PRESS CONFERENCE OF
DR. JAMIE SHEA AND BRIGADIER GENERAL GIUSEPPE MARANI
29 APRIL 1999

JAMIE SHEA:
Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. You have heard from me twice today
already, so I think it is wholly suitable that I ask General Marani to begin.


GENERAL MARANI:
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. NATO's air campaign continued over
the past 24 hours with numerous strikes against airfields, petroleum
facilities, lines of communication and fielded forces.


Our military action has had significant impact on FRY military and special
police operations and will continue to do so.


NATO continues to support Non-Governmental Organisations and the
governmental institutions of Albania and FYROM, contributing significantly
to the relief effort in these countries. In the last 24 hours there were
18 aid flights flown into FYROM with 9 tons of food and water and 5 tons of
tents. For Albania there were 27 aid flights delivering 81 tons of food
and water, 41 tons of medical supplies and 39 tons of tents. Thus far
NATO has assisted in the total delivery of 3,264 tons of food and water,
928 tons of medical supplies and 1,763 tons of tentage.


Now let's turn to the Serbian ground operations in Kosovo. Serb forces are
continuing localised operations in north and south central Kosovo, as shown
in red. Fighting in western Kosovo, west of Pec, has decreased in
intensity. Serb forces appear to be shifting their focus to the
Junik/Djakovica area near the Albanian border where UCK forces maintain
supply routes.


UCK guerrilla operations continue, as shown here. Although Serb forces
occupy key villages and lines of communication throughout most of Kosovo,
they still do not wield full control over many parts of the province,
particularly areas of rough terrain. The Serbs' inability to substantially
consolidate territory beyond key terrain reflects in part the gradual
degradation of their forces after continuous operations and a decreasing
fuel supply.


Turning to Serbian Air Force activity, although Serb early warning radar
activity was observed, Serb air defence was relatively light, with 4
shoulder launched surface to air missiles and 3 unidentified Sams noted.
No FRY Air Force fixed wing activity was noted, and once again we had no
NATO aircraft losses.


I will turn now to NATO operations. Last night multiple strikes were
conducted against the Podgorica airfield in Montenegro. These were
precision surgical strikes that were highly sensitive to avoid damage to
civilian infrastructure such as the runway and civilian terminals.
Military hangars, petroleum storage facilities, air defence radar and
numerous super galeb aircraft parked in revetments were among the targets.
Two other supergalebs were also targeted at Sutomor during an attack
against the Denotinovici radar site in south west Montenegro.


While we would have preferred not to have attacked sites in Montenegro,
Podgorica airfield is becoming an important operating location for the FRY
Air Force. Aircraft driven from their main bases by NATO attacks are using
the airfield as a dispersal base.


As previously stressed many times, there shall be no sanctuary for forces
engaged in, and supporting, the on-going aggression in Kosovo. Of
additional importance, aircraft flown from Podgorica are only a short
distance from our forces in Albania and thus pose a potential threat to our
operations. Thus we see our attacks as prudent self-defence.


In addition to the attack on the military facilities at Podgorica airport,
allied aircraft attacked the full range of military targets. Command and
control facilities and nodes of communication were struck, including
various radio relay sites such as the Prizren TV/Radio relay facility.


This video is of an attack on Monday, 26 April against an army command post
at Prizren army headquarters.


The integrated air defence system was again targeted in our continuing
campaign to prevent the Serb military from reconstituting the system. This
is a video taken two nights ago of a similar attack against the Banja
Koviljaca radio relay facility. This was part of a multi-aircraft attack
and after the bomb impact you will see the results of these other strikes.


Petroleum storage and production facilities were targeted, including the
facilities at Smederevo and Pozega. We again struck lines of
communication, including several bridges. Serbian force infrastructure was
struck, including the Ruma and Pozarevac army barracks, the Belgrade army
training centre and various army storage areas. The following is a video
of an attack on 26 April against the Djakovica army garrison in south west
Kosovo. The following is the post-attack image of the same structure. The
image also shows damage from previous attacks against the same facility.


