that had been - I
know you want to fill us in with every detail on that. The second point is
that I must push you a little bit further on Aleksinac I think. Was the
area that was hit - the area that was hit by the missiles - especially
close to the Serb barracks, or was it do you think a missile that had
malfunctioned especially badly? Which of those occurred?

Air Commodore Wilby: Ok, let me answer the first part of your question,
and I didn't actually say how successful we'd been against fielded forces
on the ground, I said to you that we were still very much continuing our
attack. What I said was that today we have had very encouraging results
against those forces. In terms of our attack against Aleksinac last night,
I have evidence of some damage around about 600 metres just short of the
target. That's all I can tell you.

Barry Schlockter, Night Ritter newspapers: Air Commodore, when you said
attacking ground forces, are you attacking actual troops in addition to
armour? And Dr. Shea, how concerned is NATO about the air campaign
strengthening the resolve of the Yugoslav public?

Air Commodore Wilby: First of all, as to attacking troops, it is difficult
enough to see armour on the ground let alone people on the ground, so our
attacks are carried out against armoured units, against the actual armour.

Jamie Shea: Well, on the second aspect of your question, it's probably
beyond doubt that NATO's actions have led to an upsurge of nationalism in
Serbia itself. Of course, as I pointed out, if the Serb people were able
to see the television pictures of the suffering in Kosovo - and I don't
believe they are allowed to see those pictures - then I think that many of
them would be deeply ashamed. That's the first thing. Secondly, NATO's
made it clear all along that this is not a quarrel that we have with the
Serb people, but with the government in Belgrade, and I believe that that
nationalism will be short-lived quite frankly, because if any leader in a
democratic country came before the electorate and said "ladies and
gentlemen, since I became your leader, two-thirds of the original country
in which you live has gone. Serbs that once lived in Croatia, in Bosnia
and in other areas, including in Kosovo, have been forced to abandon their
homes, have suffered because of the nationalism I have unleashed. When I
became your leader you were amongst the prosperous people of Europe, you
had foreign bank accounts, you didn't have to get visas to travel to other
countries, you were welcomed with open arms in Swiss ski resorts and
Spanish beach hotels. Now, the GDP which I inherited at the end of the 80s
has shrunk by over 50 per cent, inflation has now gone up around 70 per
cent, the Dinar collapses every month. Instead of being amongst the
wealthiest of post-Communist Europe, with the greatest prospect of being in
the forefront of those applying to join the European Union, you are a
pariah state, suffering the worst economic sanctions and your per capita
income has dwindled to well below 5,000 dollars, when the rest of Europe
has gone in totally the opposite direction". I don't believe I would be
re-elected if that were my record. And I hope the Serb people, whatever
their current, obviously, feeling perhaps of animosity towards NATO would
take a step back from it all and say "has this government really served us
well over the last few years, and would we really re-elect it if we had the
choice?" And my message, of course, in all of these briefings to the Serb
people is, once we've put this Kosovo business behind us, let us look at
what we can do to help Yugoslavia emerge from this status of a pariah state
and take the place in Europe which the people's greatness and ingeniosity
deserves, quite frankly. A great people, badly served by its leaders.

Doug Hamilton, Reuters: Air Commodore Wilby, you showed some pictures of
tanks, can you tell us if these tanks were hit and destroyed, or is there a
difference between what you were able to show from reconnaissance pictures
and targets, and can you tell us what you did to the Belgrade-Pristina
road? And for Jamie, is it not possible to take pictures of the football
stadium in Pristina, the soccer complex in Pec, to actually see these
people being herded?

Air Commodore Wilby: First of all - and I was very careful with my words -
I showed you that we were making great inroads into getting our
intelligence right up to date to attack the forces in the field. The
images I showed you came from yesterday, and clearly depicted those units
which we have located. What we are doing today is pressing home our
attacks very hard against those located units. They will continue to move
but we will now continue to track them and hit them successfully.

Jamie Shea: Doug, in reply to your question, I'm sure if NATO governments
are able to have direct photography or whatever of these situations, that
those will be things that can be passed to the International War Crimes
Tribunal in due course, which continues to have jurisdiction obviously over
the Former Yugoslavia, including Kosovo, but we already have a lot of
direct evidence coming in from these refugees who have had, as you know,
some very frightening stories to tell as they've come across the border, so
I think there's not going to be any shortage of concrete evidence for war
crimes indictments when the time comes and when Justice Arbour is able to
undertake her investigations.

(break in text)

Air Commodore Wilby: Would you like to be a little more precise with your
question?

