TRANSCRIPT OF PRESS CONFERENCE
GIVEN BY JAMIE SHEA AND MAJOR GENERAL WALTER JERTZ
IN BRUSSELS ON FRIDAY, 7 MAY 1999

JAMIE SHEA:
First of all, I would like to record that by any standards yesterday was a
bad day for President Milosevic. He woke up in the morning to the news
that overnight NATO forces had carried out a series of attacks first
against his fielded forces in Kosovo where we destroyed over 30 pieces of
equipment including 7 tanks and 12 artillery pieces; he also learned as he
woke up that we had struck at ten strategic targets elsewhere in Kosovo,
they included command posts, surface-to-air missile batteries,
communication sites and airfields among others. I wonder if in the
afternoon at about this time he was able to tune in to the international
news coverage of this briefing where he would have heard General Jertz give
his comprehensive account of the damage that NAT0 has inflicted on his
forces over the past five weeks, that includes 20 per cent of the military
equipment in Kosovo, over 300 individual items, it includes all major road
and rail lines into Kosovo, all but two bridges over the Danube, 60 per
cent of his MiG-29s destroyed and the rest, including other aircraft,
grounded; 4 out of 7 of his major fuel storage sites in Kosovo, the two
major oil refineries in Yugoslavia, nearly 40 now of his 52 radio-relay
targets, 50 per cent of ammunition storage sites, 8 battalion-and-brigade
field command posts in Kosovo and without speaking of course of the damage
done to the strategic targets such as command posts, such as army
headquarters, such as lines of communication and such as airfields and
storage sites.


So the facts are now staring President Milosevic in the face. He knows
that his military operations are slowing down while NATO's are speeding up.
Yesterday, you heard the news that 176 more aircraft will shortly join
operation Allied Force including a large number of tankers as well as
strike aircraft and that we will be in an even better position with these
extra assets to operate 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. It has never been
so true that NATO never sleeps.


At the same time, yesterday there were further demonstrations of resolve
and determination. You heard that in particular from Chancellor Schröder
and President Clinton after their meeting in Bonn and you have heard that
today also from President Chirac and Chancellor Schröder and when it comes
to the support of our parliaments, you have seen just a few moments ago the
Bundestag in Bonn vote 566-43 to send a thousand additional German
servicemen and women to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and to
Albania to assist in humanitarian relief operations proving once again that
NATO takes care of the victims of Belgrade while we try to resolve durably
this conflict.


And if President Milosevic did not tune in to our briefing yesterday, one
thing that he could not and would not have ignored was the result of the G8
meeting of Foreign Ministers in the afternoon which demonstrated the unity
and resolve of the international community. The G8 endorsed the five
essential conditions of the Allies as the only valid basis for resolving
the Kosovo crisis and it stressed the need for an effective international
security force to give the refugees the confidence to return home and this
is a significant step forward. Russia is now working constructively with
us towards a political solution and therefore Milosevic's political
isolation grows as fast as the military isolation of his forces in Kosovo.


I believe that if you are President Milosevic today you can appreciate the
old expression "uneasy sleeps the head that wears the crown" particularly
when you know that you are going to wake up the next day to essentially the
same bad news as the day before. It is not a nightmare, it is reality.
The reality is that NATO is going to continue this operation day after day,
night after night until we secure acceptance of the five fundamental
conditions of the - now I can say this - international community and not
just the Allies: an immediate end to the violence; the withdrawal of all
the Serb military, paramilitary and police forces; the deployment of an
effective international security presence; the safe return of all refugees;
and a political process towards the establishment of an interim political
framework. The goal is clear, we are now going to draw up the modalities
to bring that goal closer and closer it is coming every day.


MAJOR GENERAL JERTZ:
Even though I do know that I do have to cover every day a very serious
topic, which is military effects on targets, I would like to assure you
that I am not a British general, as stated in some media yesterday, and I
am not sure if the Royal Air Force would love to have me because if they
would have me they would have to pay me also!


As was reported to you in the morning update, our air operations were again
somewhat impacted by the weather in certain target areas. I will give you
more details on the air campaign in a moment.