Once again we successfully attacked fielded forces throughout Kosovo,
including tanks, armoured personnel vehicles, fielded troops, radars,
helicopters, petroleum railcars, mobile command post and other military
equipment.


Finally there is a report that a NATO missile landed in Bulgaria about an
hour, an hour and a half ago. You had a press release about this incident
and really we don't have at this time anything more to add to it.
Obviously this was not intentional and we regret any damage that this may
have caused.


That concludes the operations briefing for today. Thank you.


JAMIE SHEA:
General Marani, as always thanks very much. Just a couple of things from
my perspective to add before we go to questions. First of all on the
political front you heard from Strobe Talbott a few moments ago and I think
his message was clear, after his consultations, is that the Alliance is
resolute and our insistence on our five conditions for resolving this
crisis are absolute. Indeed we once again see many echoes of international
solidarity behind what we are doing, they are always welcome. Yesterday,
as you know, the Parliamentary Assembly at the Council of Europe voted very
decisively to condemn the ethnic cleansing of the Yugoslav Armed Forces in
Kosovo, to call on Milosevic to withdraw his forces and to support an
international security presence in Kosovo for a transitional period. There
were some motions by individual parliamentarians to condemn NATO for
Operation Allied Force, but they were not adopted.


At the same time we continue to receive indications from a number of
countries that are not in the European Union that they are willing and
ready to join the oil embargo that was agreed by European Union Foreign
Ministers just a few days ago. At the moment we have Bulgaria, Cyprus,
Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia,
the Czech Republic, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. So
that is a very impressive array of countries that are willing to put their
long term interests in a secure and democratic Balkans, ahead of their
short term economic gain, and we are grateful for that and we hope that
other countries will also be prepared to show solidarity by joining this
oil embargo. Anything that can help us to shorten this operation and end
the violence in Kosovo should be supported by the international community.


At the same time, the façade of the union sacré in Yugoslavia continues to
fragment. Yesterday as you know, after the dismissal of Vuk Draskovic,
three other Ministers resigned. We know that in the past few days Belgrade
has been trying to silence another opposition leader, this time General Vuk
Abrodovic, the leader of the Social Democratic Party who was once
Yugoslavia's youngest General, and he has been prevented from giving
interviews, or those interviews have been prevented from being screened.
But in an interview with a European newspaper he has said that Milosevic
should resign and allow Yugoslavia to seek a peaceful solution. And today
in an interview with a Russian newspaper, President Djukanovic of
Montenegro has said quite bluntly that Milosevic has to be held responsible
for the current crisis, that it is he who has divided Yugoslavia into
"patriots or traitors", that he needs a permanent war because he fears
democracy, because this would mean a loss of his own personal power.


So more and more people are now coming forward with statements that we
weren't hearing just a few weeks ago, and although they at the moment may
be voices in the wilderness, they are nonetheless influential voices. And
I believe again that this is an indication that Milosevic has not succeeded
in snuffing out completely democracy, it is there lurking below the surface
and it is increasingly making its voice felt, and this is encouraging even
though naturally we fully appreciate the personal risks that such brave
people are accepting by speaking out in this way.


GYORGY FORIS, HUNGARIAN TV:
I would come back to the incident in Sofia. I have two questions. First,
I think there is a confusion because we heard about 2 bombs or rockets, one
in the outskirts of the city and there was an explosion inside the city,
downtown. I wonder if you would comment on that and you feel responsible
for the second one, in the downtown explosion as well? And secondly, could
you offer us a kind of technical explanation, how is it possible to deviate
a rocket by 60 kilometres and what is the guarantee that it couldn't happen
again?


GENERAL MARANI:
In short, what Mr Shea said about the press release that went out an hour
or so ago, contains everything we know about this incident. I haven't
heard of any two explosions, or an explosion and a missile. The only news
I have is about the single missile and we are looking to see why it
happened and of course what we are also doing, we are making sure that our
procedures, everything we can possibly do to avoid it happening again is
presently carried out. How technically this could happen, there are many
reasons for why a missile could deviate from its trajectory really -
malfunction or many other reasons. It depends in this case what happened
and we are seeing into it.