Doug Hamilton: I think this morning we were told that the
Belgrade-Pristina highway - a main resupply route - was attacked and
damaged but more than damaged I don't think we were told.

Air Commodore Wilby: OK, as you know, we have attacked several bridges
over the last couple of nights and we will continue to attack those bridges
which we have looked at very carefully. They're not bridges that we pick
at random, they're bridges that we have picked as very important lines of
communication, over which vital supplies for those Serbian police forces
and troops down in Kosovo rely, and so we will continue very systematically
to take those particular bridges, but as for a section of road, then we
have not specifically targeted a section of road.

Journalist: Jamie, the last time Ukrainian politicians and
parliamentarians have discussed about the damages of the bridges in Vunap
(phonetic spelling) and because of the damages of the bridges, Ukrainian
river fleet is blockaded and also in Gravic (phonetic spelling) eight barge
and ferries have been blockaded. Did Ukrainian officials apply to you to
compensate their financial damages, which they account 3 or 400,000 per
day, did they do that?

Jamie Shea: No. I haven't heard of any such démarche and of course NATO
is not trying to cause any inconvenience or loss to any other states, but
again, coming back to my earlier point, if we could achieve a situation of
peace in the region and we could look towards the integration of Yugoslavia
into the European mainstream and if the sanctions could be lifted, I think
there would be much more business for Ukrainian shippers and for everybody
else in the long run and that's why I think the long term objective is
what's key here.

Gyorgy Foris, Hungarian Press Agency: I have questions for each of you.
First to Jamie. I wonder if you have had any recent assessment on the
support of the public opinion in the member states? I put a question in
the light of the Greek problem, where we have reports that a growing part
of the population seems to turn against the operation, and I just wonder if
you see any chance that the operation could be stopped on the orthodox
Easter Sunday? To the Air Commodore, you were mentioning that there were
force concentrations at the Albanian border, what's your assessment, is it
a kind of preparation to hit Albania in case the …… operation starts from
Albania?

Jamie Shea: Well, Gyorgy, I believe, looking from opinion polls, as
scientific as they are, a barometer of public opinion, that in the great
majority of NATO countries public opinion is firm. As I said earlier, I
don't expect people to be wildly enthusiastic about the fact that NATO has
had to act, everybody would prefer, including NATO diplomats, that we could
solve these problems through diplomacy through negotiation, without the
need to resort to arms, but I think on the other hand public opinion
understands the major issues at stake here and understands the need to put
a stop to a humanitarian catastrophe particularly in the heart of Europe,
and therefore I think that support is going to hold up. Of course everybody
would prefer that we could stop this today - so would we - but I believe
that people understand the overwhelming need to put a stop to this in the
best way we can. That's the first point, and of course you know that all
Allies - all Allied governments - have been rock solid on this, full-square
behind the decision to keep going.

Air Commodore Wilby: I think the concentration - it's not so much a
concentration but the level of activity which now is on the western side of
Kosovo - is the result, if you remember, of earlier last week - I showed
you isolated pockets of ethnic cleansing, about three days later on, I
showed you a large triangular area of that area where if you like a
combination of all that cleansing had cleared a large area. What you see
is just a finish-up of this very systematic - I think Jamie called it a
"clean and sweep operation" yesterday - and as the remnants of the UCK and
people are going towards the eastern side it is just a continuance of the
Serb military and MUP to try and eradicate them.

Journalist: Concerning Russia, we had some news that eventually President
Yelstin would make a trip to Belgrade. Do we have any news about eventual
new plan and some US information, or information coming from the United
States this morning, a claim that President Milosevic would be willing to
cease any soldiers' activities in Kosovo and would be ready to give some
autonomy to the province. Another question, as you know Jamie, today is
the 6th April, which means for all Serbs back 58 years ago Belgrade was
under fire from Hitler. If there is another bombing tonight you can imagine
what the news will be tomorrow, if we have some other eventually victims.
Would this kind of historical event be taken into account tonight?