Let me briefly start with another topic. As you are well aware, we are
very much concerned with the humanitarian aspects of this current crisis.
Having said that, NATO continues to provide substantial and critical
support to the many organisations that are working very hard to minimise
the suffering of the hundreds of thousands of unfortunate refugees who are
victims of the brutal operations of the Serbian military special police and
paramilitary units.


To continue the close co-ordination and co-operation between NATO and the
relief agencies, Mrs. Ogata, the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees, will meet today with the Supreme Commander (Europe), General
Clark, discussing of course related matters.


There has been discussion in the press that NATO military operations may
have been reduced or scaled back over the past 24 hours for some reason. I
can assure our air operations do continue as planned unless they are
hampered by unfavourable weather conditions or unless Milosevic picks up
the phone and tells us he wants us to stop and accepts the five points.


While we are encouraged by some of the advances which we hope are taking
place on the political side, our military operations continue unabated and
according to the plans. As I said before, bad weather hampered our air
operations and we did not strike all of the targets we had planned last
night. Here once again, however, I would like to reiterate that we only
strike those targets in bad weather conditions when we are sure that damage
will be limited to military or militarily-related targets. Having said
that, we still hit many targets very hard in Kosovo and the rest of Serbia.


Within Kosovo itself, we attacked tanks, trucks, artillery, command posts,
armoured personnel carriers and riveted positions in the Podujevo area, in
particular we hit the 211th Armoured Brigade very hard. Additionally, we
hit mortars, rocket launchers and tank positions in western Kosovo, part of
the 63rd and 125th motorised brigades driving these units back towards the
north and east in order to find cover from our air strikes, thus keeping
them busy in defensive military actions rather than persecuting innocent
civilians.


We also struck additional tanks and artillery in central Kosovo as shown on
the slide.


The first post-strike image I have to show you today is of the remains of
some of the tanks we hit a couple of days ago near Kaminaclava in south
eastern Kosovo.


The next slide shows you other targets we attacked last night within
Serbia. We targeted the airfields as shown like Ponikva, Jenikan,
including also a substantial strike at Nis. NATO aircraft also struck an
ammunition-storage area and the radio-relay station at Kusovac.


The second post-strike photo is of the remains of the Batanikan
early-warning radar. We continue to have good success in blinding
Milosevic's command-and-control network thus denying his capability to lead
his forces.


Serbian air-defence activity was about normal. We observed three
surface-to-air missile launchers and of course, as always, anti-aircraft
artillery. There were however no Serbian air-defence fighters noted and
once again I have to say all our aircraft have returned safely.


Turning to our humanitarian efforts, in the last 24 hours 88 flights
arrived in Albania and 18 flights arrived in the former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia.


This slide once again shows you the totals of eight delivered thus far.
These great numbers show you the big effort very many countries feel
obliged to make because they know that they do help the Kosovars to survive.


Thank you, Ladies and Gentlemen, that concludes my part of the briefing.



QUESTIONS & ANSWERS


QUESTION:
In addition to the targets you mentioned in Nis, there were reports that a
hospital was hit. Can you reply to those reports and what you know about
those?


MAJOR GENERAL JERTZ:
I have seen press reports - I repeat I have seen press reports on that.
They are a little bit contradictory, the three press reports I saw but I
cannot comment more on that because I don't want to be speculative so we
are checking, because we just got the reports a few hours ago, very deeply
and as always searching to see if something has happened but for sure I can
tell you that we did not target - repeat we did not target - civilian
hospitals and we do not target any civilian targets whatsoever.


QUESTION (SARAJEVO):
Could you explain or recommend for ?????? about international civil and
security presence on Kosovo?


JAMIE SHEA:
This question has come up in the last days. Very briefly, it has always
been part of the approach of the international community to have a civilian
presence in Kosovo after the fighting has stopped as well as a military
presence. As you know, there was a civilian presence in the shape of the
Kosovo Verification Mission of the OSCE. Perhaps something like that -
obviously this has to be determined - will be deployed to look after human
rights, to look after the aspects of law and order, to of course help a
transitional authority, institution-building, democracy-building, that type
of thing but everybody here in the Alliance agrees and the G8 agrees that a
civilian presence is not sufficient, there also has to be, as a
precondition for the refugees to go home, an international military force
and as you know, the position of the Allies is that that international
force has to be built around a solid, efficient core of NATO.