JAMIE SHEA:
And as I said earlier, obviously we will look at whatever we can to
minimise still further the possibility of this type of thing happening.


QUESTION:
Back to the Bulgarian issue. Isn't it true that also there is a question
of violating Bulgarian airspace here? And secondly, this search and find
mission that Clark is supposed to plan, is it still in the military
committee and do you expect NAC to get it this week at all?


JAMIE SHEA:
Yes, if I could perhaps answer the second question and General Marani will
come back to the first, but on the first one, let me say that we have no
information on the airspace issue at the present time.


Secondly, on the visit and search regime, yes it is still with the Military
Committee and yes I do anticipate that the North Atlantic Council will be
looking at it very soon, in the next few days. Already our policy
co-ordination group, which is a body directly under the Ambassadors, is
looking at the political aspects, so some of the political preparatory work
is being done in conjunction with the military planning to move things
ahead quickly. But as I have told you over the last few days, this is a
complicated business, we want to do it properly and therefore obviously we
have to look at a large number of aspects that have to be clarified before
such a thing can be adopted, because obviously we want to be able to appeal
to the widest possible international support for such a measure and we want
to make sure it is going to be militarily effective and obviously
consistent with a solid international legal basis obviously. So please
understand that there are reasons why these things take time.


Now it is true that SACEUR was able to develop his initial concept of
operations very quickly and you would expect that from SHAPE, to be able to
work very quickly and professionally. But 19 countries have to look at
this, 19 countries, and they all have to be satisfied that what is on the
table is something that they can implement and it makes sense. That is not
a sign of weakness, that is a sign of strength because when we come up with
things we have 19 countries and as you see, sometimes many more,
implementing them.


On the other hand, please do not see this, if I can warn you, as a panacea.
We are not pretending that a visit and search regime is going to totally
eliminate Belgrade's ability to acquire refined petroleum. As you know,
there are always ways in which countries are able to get their hands on
these products, particularly if they are willing to pay the price. It is
simply one of a series of measures, as I have said earlier, that we are
looking at, not with the aim of reducing the petroleum imports to zero
because that probably is not going to be possible, but curtailing them
sufficiently to have a decisive impact on military operations in
Yugoslavia. So it is not a panacea, it is not something that we believe
can be totally watertight, it is simply something that can help to reduce
by several important percentage points the supply of refined oil and bring
it down to a level at which the armed forces start hurting.


But I think what we have done so far, quite frankly, is beginning to hit
home. I saw today that Belgrade is now rationing each car on the streets
of Yugoslavia to 20 litres a month, down from 40 litres a month, as the
army has to raid if you like the petroleum piggy-bank of the country's
citizens to continue to fuel its own activities. And you can't go very
far, as you know, on 20 litres a month, so I think it is a sign that things
are beginning to hit home.


GENERAL MARANI:
About the airspace, I really don't have much to say. What I know about
this possibility is what I have learned from the media on my way here.


QUESTION:
… says that the Bulgarian authorities have reports about the time when
foreign planes entered the Bulgarian airspace?


GENERAL MARANI:
I am not telling you what the Bulgarian authorities have released, what I
can say is that looking into the matter we will verify whether an airspace
violation occurred …


JAMIE SHEA:
Let me, if I may, just make it clear that obviously we are looking into
this. We have given you the information we have thus far and the Secretary
General has received the Ambassador of Bulgaria today obviously to exchange
information and to clarify the issue as much as we know it and we will
continue obviously in the coming hours this afternoon to work with
Bulgaria. Bulgaria is a partner country of ours, it has been very
supportive, as you heard of course in Washington from President Stoyanov of
what NATO is doing. The allies have also written on a few occasions to
Bulgaria to make clear our interest in its security and its well-being and
stability during the Kosovo crisis, and we are very grateful, we have an
excellent working relationship and we will tackle this with the Bulgarian
government in an atmosphere of full cooperation and transparency, I can
assure you.