Jamie Shea: Well, I think what strikes me Antonio is the contrast between
the 6th April 1941 and today. In 1941, if I remember, hundreds of houses in
Belgrade were destroyed because they were directly targeted and thousands
of civilians were killed, and what strikes me is the contrast between then
and what is happening today, where no civilian buildings whatever are
targeted, and even if we have to perhaps regret that some people have been
injured or killed, of course I can never exclude that, given the amount of
ordnance that we have used, I think what is very striking is that fact that
so few civilians have been harmed and only military targets have been
struck. Today it is not NATO that is targeting civilians in Yugoslavia.
Unfortunately, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of civilians have been
directly targeted, but not by us. So I think the historical parallel is in
reality a historical contrast. That's the first point. Now, as for
President Yeltsin, well absolutely if President Yeltsin were able to talk
sense into Milosevic we would really welcome that. We very much welcomed
Prime Minister Primakov's visit a few days ago and we really wanted it to
be a success. As you know there are plans for some meetings this week on
the diplomatic front: the European Union is meeting with the neighbouring
states, there's talk of Contact Group, G8 meetings, and initiatives which
could help to persuade Milosevic to stop would be useful. But of course at
this stage we aren't prepared to settle for less than our objectives. We
don't want some kind of murky or shadowy sham proposal, which in reality
would simply reward Milosevic for the mayhem that he has caused. As you
know, the conditions, the objectives, of the Allies are very clear: that
the Serb forces have to withdraw, that the refugees must all - all - be
allowed to return and guaranteees have to be given to them in that process,
that has to be accompanied of course by an international military force to
ensure the environment of security, and that there has to be a political
process leading to a political solution, based on the Rambouillet accords.
A ceasefire which says "I've finished my work and now I'm going to go,
leave the mayhem behind me", is not something that we would be prepared to
accept.

Télévision Française: Toute à l'heure, vous avez fait allusion à une poche
de 65,000 refugiés au Kosovo même, alors comme les organisations
internationales n'y ont pas accès, je voulais vous demander si vous avez
des informations particulières sur leur situation, quelles sont les raisons
du fait qu'ils sont piegés, qu'ils sont bloqués, et dans quelles conditions?

Jamie Shea: Nous nous faisons des soucis bien sûr quant aux conditions
physiques de ces malheureux personnes je crois savoir que déjà quelques uns
sont morts, mais je crois aussi savoir que quelques organisations
humanitaires sont actives dans cette zone et donc il y a quand même les
premiers…au moins d'après les dernières informations que j'ai eu, je n'ai
pas trop de détails sur ce thème, mais visiblement ça montre une fois de
plus la nécessité pour Milosevic de stopper cette violence, parce que comme
j'ai dit tout le long de ces interventions nous n'avons pas uniquement le
problème des refugiés qui arrivent dans les pays voisins ils sont
malheureux mais au moins des qu'ils ont traversé la frontière nous avons le
possibilité de les nourrir, de les donner des tentes, de leur venir en
aide, mais il y a toujour presqu'un million de gens a l'intérieur du Kosovo
dont beaucoup sont deplacés.

Pour quelles raisons ces gens la ne peuvent-ils ni avancer ni reculer?
Materiellement qu'est ce qui leur empêche d'avancer dans la frontière?

Jamie Shea: Mais ils avancent vers la frontière mais comme vous l'avez vu
il y a un tel influs de refugiés qu'ils ne peuvent pas tous traverser la
frontière le même jour, donc c'est quelque chose que nous regardons de très
près mais bien sûr c'est quelque chose que nous devons travailler avec les
gouvernements sur place, avec les organisations humanitaires, pour voir
qu'est ce que nous pouvons faire pour venir à l'aide precisément à ces
personnes?

Mr. Jonsson, Norwegian daily Aftenposten: Regarding the diplomatic efforts
you mentioned earlier, can you confirm that there are plans for a Contact
Group meeting here in Brussels this week, or if NATO has any plans for a
Ministerial meetings in the coming week?

Jamie Shea: I'm not aware of any plans for a NATO Ministerial meeting in
the next few days. And as for the Contact Group, I have heard, of course,
like you reports that some Contact Group activity may be imminent, but
obviously as this is not a NATO institution of course, it's best to check
with the Allies that are directly involved with the Contact Group on that
one.

Stars and Stripes: Air Commodore, you mentioned earlier that you would
have liked to have hit more targets on the ground over last night's
strikes, I'm kind of wondering what difficult time was there, why was it
difficult for you to hit some of these targets? Second of all, are we
going to see any specific targeting information like there was early on in
the air campaign, a list of targets that have been hit, and thirdly have
planes from the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt participated in strikes
over the past 24 hours?

Air Commodore Wilby: Ok, let me try and hit that monster question. First
of all, as I've said time and time again, the difficulty of hitting troops
on the ground is to locate them and then press home very accurate attacks.
What we are being very careful about is not just attacking people and then
causing a lot of collateral damage to whatever else may be in that
particular area. And we want to be as precise as we can with our munitions,
so we are trying, now the weather is better, to locate those targets and to
hit them as quickly as we can. I was very honest with you about
yesterday's operation, but despite the good weather, we did have problems
actually seeing the targets and being able to get them on the ground. It
is a very cunning enemy out there, they know when we take off, because the
numbers of reporters and people that are sitting outside the various air
bases, they can calculate how long we're going to be before we enter the
area and they make sure that during those times they go very much into
their hideaway positions. However our operations have intensified, we are
now managing to produce better information and we've got the assets to keep
our operation going over that are continuously. As regards the
introduction of the naval aircraft, they will enter the fray very shortly.

