BELGIUM/ALBANIA: NATO Officials describe May 3 night attack on Yugoslavia as their most successful

Record ID: 565682

  • Title: BELGIUM/ALBANIA: NATO Officials describe May 3 night attack on Yugoslavia as their most successful
  • Date: 4th May 1999
  • Summary: TIRANA, ALBANIA (MAY 4, 1999) (REUTERS) SV NATO COMMANDER GENERAL WESLEY CLARK WALKING UP TO PODIUM/MEDIA (2 SHOTS) MCU (English) CLARK SAYING "This is a military operation down here, we've been given a mission. That mission is to conduct an air campaign and take care to assist the the lead agencies and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the other NGO's in taking care of people caught in this terrible tragedy. Both those aspects of the NATO mission are right on track. The air campaign is proving every day that we are winning, Milosevic is losing. And he knows it. And I think that you can see the evidence of that in some of his posturings and efforts in recent days. We had our most effective day yesterday and also on the day before in attacking targets on the ground inside Kosovo. SLV OF CLARK MCU (English) CLARK SAYING "Throughout the air campaign we've made every conceivable effort to minimise collateral damage to civilians. But in a military campaign these kinds of actions more or less are inevitable, despite our best efforts. The responsibilty for these civilian deaths and injuries rests squarely on Mr Milosevic. He's the one who's brought this to the conflict stage. He's the one who has the control and has to comply with the requirements of the international community. The best way to ensure that there is no collateral damage is for Milosevic to meet the demands of the international community. Thanks very much, I wish you the best. MCU/SV CAMERAMAN/CLARK LEAVING PODIUM (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 19th May 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
  • City:
  • Country: Belgium Albania
  • Topics: Business,War / Fighting,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA9W9X2B5OCOR3NPPZSFI61N6UT
  • Story Text: NATO officials have described Monday (May 3) night's attack on Yugoslavia as their most succesful yet, laying particular emphasis on the destruction of Serb army and special police units inside Kosovo.
    They have also denied that they struck a bus near the border between Kosovo and Montenegro.
    But the NATO action has received some criticism from retiring chairman of the military committee, General Klaus Naummann, saying it had failed to use the elements of surprise and to bring to bare the alliance's overwhelming military force.
    Alliance military spokesman General Walter Jertz told a news briefing at NATO headquarters on Tuesday (May 4) that operations in the past 24 hours "have gone extremely well...it was our most successful military operation against fielded forces in Kosovo".
    NATO began its aerial attacks on Yugoslavia on March 24.
    The spokesman of the 19-nation alliance, Jamie Shea, told the briefing the Balkan weather had been favourable on Monday, allowing NATO planes to carry out several strikes against Yugoslav tanks, artillery and military equipment in Kosovo, in addition to around 40 fixed targets elsewhere in Yugoslavia.
    "No part of the Yugoslav army was spared," Shea said.
    "Our campaign...is working, our strategy is clear...to pin those forces down, cut them off from their supply chain and resupply routes and to take them out progressively and deliberately," Shea added.
    Jertz said Monday's strikes had hit "especially hard" the Yugoslav Army's 125th Motorised Brigade in the west of Kosovo and the 233rd Brigade in the east of the province.
    Shea said the strikes hit five different airfields, destroying at least one MiG and two other aircraft, several petroleum producing facilities, communications lines and a number of command and control bunkers.
    The comments by the NATO spokesmen were echoed by their Supreme Military Commander Wesley Clark who was in Tirana for an asessment of his forces.
    "The air campaign is proving every day that we are winning, Milosevic is losing.And he knows it." Clark said refering to perceptions of a possible diplomatic solution to the crisis.
    Back at NATO headquarters in Brussels, General Naummann told reporters that he felt the strikes had not managed to achieve their initial hope, which was to prevent Serb forces from persuing their policies of ethnic cleansing and to coerce Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic into agreeing to the Rambouillet Accords.
    "But that said, we certainly succeeded in degrading the FYI's ability to conduct these operations," said Naummann who is due to retire as NATO's military committee chairman.
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