PATRICIA KELLY:
Jamie, on the list of countries that have joined the EU oil embargo, there
are a couple of NATO Allies missing, like the US and Canada?


JAMIE SHEA:
I was tackling, if you like, the recent additions, but I am grateful for
this question Patricia, mainly because for once I happen to know the
answer. Canada and the United States on Monday both promulgated
legislation, the United States I believe via the Commerce Department and
under Commerce Acts in order to also implement this oil embargo. So I can
assure you that those actions have been taken in both countries. I can
even give you the reports in my office afterwards.



QUESTIONS & ANSWERS


DOMINIQUE THIERRY, RADIO FRANCE INTERNATIONALE:
Two questions, General Marani: If I understood well, during the bombing
on Podgorica, one bomb went astray - where did it land and why and how can
you talk about "surgical precision" if that happened? Secondly, if I
understood again, it seems that Serbian planes move from primary airfields
in Serbia to Podgorica to use as sanctuary or as a secondary base - could
you then explain how much control of Serbian air space NATO planes have if
such planes are allowed to fly from Belgrade right down to Podgorica?


GENERAL MARANI:
First of all, I am not aware of any bomb that went astray in Podgorica.
Second, as I had a chance to say in the previous days, air superiority, air
space control is not to be intended as an absolute capability to inhibit
any kind of flight. A quick flight, very low, of course poses some kind of
difficulty in detecting the aircraft because we don't have airborne
early-warning radars on top of Serbia, we are looking from only one side so
some kind of terrain masking can be used. Therefore, these flights are
detected some as soon as they get airborne, others with a small delay but
the only thing they can do is they can be quick in taking off, fly
extremely low and be quick-landing. This is what they can do and that is
of no operational value really.


DOMINIQUE:
…transferred from Serbia to Podgorica?


GENERAL MARANI:
To be bombed in Podgorica.


JAMIE SHEA:
Dominique, when you spoke of the bomb, I think I can clarify this. Last
night, against this airfield in Podgorica there were just under 30 missions
flown - not bomb but missions - all but one of those missions were
successful, one mission obviously was not able to drop its ordnance and it
could have been weather, cloud or smoke and we always come back to this
point of pilots taking extreme precautions to be certain that they can hit
the target before dropping their ordnance so this wasn't a question of a
bomb going astray, it is just one mission that obviously was not able to
complete and therefore again it is an example of firstly, the restraint but
secondly, the fact that if it was only one out of a factor of virtually
thirty, that this was a very successful night of operations. And by the
way, the weather forecast is due to be good in the next few days as well.


Pour revenir à votre question diplomatique, les alliés ont réitéré dans la
déclaration finale du Sommet de Washington, ils sont tous d'accord sur le
fait que nous arrêterons les frappes aériennes quand nous aurons des
preuves tout à fait vérifiables .............et convaincantes que les
forces serbes se retirent du Kosovo, que c'est une processus qui se fait,
qui n'est pas une illusion, c'est un processus qui est irréversible, mais
uniquement dans ces conditions-là. Nous n'allons pas avoir une pause, nous
allons avoir un arrêt définitif d'opérations quand nous aurons un retrait
définitif des forces serbes, et uniquement à cette condition-là.


JAKE LYNCH (SKY NEWS):
Now the American Congress has reminded the President that he needs to
obtain congressional approval before sending ground troops into Kosovo,
what is NATO's interpretation of the status of the Apache helicopters?


JAMIE SHEA:
Again, General Marani may have an answer there. It's not for me to comment
on the US Congress, as you know that is something which American spokesmen
are better placed to comment on than I. All I can say is that the United
States in general has been very supportive of what we're doing in Kosovo
including Congress. I was in Washington, as you know, last week for the
NATO summit, the Congress hosted on the Friday afternoon a major event
receiving all of the NATO Heads of State, SACEUR, the Secretary General,
there was a meeting on Kosovo and there was very widespread support -
bipartisan support - among both Republicans and Democrats for what we are
doing and I am certain that the United States' involvement in this
operation, the assets it's committing, the very important role it's playing
are going to be upheld right to the end. I've no doubt in my mind at all
about that and as far as the Apache mission is concerned, nothing leads me
to believe that it's not up and running and will soon be making its
influence felt.


