Air Commodore David Wilby has rejected Serbian claims that coalition fighters had caused the widespread and random damage to the Kosovar capital, Pristina, last night. Speaking at a news briefing in Brussels, the NATO spokesman accused the Serbs of carrying out the destruction, which was filmed by escorted western television crews. Air Commodore Wilby also warned that Serb television and radio stations would be attacked unless they offered six hours a day to Western news broadcasts.
NATO has announced that its warplanes will fly aggressive lower-altitude missions against Serb ground forces in Kosovo. The announcement was made on Spanish radio by the Alliances General Secretary Javier Solana. Mr. Solana also claimed that Serbian security forces are not complying with a unilateral cease-fire declared by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. The Yugoslav and Serbian governments had announced a cease-fire ahead of the Orthodox Easter this weekend.
NATO said that about 100 warplanes attacked targets in Yugoslavia over the past 24 hours and that several armoured vehicles in Kosovo were hit. The official Yugoslav news agency reported that at least 12 people, including a family of five, were killed in an overnight road on the Kosovar capital, Pristina.
The United Nations High Commission for Human Rights has claimed that Serb forces have laid mines in Kosovo near the border with Albania. The Commission also reported that Serb tanks and guns were being positioned at the frontier in anticipation of a NATO ground assault. The military movements follows Belgrade's decision to close the main border crossing into Albania at Morina, preventing tens of thousands of Kosovo refugees from leaving.
Around 1,000 people ignored air-raid warnings in Belgrade to form a human shield to protect the city's main bridge from attack. This followed NATO's insistence that it is doing its best to avoid civilian casualties. NATO warplanes bombed targets across Serbia again during the night, as the air offensive against Yugoslavia entered its third week. The first reported attack was on a former army building in central Belgrade. There were no immediate reports of casualties from the raids.
Serbian state television said that there were explosions in the outskirts of the city of Kraljevo, 100 miles south of the capital, causing widespread damage, most of which was to civilian houses. It also reported that missiles were fired at targets in two nearby villages destroying a fuel depot. The Yugoslav state news agency, Tanjug, said that NATO had fired missiles on a residential area in the southern town of Cuprija. It said damage had been caused to an electricity company, a sports hall and supermarket.