Let me, if I may, also say that that is not only the view of Allies. Many
of our Partner countries here in Europe have contacted us in the last few
days saying: "We would be interested in participating in such a force but
only if there is a solid NATO core because we know that that is efficient,
we know that we can entrust our troops, as in Bosnia, to that type of
operation without undue risk!" and you saw what Mr. Rugova said yesterday
and other Kosovar Albanian leaders that spoke from various political shades
but they all said the same thing, that the refugees will only go back if
that international military force is built around a solid NATO core.


JONATHAN:
Can the General give us any more information on the developing "eastern
front" as you might call it of NATO, the overfly agreements for NATO
warplanes to fly over Bulgaria and so on - we have seen already the first
tankers arriving in Hungary. Could you try and sketch in a few more of
the details of this new encirclement, if you like, of Yugoslavia?


MAJOR GENERAL JERTZ:
As you know, there are a lot of legal and military targets which have to be
discussed before we finally come to a common plan. We are proceeding at a
good pace and it will not take much longer. You know that both of the
countries you mentioned did agree that we could use their air space and the
plans are very much in good shape and it won't be much longer before we can
give you some answers on that in the next few days.


JAMIE SHEA:
I can add to that: SACEUR was in Bulgaria just a couple of days ago for
co-ordination and an expert team is going from NATO to discuss with
Bulgaria in particular the modalities for example of operating a much more
co-ordinated system so, as General Jertz says, all of that is ongoing.


ERIC (FOX NEWS):
There is a lot of talk in the press about what would be acceptable to
Milosevic, whether ground troops would be lightly-armed or would have
weapons or pistols, whether they would be NATO countries or non-NATO
countries or not those involved with the actual action. Why is it
acceptable for Milosevic to have a say in this, why would he dictate any
terms?


JAMIE SHEA:
Eric, I don't believe that President Milosevic is having a say in this.
The G8 has spoken of an international security presence, making it clear
that it has to be a credible international military force. The
composition of that force, the mandate, those are issues which now the
Political Directors of the G8 over the next few days are going to be
working out but we all agree that this has to be a robust, capable force.


The circumstances which will surround the withdrawal of the Serb troops
from Kosovo will be very difficult circumstances, there will be armed
groups, there will be mines, there will be many refugees, there will be the
need to set up a transitional authority very quickly. That is not the
sort of operation or circumstance in which you are going to throw an
unarmed or lightly-armed civilian force. Everybody agrees that it will
require an adequately-armed, robust military force and I would not take
what President Milosevic says today as necessarily his last word on this
topic. There has been, as you know, a considerable evolution in what he
is saying on this and we'll see, faced with the determination of the
international community, how his views develop over the next few days.


MAJOR GENERAL JERTZ:
Let me add an historical lesson on that. Remember, in 1995 when we had
the Bosnia operation, we had from 1992 to 1995 almost unarmed UN personnel
in Bosnia and fighting, shooting, killing, raping and murdering just
continued and only in 1995 the Rapid Reaction Force with heavy artillery -
a heavily-armed force - came in and they did stop the fighting so the same
is true for Kosovo.


CRAIG (NEW YORK TIMES):
Is the "visit and search" regime being discussed by the NAC today and what
is the likely outcome of that?


JAMIE SHEA:
OK Craig, I know that you have an enduring interest in this so I have
tracked it closely! I have visited it as well today!


We are at the stage where SACEUR is now beginning the development of a
detailed op plan with rules of engagement but this will be very fast
because the concept of operations has now been addressed by the North
Atlantic Council - that is the heavy work if you like - and it is now a
question in the so-called "op plan" of putting the flesh on the bones.
That will come back to the Council within a very short space of time.


