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World - Europe

Captured U.S. soldiers face Serb military trial

Steven Gonzales, right, one of three soldiers captured Wednesday, keeps watch near the Yugoslav border in Macedonia Tuesday, a day before his capture

Pentagon account of final radio transmissions of the three soldiers captured by Yugoslav forces:

Wednesday: UNIT #1: "We are under fire."
UNIT #2: "You're not bullshitting us, are you?"
UNIT #1: "No, we are under fire. We are surrounded."
End of transmission
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InteractiveIMAGE GALLERY:
In defense of hallowed ground: The Serbs and Kosovo
 ALSO:
Clinton: Milosevic responsible for safety of 3 U.S. soldiers

Milosevic meeting with ethnic Albanian leader draws rebel outrage

Behind the faces of captured U.S. soldiers

Kosovo being emptied as refugees flood neighboring countries

 MESSAGE BOARD
Crisis in Kosovo
 NATO Maps
April 1
NATO says it's doing 'right thing' in Yugoslavia


March 31
NATO military targets

Ethnic Cleansing
 

April 2, 1999
Web posted at: 8:46 a.m. EST (1346 GMT)


In this story:

Bombing to continue

Holbrooke calls Milosevic 'formidable adversary'

Church leaders address crisis

NATO committed to stopping 'criminal war machine'

RELATED STORIES, SITES icon



BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Three U.S. soldiers captured by Serb forces are expected to face a military trial Friday despite warnings from NATO and Washington such action would breach the Geneva Conventions on prisoners.

Yugoslavia's Tanjug news agency said the trial would be held in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo. It did not say what charges they faced.

The soldiers were captured while on what NATO says was a routine patrol on the Macedonian side of the Yugoslav- Macedonia border.

News of their capture came Thursday when Serb television broadcast pictures of the men, who appeared bloodied and bruised but otherwise in good health.

The newscast said the soldiers were on the Yugoslav side of the border and had resisted arrest.

British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook called their capture a "snatch" operation by Yugoslav forces.

NATO leaders expressed concern about the safety of the three. "We've seen their pictures, and we don't like it. We don't like the way they are treated. We have a long memory about these kinds of things," said NATO's supreme allied commander, Gen. Wesley Clark.

He said NATO will hold Serbian authorities accountable for the soldiers' treatment and is investigating where the soldiers were captured. The men reported coming under fire shortly before going missing.

U.S. President Bill Clinton on Thursday repeated NATO's position and said the United States, too, will hold Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic responsible for the safety of the three American soldiers.

"President Milosevic should make no mistake," Clinton said. "We will hold him and his government responsible for their safety and for their well-being."

The Pentagon said the captive U.S. soldiers were prisoners in a military conflict and therefore should be covered by the protections of the Geneva Convention.

Edgar Buckley of the British Defense Ministry expressed deep concern over reports that Milosevic was preparing to overthrow the government of Montenegro.

Buckley said there was every reason to believe that Milosevic would replace the elected government with one of his own.

Air Marshall Sir John Day, deputy chief of the British Defense Staff, said manned NATO air attacks on Thursday night into Friday morning had been disrupted by bad weather but that weapons effective in all weather continued to be used.

He said Milosevic was running critically short of fuel in some areas. "This will further inhibit the ability of his forces to attack the Kosvar Albanians,"" Day said.

Day said forecasts of improved weather for the coming days in the Balkans should strike fear in the hearts and minds of Serb forces.

Bombing to continue

The Pentagon said the fate of the captured soldiers had not stopped planned bombing runs; Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said bad weather had more effect.

"We did attack a Yugoslav army unit in central Kosovo that's been involved in some of the ethnic cleansing activities," Bacon said. "We also attacked a major ammunition dump in Kosovo."

Bacon also announced that 13 additional F-117A stealth fighters will soon leave Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, and fly to Italy to participate in NATO's Operation Allied Force. One is to replace the warplane downed last week.

"That will bring our total of stealth fighters up to 24 in the theater, and our total number of aircraft up to about 220," Bacon said.

Russian ships
Russia has dispatched a spy ship to the region to monitor the NATO operation  

He also said A-10s -- awkward-looking planes dubbed "wart hogs" and "tank killers" -- were being flown but did not know if they had fired weapons yet.

At the Aviano air base in Italy -- the main staging post for NATO airstrikes on Serb forces -- hopes grew that a fine morning Friday would allow a stepped up air campaign in what will be the tenth day of attacks. Bad weather has forced several missions to be aborted in recent days.

And in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol on Friday a Russian navy spy ship set sail for the Adriatic where it is expected to adopt a monitoring role. The ship is expected to reach its destination in three or four days.

Holbrooke calls Milosevic 'formidable adversary'

Meanwhile, the senior U.S. envoy who had spearheaded efforts to get Milosevic to sign onto a Kosovo peace deal said Thursday the Yugoslav president was "a formidable adversary" who chose bombings over diplomacy.

Richard Holbrooke, appearing on CNN's "Larry King Live," said NATO made the right choice by implementing Operation Allied Force after months of intense negotiations fell through.

"This tragedy in Kosovo has been a noble undertaking," Holbrooke said. "Many foreigners, many Americans have said to me, 'Why is the United States bothering?' The answer is because we could make a difference and tried to make a difference."