JAKE LYNCH:
Does NATO classify the Apache as constituting ground troops or not?


JAMIE SHEA:
Oh no, the Apache is part of the air operation, we have always made this
clear; it's an extra capability within the current operational plan for
what we're doing, it's nothing to do with ground troops whatever. There
are troops deployed in Albania but of course to protect and service and fly
those Apaches and for no other mission at all.


DOUG HAMILTON, REUTERS:
A question each please. General Marani, you said that the Yugoslav
forces had shifted the weight of their operations from west of Pec down to
the line Decane-Djakovica and I'm wondering why they've done that, have
they given up defending the incursion route west of Pec or have they
secured it and could you estimate in general what percentage of the troops
they have in Kosovo are on the border line?


Jamie, on the question of oil, wouldn't the secession of Montenegro from
the Yugsoslav Federation solve a lot of problems? Is it part of the
scenario and is it likely?


GENERAL MARANI:
I don't think they have given up defending that line of communication but
shifting the forces from one side to another can well be a tactical move
that doesn't change the overall strategy in the area.


About percentages, I really wouldn't know at this moment what is the
percentage of the troops deployed on the border in relation to the entire
number of military VJ and MUP troops in Kosovo.



JAMIE SHEA:
Doug, that is obviously a very interesting question, I'm grateful for that
because it inspires a reflection. I referred a moment ago to the
interview that President Dukanovic today gave in "Ivestia" and in it he
said something that I didn't mention, he said that he is against Milosevic
but he's for Yugoslavia. I find this is an interesting comment, in other
words, what he wants is for the principle to be accepted that according to
the constitution of Yugoslavia, a constituent republic of the Yugoslav
Federation - which is what Montenegro is - can be allowed to implement its
own policies, according to the constitution, on the basis of a democratic
election without being undermined from outside and as you know, Milosevic
has persistently blocked Dukanovic and his government from sitting in the
Yugoslav parliament soon after his election and indeed has been using
Montenegrans of his own party and the former President Bulatovic (phon) to
try to stir up trouble and undermine that so what I think Dukanovic is
saying is that he prefers to be part of a democratic multiethnic Yugoslavia
rather than to be forced into secession because that would be the only way
to preserve democracy.


Yesterday, we had a discussion about the Kosovar Albanians and I made the
same point, they only embraced independence once it became clear that they
would not be allowed to have their autonomy under Milosevic but for many
years all they asked for in the passive resistance organised by Ibrahim
Ragova and others was simply for their human rights, their ethnic identity,
their autonomy, to be respected. If people have left Yugoslavia since
1991, it's not because of any desire first and foremost to have so much
their own state, it's because the policy of rabid nationalism in Belgrade
gave them the impression that if they stayed within the Yugoslav
Federation, they would not be able to survive or have their rights protected.


Our policy is not to encourage lots of states to suddenly emerge in that
part of Europe, it's simply to try to allow Yugoslavia to run on the same
decentralised federalist lines that many other states in Europe run on and
successfully in a stable, prosperous way and enjoy security and if we can
have decentralised multi-community states elsewhere in Europe, it surely is
not beyond the imagination of the Yugoslav people to design a similar
arrangement for themselves so "No" to Milosevic but "Yes" to Yugoslavia. I
think Dukanovic's slogan is one that I personally would endorse
wholeheartedly.


JUNE McCARTHY (NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO)
Could you give us an assessment of what strikes were made around and in Bar
and were there any strikes that were made on the port facilities in the
past 24 hours? And with the second errant bomb in 24 hours, could you
give us an idea of what precautions are being taken to prevent this from
happening and radical though it may sound, is there any consideration being
given to stopping strikes until you figure it out?


Jamie, is there concern about undermining the Bulgarian government that has
extended air space to NATO in the face of political opposition? Do you
worry that that could be a policy reverse?