I want to make it clear that all Allies are committed to a "visit and
search" regime, we are all committed to having one and there will be one.
The precise rules of engagement, the basis in international law, will have
to be addressed by the North Atlantic Council in a couple of days. I
would also add that we will be making a concerted effort once we have
adopted this regime to appeal to all other countries that are flag
countries, that have tankers or that are oil-producing countries or which
have had any history of trading relations with Yugoslavia, to join this
"visit and search" regime. We want to widen it to the extent that we can
and in this respect let me give you something which I am not sure anybody
has picked up yet: that yesterday there was a declaration by the
Presidency of the European Union on behalf of the European Union - that is
the German Presidency - which says:


"The member states of the European Union accept that ships flying their
flags and suspected of carrying materials prohibited under United Nations
Security Resolution 1160 or EU common positions and EC regulations to
Yugoslavia, may be stopped and searched by vessels of other EU members or
if EU members so decide, of other countries participating in the NATO
operations and if necessary diverted so as to prevent these materials
reaching Yugoslavia."


So already, even before NATO has begun the implementation of a "visit and
search" regime, we have this extremely encouraging statement by the
European Union that it intends to be part of this so we are off to a good
start.


JAKE LYNCH (SKY NEWS):
You will have seen that President Milosevic said in an interview apparently
recorded a week ago but put out yesterday: "We can't accept anything that
looks like an occupation!" I am going to go back to the provisions in
the Rambouillet Accord about the unfettered free movement of a force
throughout Yugoslavia and exemption from local criminal and civil law.


I know you said before that NATO doesn't see anything that should be
objectionable about those but is this though an opportunity for NATO
perhaps to make it look a bit less like an occupation force and thereby
hasten acceptance in Belgrade by giving a promise that you would, say, use
those provisions sparingly or sensitively or perhaps a mission for the
civil force reporting separately to the UN to carry out some kind of
monitoring role as with the UNSCOM inspectors in Iraq?


JAMIE SHEA:
OK. Jake, first of all, this force is designed to protect the Kosovar
Albanians, they do not consider it obviously as an occupation force and
they are the direct addressees of that force. Secondly, an occupation
force is something which applies to a whole country, we are only
considering a force in Kosovo which is ultimately a very small part of
Yugoslavia. Thirdly, the Rambouillet Accord has not been implemented
because it was never signed by the Yugoslav Government although it remains
the basis of what we hope to be an eventual political settlement based on
autonomy; and my fourth point is that if we are able to achieve a UN
Security Council resolution mandating an international security presence -
which is the aim now of the G8 and the international community - then in
the wake of yesterday's meeting this will have the full force of
international law.


MARK:
Two questions, one to Jamie. Could you give us any information you have
got on the Yugoslav Navy embargo of the Port of Bar which does seem to be
firm now? And to the General, you talked about the attacks in western
Kosovo against the 63rd Parachute Battalion and one other. Can you give us
a little more information on that, you said you had driven them away, have
you stopped them fighting and can you give any idea as to how much success,
or lack of it, they are having because I understand they are trying to shut
the corridor for the KLA supplies and refugees and things moving into that
area?


JAMIE SHEA:
Mark, yes we have indications, as you know, from Montenegrin officials that
the Yugoslav Navy, under the auspices of conducting as they put it wartime
maritime operations off Bar and Kota are preventing docking. That of
course is not going to endear Belgrade in the hearts and minds of the
Montenegrin people, quite the reverse. And the Montenegrin authorities are
doing their utmost to resist this imposition of an effective sanction, and
naturally the NATO countries support them in their effort to do that. I
see nothing in the Yugoslav constitution which authorises those type of
steps to be made against a constituent Republic of Yugoslavia. But my main
point is that this is obviously not something which is going to in any way
get Milosevic support within Montenegro itself, and so far thankfully
President Djukanovic has been successful in standing up for his people
against Belgrade, but of course it is something that we are very concerned
about.


GENERAL JERTZ:
On the 63rd, first of all let me tell you that of course our intelligence
is good enough to indicate where the strong targets are, the enemy targets
are, and one of those was the 63rd battalion I was talking about, and that
was one of the reasons why we attacked them and it is military life, it is
a military priority to attack targets which do look very strong. But I
cannot elaborate of course on the weapons we have been using but I tell you
we did have a very big force on it and we really have indications, even
though the battle damage assessment is still on-going, that they did
withdraw and by saying that I want to point out again that if they are
hiding, if they are running away they cannot do any harm on civilians.