Over the years, Holbrooke has traveled to Belgrade on more than 30 occasions for diplomatic talks with the Yugoslav leadership. He met with Milosevic in 11th-hour negotiations last week on the Rambouillet peace proposal, but he failed to get the Yugoslav leader to sign on -- even after he made clear NATO would begin its bombing campaign.

"Diplomacy has been set aside ... because given a clear choice, the Yugoslav leadership chose a course knowing that it would go on to this situation," he said.

Asked what it was like to deal head-on with Milosevic, the envoy said, "He's always been tough to deal with. He's a formidable adversary, and negotiating with him is not a lot of fun. I've done it for a long time."

"We have achieved things in that process many times, most notably peace in Bosnia with no Americans injured or wounded."

Holbrooke also urged Yugoslav authorities to abide by international laws set forth in the Geneva Conventions, a series of international treaties signed in Switzerland between 1864 and 1949.

Asked on "Larry King Live" if Yugoslav authorities should release the three as a gesture of goodwill, Holbrooke said, "I think that's a good idea, Larry. I know that your program is watched carefully in Belgrade, probably the most watched program available to the leadership in Belgrade, and I hope they hear your suggestion and respond positively to it."

Church leaders address crisis

Geneva Convention of 1949

Its prisoner-of-war provisions include:

  • Prisoners must be kept in a place where their lives are not at risk.

  • They are required only to give their name, rank, serial number and date of birth and may not be coerced into giving other information.

  • They cannot be put on trial.

  • They must be protected against insults and public curiosity.

  • They may be imprisoned until the end of the conflict, but must be released immediately when it ends.

    Text of: Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War
  • NATO, the U.S. and Yugoslavia have also come under pressure from Christian leaders urging the resumption of peace talks as their congregations begin Easter observances.

    Eight U.S. Catholic cardinals, in joint letters to U.S. President Clinton and Yugoslav President Milosevic, urged a cessation of hostilities, while the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops outlined steps to end "the unfolding human tragedy in the Balkans."

    At the same time, five Serbian Orthodox bishops who preside over the North American branch of the Serbian Orthodox Church called on Clinton and other NATO leaders to stop aerial bombing in Yugoslavia during the Easter season.

    The Western Christian church will observe Good Friday and Easter Sunday on April 4. The Orthodox church, to which most Serbs belong, celebrates Easter a week later.

    NATO leaders have opposed the idea of calling off military operations in observance of Easter, saying it would provide Milosevic too great an opportunity to commit unchecked violence.

    A representative of Pope John Paul II traveled to Yugoslavia Thursday to personally deliver a papal plea for peace to Milosevic.

    NATO committed to stopping 'criminal war machine'

    NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana said NATO remains committed to stopping Milosevic's "criminal war machine" in Kosovo.

    "It is the right thing to do, and it is our duty to do whatever we can to stop the killings in Kosovo," he said during a NATO news conference in Brussels.

    "After one week of NATO air operations, I am confident that we are having an impact on Belgrade's war machine," he added.

    Clark said that in the past eight days of strikes, NATO significantly damaged Yugoslavia's military air defense systems, command and control centers, and field forces arrayed against ethnic Albanians. He referred to the targets as "instruments of oppression."

    He said NATO attacks on Serb military targets will continue unabated, "step by step, day by day, with precision and a great deal of attention to avoid civilian casualties."

    And reports continued to emerge from Kosovo of Serb forces stepping up their campaign to drive ethnic Albanians from Kosovo.

    The Kosovo capital of Pristina was said to have been virtually abandoned, and the U.N. estimates 170,000 have fled since airstrikes began.

    Correspondents Brent Sadler, Steve Harrigan, Tom Mintier, Ben Wedeman and Jane Arraf contributed to this report.


    RELATED STORIES:
    Captured U.S. soldiers face military court in Yugoslavia
    April 2, 1999
    Pentagon: U.S. soldiers' capture not stopping NATO bombing missions
    April 1, 1999
    Concerned about captive U.S. soldiers
    April 1, 1999
    Three U.S. soldiers captured by Yugoslav army
    April 1, 1999
    NATO confirms U.S. soldiers captured, Serbian TV shows men bruised and bleeding
    April 1, 1999
    NATO widens target list, seeks missing soldiers
    March 31, 1999

    RELATED SITES:
    Extensive list of Kosovo-related sites
      • Kosovo

    Yugoslavia:
      • Federal Republic of Yugoslavia official site
          • Kesovo and Metohija facts
      • Serbia Ministry of Information
      • Serbia Now! News


    Kosovo:
      • Kosova Crisis Center
      • Kosovo - from Albanian.com

    Military:
      • NATO official site
      • BosniaLINK - U.S. Dept. of Defense
      • U.S. Navy images from Operation Allied Force
      • U.K. Ministry of Defence - Kosovo news
      • U.K. Royal Air Force - Kosovo news
      • Jane's Defence - Kosovo Crisis

    Relief:
      • InterAction
      • International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
      • International Committee of the Red Cross
      • Kosovo Humanitarian Disaster Forces Hundreds of Thousands from their Homes
      • Catholic Relief Services
      • Kosovo Relief
      • ReliefWeb: Home page


    Media:
      • Independent Yugoslav radio stations B92
      • Institute for War and Peace Reporting
      • United States Information Agency - Kosovo Crisis

    Other:
      • Expanded list of related sites on Kosovo
      • 1997 view of Kosovo from space - Eurimage
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