GENERAL MARANI:
As far as air strikes are concerned, I'm not aware of any strike on Bar or
the harbour facilities. There has been a strike south-east of Bar but at
quite a distance and obviously you cannot correlate this strike with Bar
itself.


In terms of precautions, of course any time aircraft go into action, any
time something happens we review what we have done to see if there is any
room for improvement as a matter of normal practice, what happens when a
laser-guided bomb or a missile or a non-guided bomb goes astray, meaning
that it hits where it was not supposed to hit and we know what could have
happened to the weapon. There are so few episodes in the large number of
events that we have had so far in this campaign that really there isn't
much you can do. It is well within the technological capability of the
weapon, much better than what could have been expected really, not only the
weapon but also the associated systems and so far the faults that we have
had are nowhere near the figures that you could expect and this has been
because of careful planning, careful employment, extreme care about
collateral damage and professionalism during the actions and maintenance
and care about the systems and the weapons.


JAMIE SHEA:
On the political aspect, first of all the Bulgarian parliament has yet to
vote on the recommendation of the government to approve the use of air
space by the Allies so we await the outcome of that vote and obviously we
will fully respect whatever decision the parliament takes but we are very
heartened by the fact that the government has recommended approval. That
is the first point.


Secondly, we had, as you know, Prime Minister Kostov here last week just
before we went to Washington. I also mentioned the very successful
meeting with President Stoianof (phon) in Washington as well. Both
expressed solidarity with the Alliance - you heard the Prime Minister
yourself here just a few days ago sharing our objectives and the need to
work together - and Bulgaria has been one of our longstanding partners in
the Partnership for Peace, it's a country which has expressed an interest
in joining the Alliance and we have an excellent relationship.


Obviously, if an incident like this one occurs at any time the first thing
we owe Bulgaria is transparency, giving the information, trying to clear up
what happened and we have done this as I have said. We have been looking
into this all morning and as I mentioned, the Secretary General has met
with the Bulgarian Ambassador, he's spoken to the government and we will
keep up with these contacts. Obviously, Bulgaria knows full well that
this is a mishap, it's an accident but thankfully there were no casualties
although obviously we regret any damage to civilian property that may have
occurred but it's clear that it was an accident.


I mentioned a moment ago that we have written to the Bulgarian government
in the past to assure Bulgaria of our solidarity and of our direct and
material interest in its security so I hope this will be seen as what I
suppose Harold MacMillan would have called in his time "a little local
difficulty" and not something which will have any impact on our
relationship, in fact I personally do not believe that it will have any
impact on our relations and that Bulgaria will remain four-square behind
our efforts to settle this because, as the Secretary General made clear in
his press conference yesterday, the countries of the area, Bulgaria
included, know that NATO prevailing is the best long-term recipe for the
stability and economic lift-off of the area in which everybody has an
interest so I'm confident that we can put this behind us but on the basis
obviously of a close consultation and an active sharing of information as
soon as we realise that something had actually taken place.


BILL DROZDIAK, WASHINGTON POST:
Jamie, a couple of weeks ago, you were emphasising the urgency of rapid
action to rescue the internally-displaced people inside Kosovo. I believe
General Clark said the military is going to study with great urgency
measures to air-drop some relief supplies. If NATO's been so successful in
suppressing the Yugoslav air defences, why hasn't some kind of air-drop
mission been undertaken?


JAMIE SHEA:
Well Bill, this as you know came up at the Washington Summit and we don't
exclude air drops. I want to make this clear that we haven't dismissed
the idea, far from it, the military are still looking at planning and
various options for trying to bring some kind of assistance but we do not
believe that air drops can be a panacea. It would be wonderful if they
could be but they can't, not just because of the operational risks that
NATO aircraft would be faced with - and they would be faced with risks
because although we have, as you say quite rightly, degraded significantly
the air defence, these C-130-type aircraft that would be responsible for
air drops would have to go in very low to be certain of being able to see
the people that they are meant to be dropping the food to and would have to
fly quite slowly because it's very difficult to do an accurate drop if
you're flying at supersonic speeds and they would therefore be highly
vulnerable to man-portable air-defence systems, so called "manpads" or even
simply anti-aircraft fire from the ground and we would have to recognise
that this would be a very risky venture. Secondly, as SACEUR has pointed
out in the times that he's been up here, you would need an enormous number
of aircraft to have any significant impact.


