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![]() Thursday, April 1, 1999 Published at 22:57 GMT 23:57 UK ![]() ![]() World: Europe ![]() Clinton warns Serbs over soldiers ![]() The three US soldiers bore some signs of injury ![]()
He warned that President Milosevic would be held responsible for their safety and well-being. The Yugoslav state-run media reported that the soldiers would go on trial on Friday before a military court. The US State Department immediately described the move as "a violation of international law".
And he reiterated his resolve to press on with Nato's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia until the Kosovo Albanians were able to return in safety.
General Wesley Clark, Nato's Supreme Commander in Europe, said he was "very concerned" about the safety of the soldiers. He said they had been "abducted" by the Serbs inside Macedonia.
The Pentagon named the three captured men as Steven M Gonzales, Andrew A Ramirez and Christopher J Stone. The US Deputy Secretary of State, Strobe Talbott, told the BBC's Newsnight programme the capture was "another outrage to be chalked up against the long record of outrages perpetrated by the Belgrade regime". Mr Talbott is to lead a US delegation this week to several countries in the region to thank them for supporting Nato operations. US sends extra Stealth bombers The Pentagon has announced it is deploying an additional 13 F-117 Stealth fighters for use in Nato air strikes.
The confirmation came during President Clinton's speech in which he referred to the plane having been hit. Yugoslavia said from the start that it had shot down the aircraft. The pilot ejected safely and was picked up by a search and rescue team hours after the crash. US rejects Russian diplomacy
In Moscow's second peace initiative on Kosovo in three days, Mr Yeltsin went on Russian television to warn that the fighting in Yugoslavia threatened disaster for the whole of Europe and there was no time to lose. He said the mission of Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov to Belgrade on Tuesday had shown that the crisis could and should be solved by negotiations. But the United States said it saw no benefit in a meeting of the G8 countries. Britain said the time might come when such talks would be useful - but the priority now was to get President Milosevic to halt his repression. Nato goals 'unchanged'
He said the alliance remained united and it was determined to end the killing and destruction in Kosovo. In another night of raids, a road bridge over the Danube River became the first major civilian target to be hit by Nato.
Milsosevic installs close ally In a reshuffle of several senior military posts, President Milosevic removed the army chief in Montenegro and replaced him with one of his own close allies, General Milorad Obradovic. Correspondents say the move has raised tensions in Montenegro, where the pro-Western government has been opposing the direction taken by Belgrade. Refugees packed 'like sardines'
UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said six trains had arrived at the border with civilians crammed into the coaches "like sardines." The passengers had been rounded up in what appeared to be a "deliberate and systematic policy to railroad large sections of the population into exile," Mr Eckhard said.
Albanian officials say 113,000 have crossed so far, more than 20,000 in the last day. The European Union opened a conference near Bonn on co-ordinating help for the tens of thousands of refugees fleeing Kosovo. The German Deputy Foreign Minister, Guenter Verheugen, has said that accommodating the refugees in western and northern Europe would send a completely wrong signal - that the Kosovo Albanians would never be able to live in Kosovo again. Several European countries have already pledged aid, and President Clinton has authorised $50m in emergency relief.
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