Journalist: The list of sites that have been hit, like we have seen early on?

Air Commodore Wilby: Ok, as I've always tried to tell you, any targeting
information is treated very sensitively. I've told you that they have a
very, very comprehensive intelligence organisation. Many of the targets we
showed you earlier on were there to give you an indication of what was
going on. A lot of those targets, as I've said before, have several aim
points on them. When we go in one night we may take out a particular
facility on that target. We may have to go back to that target on a
subsequent night, so what I'm going to be is very careful about what I
release to you on any targeting matters, and I do that because I want to
make sure that our air crews when they are actually flying are given the
best possible chance of returning back to their bases safely.

Luc Rosenzweig, Le Monde: J'ai beaucoup admiré le discours du chef de
l'opposition à Belgrade…que vous avez développé pour donner des idées. Je
voudrais savoir si vous avez des contacts ou des indications car à Belgrade
il existe quelqu'un qui puisse tenir ce discours et éventuellement puisse
remplacer Milosevic. Deuxième question, est-il possible après toute
description jour après jour vous nous faites des personnages - Slobodan
Milosevic est comparé à tous les tyrants, les…..de la terre - M. le
Secretaire General Javier Solana puisse un jour s'asseoir avec lui à une
table de conférence ou negotiation y compris si'il a accepté les conditions
posées pour parler avec lui?

Jamie Shea: En ce qui concerne la situation interne il y a très peu
….c'est quand même un gouvernement qui ne fait pas beaucoup de discours de
politique devant le parlement, mais j'ai vu dans quelques journaux ce matin
des indices qu'ils commencent à avoir des schismes entre ceux qui bien sûr
on peut qualifier d'ultra et d'autres qui semblent se rendre compte de la
gravité enfin de la situation et de la nécessité d'ouvrir en quelque sorte
des voies de dialogue et de coopération avec le communauté internationale
et je suis certain qu'après les treize jours de nos activités militaires il
doit y avoir de plus en plus sceptiques au sein de l'administration
yougoslav. Quant si vous voulez à la sagesse de se perséverer dans leurs
voie de la répression de Kosovo, voyons, espérons que si ces voies de la
raison au sein de l'administration vont se faire écouter dans les jours qui
viennent mais nous avons bien sûr bon espoir. J'ai toujours dit que je
suis convaincu que il doit y avoir pas mal de gens qui savent tres bien que
c'est vraiment le moment maintenant de reculer et d'ouvrir un dialogue avec
les pays alliés et avec l'occident en général.

Quant à votre deuxième question, Milosevic qu'on le veut ou non, c'est lui
qui décide en Yougoslavie, c'est celui qui commande, qui ordonne à ses
troupes d'entrer au Kosovo et de poursuivre leurs activités, mais c'est
également lui qui les arrete et donc nous attendons de lui qu'il prend la
décision d'arrêter. Il n'y a pas besoin d'aller le voir à Belgrade pour
lui communiquer ça, il sait ce qu'il doit faire. Ce qui est important, ce
n'est pas la communication mais c'est l'action qui doit venir de Milosevic.
C'est le decideur et nous attendons qu'il se decide.

Bill Drozdiak, Washington Post: Jamie, is there an agreement within the
Alliance now two …………indictments in The Hague of President Milosevic
himself, and secondly, regarding Albania, with the introduction of the
Apaches, which will be used of course to attack Serb forces in the field,
are you not in effect opening a new front in a war that you said all along
one of NATO's aims was to contain the violence within Kosovo and keep it
from spreading from beyond those borders?

Jamie Shea: Obviously the question of war crimes indictments doesn't
belong to us, that belongs to the International Criminal Tribunal, it's up
to the Tribunal to gather evidence. Its mandate allows it to indict not
only those that pull the trigger but those who give the orders to pull the
trigger, and I don't believe that that stops at any particular level of
governmental structures. So, that is up to the Tribunal to decide.

