The United States is sending its special envoy, Richard Holbrooke, to Belgrade to deliver a final warning to the Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic to halt aggression in Kosovo or face NATO military action. In a statement, the American Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, said that Mr. Holbrooke will give the warning in a meeting with Mr Milosevic tomorrow.
International aid workers in Kosovo have been delivering relief supplies to thousands of ethnic Albanians. The Kosovar Albanians have been driven from their homes by fighting between separatist rebels and the Yugoslav army.
NATO ambassadors are meeting in Brussels to decide whether or not to launch air strikes against the Serbs. Fighting has been continuing in the province since the departure of hundreds of international peace monitors yesterday morning. Unconfirmed reports say that between five and ten thousand ethnic Albanians have fled their homes in the face of a fresh Serbian offensive.
The rebel Kosovo Liberation Army described the situation as catastrophic and has appealed to NATO to halt, what it called, the Serbian war machine. The British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, today warned the Serb leader, President Slobodan Milosevic, that the West would have no option but to take military action against him, if he continued to block peace or if violence escalated in Kosovo.