QUESTION:
About the refugees, can you tell us something about the situation on the
Macedonian border? We heard that they had opened the borders and then they
were closing the borders, and what are the restrictions laid on this influx
by the Macedonian government?


JAMIE SHEA:
I understand that yesterday only 9 refugees were able to enter the Former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the border being closed. Just short of
about 2,000 were able to depart the country as part of an emergency and
temporary evacuation to other countries. Clearly the situation is
difficult given the large number of refugees. Figures range anywhere
between about 195,000 - 230,000 that have entered that country in the last
few days. Obviously announcements by certain governments, like the UK
yesterday, of a willingness to set up an air bridge to bring 1,000 refugees
a week out on a temporary basis, the efforts of the United States, the
efforts of an enormous number of countries now, of Italy to double the
figure, indications from Germany of a willingness to take in more of these
refugees, all of this will help to take the pressure off the former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and as you know a large number of countries
are now participating in this effort.


I can tell you that tomorrow, Saturday, due to a co-ordination between
General Jackson and General Reith, in other words the Commander of the Arc
in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and the Commander of the AFOR
in Albania, 6,000 refugees from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
are going to be transported by NATO to Albania where the AFOR has
constructed 6 refugee camps in the area of Koce to help take off some of
the pressure. That will help as well.


But I would say that I believe in international law all countries have a
duty to open their doors to refugees. I realise however that that is
obviously not always easy to do in practice, given the social and economic
burdens, but we very much hope that the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia would keep the door open and we have to help that country. I
understand that financial aid has been forthcoming in recent days from the
international institutions, that will help as well. Let me also say that
Ambassador Eiffe, NATO's representative at the political level to Skopje,
will be here on Monday to brief the North Atlantic Council on the situation.


GEORGE:
I would like to come back to the visit and search problem. Does the
concept for … is being prepared now, involve the possibility to stop ships
which do not wish to be stopped?


JAMIE SHEA:
Yes, the thing is that it will be effective in that respect. The full
details can only be divulged when they have been agreed by the North
Atlantic Council, but our intention is to have an effective comprehensive
visit and search regime.


PETER O'DONNELL, UPI:
Jamie, in the light of the Bonn agreement yesterday, are you hopeful at all
of any closing of the ranks between you and Russia at the level of NATO as
well, are you putting out feelers in this direction? And if Russia-NATO
relations do resume to their previous level, is this anything that would
make an operational difference to you?


JAMIE SHEA:
I would hope and also expect that once this crisis is over NATO-Russia
relations will rapidly go back to their former level of intensity where we
had several meetings a month, contacts virtually every day, because I think
there is an objective interest of both Russia and NATO in having a solid
relationship that goes well beyond Kosovo and covers subjects that are
going to be very much on the security agenda in the 21st century -
terrorism, proliferation, chemical weapons, tactical nuclear weapons, the
environment - these are issues where we have started co-operative programmes.


Also I believe that NATO and Russia will be able to work together in
conjunction with an international security force in Kosovo, like we have
been able to do in Bosnia, and that too will have immediate effect. So
although we have had our differences, I think that those differences are
now closing with every passing day. I note the constructive statements
that have been coming out of Moscow vis a vis NATO's political objectives
in the last few days and therefore I believe, this is my own personal view,
the worst is behind us now and that we are turning a corner.


STERN MAGAZINE:
I would like to come back to the international force. Would this force in
its civilian and security components be under the same directions, OSCE or
United Nations? And second, General Jertz referred to UNPROFOR and IFOR,
SFOR, so could he be a little bit more specific and tell us whether NATO
would deem it necessary that this force, the military part of it, would be
in its composition, and its equipment and its rules of engagement be like
SFOR and could not be acceptable like UNPROFOR?


