NATO missiles continued to hit targets across Serbia today, as the alliance ordered Yugoslav forces to set in motion their withdrawal from Kosovo. NATO officials met Serb army and police officers inside the Macedonia border. The Alliance said that the Rapid Reaction Force Commander, Lieutenant General Sir Michael Jackson had a brief to order, not to negotiate, the Serbs' pullout from Kosovo over the next seven days.
It said that Lieutenant General Jackson was expected to list for the Yugoslavs’ details of what roads to use and how to pack heavy arms so that NATO could verify the withdrawal. It has been announced that the talks have been adjourned for the night and will resume in the morning after the Yugoslav side confers with Belgrade. The NATO group is composed of Finnish, Russian and American officers.
NATO said earlier that Yugoslav forces must withdraw from Kosovo within seven days of the peace agreement accepted by Belgrade coming into force. NATO said that the withdrawal must include all organisations with a military capability, including armed civilian groups. NATO spokesman Jamie Shea told a news conference in Brussels that air defence weapons, including radar and artillery, must be moved out of the province very quickly to allow intensive NATO surveillance of the province to begin.
Mr. Shea said there were plans for a buffer zone to be established on the Serb side of the border with Kosovo, but the details would have to be worked out by General Sir Mike Jackson. Talks on the Yugoslav crisis, among Foreign Ministers of western powers and Russia, which were scheduled for tomorrow in Bonn, have been deferred until later in the week. The German Foreign Ministry said that a precise date for the talks would be set in due course. Germany had said earlier that talks were needed to agree a proposal for a UN Security Council resolution that would formalise the peace deal over Kosovo.
The British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook has said bombing would stop once there was verifiable evidence that the Serb withdrawal was underway. He said that halting the air strikes before the pullout began would put NATO generals negotiating the withdrawal in a much weaker position. Mr. Cook said that the generals would tell the Serbs the bombing could stop today if they started pulling out.
A NATO spokesman has said that Yugoslavia has one day to prove that it is withdrawing from Kosovo. Major Trey Cate said that, once proof is given, there would be a pause in bombing. The Alliance is expected to demand that Serbian air defences are switched off and that they come up with a clear timetable for withdrawal. The Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon has said that, if Serbia co-operates, a halt to the NATO bombing could come as soon as this weekend.
NATO warplanes bombed targets across Kosovo overnight. Yugoslav media reports say that NATO targeted areas close to the province's western border from which Yugoslav artillery fired salvoes into Albania late last night. As the conflict entered its 74th day, there were also reports of NATO air strikes near the west Kosovo town of Pristina. Air raid sirens also sounded in Belgrade and across central and southern Serbia.