The best way of achieving the result obviously is to stop the violence. I
keeping coming back to this point. Why are there people who are hungry,
why are there people living in the hills? Because they've been forced out
by the Serb security forces. As long as the fighting carries on, we may
be able to feed one group in place X but then of course see more ethnic
cleansing going on in place Y, it would be a never-ending business, it
would be like when you are dealing with a multiple flood, you would be
putting some plaster there only to see the water pouring out in other
places as well so it is not excluded but let's not believe for one moment
that this is going to be the solution to the humanitarian suffering. We
have to stop the violence, that's the only way to start reversing this
humanitarian situation and therefore we've got to keep our eye on the air
operation, intensifying it, putting the pressure on the Serb forces.


There are some things that we can do and are doing. The first thing is
that we can give the humanitarian organisations information and
intelligence which will help them to identify the scale of the problem and
the location of the refugees.


The second thing is that we have a military planning activity to see what
we could do to assist third-party states or humanitarian relief
organisations such as the Red Cross or these Greek non-governmental
organisations that have sent doctors to Pristina hospital, to do their job
inside and as you know, the Head of the Red Cross, Mr. Samaruga, was in
Belgrade on Monday seeing Milosevic to try to get access and we support all
efforts to get the humanitarian organisations back in. The problem is
that they are the first people to say that in order to operate they need a
secure environment, they need security and that means they need
international troops in a NATO-led force or a force with a NATO core to
operate otherwise life for them becomes very dangerous as well. We have
seen that of course with the experience of the three months of this year
before NATO started its operation. So again, it's a very pressing subject
but the only way to really solve it is to get Serb troops out, NATO troops
in and on the basis of that allow the humanitarian organisations to go
about their work without intimidation or insecurity so we have to shorten
this conflict as much as we can.


QUESTION
Quelles sont vos relations avec le UCK et est-ce que ce sont ....les mêmes
qu'au début du conflit et est-ce que vous les aidez d'une manière ou d'une
autre?


JAMIE SHEA:
Oui, on m'a beaucoup posé cette question. L'OTAN n'a pas de relations
formelles, de rapports formelles, ni au plan militaire, ni au plan
politique, avec l'UCK, bien que ca va de soi les pays alliés individuels -
certains au moins - ont des liens, mais pas l'OTAN tant qu'institution.
Est-ce que nous les aidons, non, nous ne les aidons pas, parce que comme
vous le savez, il y a un embargo décrété par les nations unies, un embargo
sur les armes mais nous sommes tenus bien sur de le respecter. Nous
appelons à tous les autres pays de le respecter, donc nous avons aussi
l'obligation de le respecter nous mêmes. Ce que nous voulons comme vision
du futur pour le Kosovo c'est un Kosovo qui serait suffisamment en
sécurité, suffisamment démocratique pour que les organsations comme l'UCK
n'aie plus de raison d'exister, parce que il ne faudrait pas que les
citoyens aient recours à des Kalashnikovs ou à des organisations armées
pour se protéger, d'où la nécessité d'une force de sécurité internationale.
Comme vous le savez dans le cadre politique de Rambouillet il y avait non
seulement des provisions pour la démilitarisation de Kosovo côté serbe mais
également pour une démilitarisation des groupes armées telles que l'UCK.


JAMIE SHEA:
Ladies and Gentlemen, I think we've pretty much done the tour de raison for
today and so I look forward to seeing you again here tomorrow at 3 o'clock
for the next briefing. The next operational update will be in the morning
at 10.30 and then the next briefing with General Marani at 3 o'clock
tomorrow afternoon. Thank you very much for the time being.