JAMIE SHEA:
As I have made clear, the exact composition and the exact mandate of the
international security force have to be worked out, that is the task that
now derives from the G8 meeting yesterday, that is what Political Directors
will be meeting on in coming days, to start drawing up the specific
modalities, but there are certain things which are clear already. The
first thing is that that force will have to be based on a NATO core, there
will have to be effective NATO command and control, that is clear. It will
have to be robust, it will have to be armed in such a way that it can be
respected by everybody. It will also obviously be a multi-national force
to which other countries in addition to Allies will be invited to
participate and we will try to make that participation as broad as we can
within the parameters of military effectiveness as well. So those things
are clear and no Ally is going to back away from those principles, but the
precise modalities are things that we are still going to have to work
through, but that work will be done quickly now.


GENERAL JERTZ:
Only to repeat what Jamie already said, the force have to be robust, the
force have to be international and they have to have precise rules of
engagement, they have to know what they have to do, what they are allowed
to do. And yes we might be very close to IFOR/SFOR and no, we cannot be
expecting UNPROFOR forces the way they were at the beginning.


ANTONIO:
The fact that Russia seems to agree, and they did yesterday, on what is
going on with the security force it means that Russian troops will probably
be part of the force, so this makes it difficult to be a NATO-led force.
And the future of President Milosevic, nothing has been decided, the man is
still there, can we assume that he is going to stay there afterwards and
probably the International Court of Justice doesn't make much difference
because President Tudjman is still there and he has got also a very bad
record?


JAMIE SHEA:
With Russia we obviously will be looking to find a pragmatic arrangement,
as we have managed successfully to do with IFOR. IFOR, or SFOR as it has
now become, is an example of how you can have an effective NATO force,
NATO-led with effective command and control, and yet still have not only
Russian participation but give Russia a meaningful role also in the command
structure with its own deputy directly under the SACEUR, and its own
consultation mechanism with NATO which we have had under the Permanent
Joint Council/SFOR, as we call it, in which we meet regularly with Russia
to discuss the operational issues. All of this has worked, and I say this
with total frankness, virtually without a problem since the beginning, for
four years, and so that we have a model of NATO-Russia cooperation, we are
not inventing the wheel here, we are not starting from base camp, we have
got these elements on which to build even if we may adapt them here and
there, and these again are modalities which we are going to work out. But
there is no incompatibility whatever between an effective NATO command and
control, a NATO core and a strong role for Russia. That is the first point.


As to the second point on Milosevic, well as I have said on many occasions,
it is for the Yugoslav people to decide if they wish Milosevic to be their
leader, that is not for NATO to decide, and we will see what happens, and
as far as the Tribunal is concerned, obviously they will have to decide in
due course if he is to be indicted or not, that is not a NATO decision.


JULIE:
Jamie, could you tell us a little bit more about the Russian inspection of
troops in Macedonia, was this something that has been scheduled for some
time? This morning you called it routine, it was not out of the ordinary,
there are some diplomatic sources who are saying that the Russians are
suspicious of what they have gotten into and they want to check out to see
what is happening with the Allied troops?


JAMIE SHEA:
This comes under the Vienna document of 1994 which was negotiated by the
OSCE, it is a document on confidence and security building measures in
Europe, part of which provide for routine inspections and particularly
where force is deployed outside national territory exceed I believe the
level is 11,000. So this is something which Russia is perfectly entitled
to do. The government of Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, where the
inspection is to take place at 4.00 this afternoon, has given its green
light and I can assure you that NATO will be co-operating fully, fully,
with this inspection which is a routine one and which will last for I
understand 48 hours. We have nothing to hide. Everything we are doing on
the territory of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is totally
transparent and we are quite happy, in fact we are more than happy to show
the Russians the excellent work that NATO soldiers are doing in order to
help the people.


Now one of the things which I hope the Russians will see when they arrive
at 4.00 this afternoon and begin the inspection are the 46,000 chickens
prepared by the Royal Engineers of the UK currently in the Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia. I would like to point out, just to give you an idea
of the good humanitarian work that these forces are doing, that since 5
April they have prepared 48,000 kilograms of ghoulash, and again I think
the Russians hopefully would enjoy having some of that, they have baked
19,500 scones, hard boiled 16,000 eggs, in all they have cooked 129,000
meals, distributed 442,000 chocolate bars and 145,000 kilograms of fruit.
I have the statistics on baby food and nappies as well, but I will probably
spare you that, but as I say we are very proud, extremely proud, of what
our NATO forces there have been doing over the last month and we are very
happy to get that news out to the world with a Russian visit in the next 48
hours. It is scheduled to start at 4.00 pm today.