On your second question, as you know, Albania has already been threatened
in recent months by the actions that have been ongoing, its air space has
been violated, shells have been fired across the border as well, so I don't
believe that from that point of view, Albania's very welcome decision to
show solidarity with the Alliance changes fundamentally the security
situation for Albania, which was already something that we were keeping a
very close eye on beforehand. To the extent that any capability we can
deploy will allow us to stop the violence in Kosovo, to move towards a
return of the refugees and move towards a political dialogue to the extent
that we can pacify the situation. Among the most immediate beneficiaries
will be of course countries like Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia and that's why I think they understand what we're trying to do.

Journalist: Two questions for you Jamie. One is, we understand Mr. Strobe
Talbot is due here in the near future, can you explain what the purpose of
this visit here, and onwards from here, will be? Secondly, I'd like to
talk about Macedonia, we're also sensing that on the one hand there's some
frustration on the part of the international communty with Macedonia's
attitude in recent days, on the other hand there's real concern, as you've
expressed, on a daily basis, for the stability of that country, can you
tell us whether, apart from helping the refugees directly, is there
anything NATO or NATO countries are doing for the government of Macedonia?

Jamie Shea: In order to answer your first question, yes, Strobe Talbot is
due to visit NATO tomorrow morning to brief the Ambassadors on the results
of his tour of the region. As you know, he's been in I think virtually all
of the neighbouring states in the last couple of days and we will be very
interested in hearing his views, his insights of that trip, and so, yes,
he's coming briefly tomorrow morning.

Scondly, when it comes to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,
obviously we appreciate that this country is dealing with an unprecedented
situation, which would be difficult to handle even for countries with much
greater resources in elsewhere in Europe and therefore I think we have to
have some sympathy for this country and we are showing solidarity.
Secondly, we are doing our best of course not simply to help with the
refugee burden, and again as I said, General Jackson and his soldiers are
at the forefront of that effort but we're helping to do what we can of
course to show the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia that it's not
alone in this situation, to show a sense of sympathy of direct material
support. The Secretary General has been on the telephone to President
Gligorov virtually every day over the last few days, we have sent some NATO
liaison officers there to help open up the channels of communication.
Other governments of course are looking at the question of economic
assistance and support. That's not of course a NATO topic, but everybody is
aware of the need to give that government every type of economic aid that
we can within our means at the moment, and as I mentioned we will be having
this Friday a special 19 + 1 consultation with Foreign Minister Dimitrov
again to see what the situation is, what we can do and so on, so I can
assure you this is a subject that we are very much seized with.

I think I'll take one more for today. As Neil King has returned safely -
and I'm very glad that happened Neil - I think you have the right to ask a
question, and the final question at that.

Neil King, Wall Street Journal: I was just curious, I'm not sure which one
of you is best equipped to answer it, but considering some of the targets
that have been gone after in the last several days, is it not fair to say
that the ambition goes beyond just degrading or weakening the military
structure to actually degrading or weakening the Serbian economy in an
effort to undermine Milosevic's power base?

Air Commodore Wilby: I think I probably can field that one. I've always
gone at great lengths to say that every target that we have struck has been
one that has been considered to have great military significance to affect
the Serbian military or the MUP. All the targets that we have struck so
far have fallen very firmly into that category. We started off with the
integrated air defence system, we have continually hit communications
associated with those sort of facilities, we have attacked headquarters
associated with troops in the field or police in the field, we've taken out
logistic supplies, particularly ammunition and petroleum, and now we are
looking and taking down bridges, and those bridges are bridges which have
been carefully selected because they are major lines of communication and
those affect the resupply of those troops who remember are on the ground
conducting the ethnic cleansing and deportation activities. So, very
firmly, I would say to you that all our targets have been very justifiably
military targets.

Jamie Shea: If I can just add to that from a military perspective, if the
Yugoslav economy is in dire straits it's not because of NATO military
actions, it's because here is a country which has had sanctions imposed on
it by the United Nations for the best part of a decade now. There was a
hope after the Dayton peace agreement that those sanctions could be lifted
and that economic activity could pick up, for the benefit by the way, of
the people because those sanctions have benefited the regime, that's well
documented in terms of corrupt activities, but it's the Yugoslav people of
course who have been in the forefront and what would help Yugoslavia more
than anything else would be a situation whereby the conflict in Kosovo
could be terminated, we could go towards as I mentioned a brighter future
and ultimately Yugoslavia could be integrated into the European mainstream
and sanctions could be lifted and the economic dynamism of the place could
take off again, and it's not only Yugoslavia which would benefit, but of
course the other countries in the region as well, so I don't think that
this is something that you could see in the immediate short term
perspective of NATO action, it's been a long-term problem for a while and
the ultimate solution is indeed an ability to integrate a democratic
Yugoslavia into the Euroepan mainstream.


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