NATO says that its warplanes struck two legitimate military targets in Surdulica in southern Serbia, but denied Serb claims that NATO missiles had struck a sanatorium in the town, killing at least ten people. Its military spokesman, General Konrad Freitag, said that allied warplanes had attacked and struck a military barracks and an ammunition dump close to the town.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson has accused the Yugoslav army and police of committing gross violations, including executions and rapes, in its forced expulsion of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo. In a major report, she called on Belgrade's forces to halt atrocities and withdraw immediately from the province.
Mrs. Robinson also criticised NATO's use of cluster bombs and the destruction of schools and hospitals in its air-campaign against Yugoslavia. She urged the alliance to respect humanitarian law, including the principle of proportionality. Mrs Robinson's report follows a trip to Macedonia, Albania and Serbia in early May.
It was reported this morning that at least ten people were killed when NATO aircraft bombed an old people's home at a sanatorium in Surdulica in Southeast Serbia this morning. Local media say that two missiles hit the home and a nearby building that housed refugees. Earlier, NATO admitted responsibility for an attack on a bridge in central Serbia in which 11 people are reported to have been killed and 19 were injured. Serb media claim that the bridge was crowded with shoppers using a local market and several cars plunged into the river when the missiles struck.
Belgrade has also accused NATO of bombing two cars in Kosovo, which were carrying Western journalists. The Yugoslav state news agency, Tanjug, said that the convoy came under fire on the road linking Brezovica and Prizren in southern Kosovo. A driver was killed and the injured are said to include French philosopher Daniel Schiffer and London Times journalist Eve-Ann Prentice.