QUESTION:
When was it asked for?


JAMIE SHEA:
It was asked for I think 10 days or so ago, but there are very fixed
procedures under the Vienna Document 94 for notifying these, for the time
for acceptance and so on and the like. So we are happy for this to go
ahead, it is a routine visit. We are very committed to transparency and
openness in military affairs, and of course to the principle of reciprocity
as well in terms of being able to inspect the Armed Forces of other
countries participating in this regime as well.


LOS ANGELES TIMES:
I may have missed this, General, and I apologise if I did. You said there
was a substantial strike on Nis and then went on to say that the hospital
was not a target there. Could you tell us what was targeted in Nis?


GENERAL JERTZ:
Well you know that we are not talking too much about targeting, but in this
case I can go a little more in detail on that. We did target the airfield
of Nis because we know there are substantial aircraft and other military
assets over there and we did target a radio relay station in Nis, but we
for sure did not target civilian houses. But still as I said, I had to
report in the press report, we are doing investigations and we will be very
honest if anything has gone wrong, we will address it to you.


DAG:
On Nis again, given that the Yugoslav authorities are right now conducting
foreign journalists to the scene, I expect we can expect to hear and see
more of this, they are talking about a hospital and a market place which
sounds like downtown areas. Was there any target that was remotely
speaking a downtown area in Nis? And Jamie, about the NAC meeting today,
the General has raised IFOR and comparisons with IFOR, I think IFOR went in
in December 1995 with about 60,000 men, is that the sort of numbers we are
now looking at for KFOR?


GENERAL JERTZ:
Once again on the targets, I cannot comment more than I have said so far.
Let's be fair, I promised you honesty when I started my job on Monday and
honesty and credibility does mean that I do have to go back to … and have
to find out what has happened. So far, other than the press release, we
have no indication about any casualties.


JAMIE SHEA:
Dag, on your question, as I have made clear in previous briefings, the
Secretary General just before the Washington summit, asked the NATO
military authorities to assess and up-date where necessary the planning,
which is what you would expect us to do, any military plan has to be
constantly assessed and up-dated because circumstances on the ground change
and they have of course changed and unfortunately for the worse in Kosovo.


At the same time, we have a substantial enabling force pre-deployed in the
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia which for months now under General
Jackson has been training for its mission to be fully ready for rapid
deployment when the time comes, and that force by the way as you know has
been added to by German and British troops in the last couple of days,
other enhancements from the Netherlands and elsewhere are en route too. So
we are not in a bad position, let me make that clear, we have been
anticipating this for several months, hence that pre-deployment.


At the moment the military are continuing to assess the situation, they
will be receiving political guidance on how to do so from the North
Atlantic Council and we will obviously in the light of the emerging
diplomatic activities keep our planning and our preparations fully ready.
Now let me make one thing clear. When the time comes and the Serb forces
leave, NATO will be ready, we know our responsibility, we are preparing to
assume that responsibility, and that is by the way one of the key reasons
for a NATO core. Who else could be ready in such an organised way, on time,
for this time urgent very demanding mission? Only this organisation would
be in a position to take that job on, which requires a great deal of
organisation and planning, believe me.


But as far as numbers are concerned, I don't know where you got the number
60,000 from, but I did see an article in an American newspaper.


QUESTION:
>From IFOR.


JAMIE SHEA:
Yes, it is true, IFOR had 60,000, you are right, at the beginning. But as
far as the numbers are concerned, no, we have not taken any decision yet on
the final dimensions and the final numbers, we have to wait first until we
have a clear understanding of the tasks, the task that such a force would
have to do, we have a general sense, but the specific tasks and the
so-called troop to task analysis in terms of driving force requirements,
and that work is on-going at the moment.