Day 34
The Campaign:
Nato war tally now 474 air attacks on over 227 sites in 11,600 missions, 70 of Yugoslavia's 450 combat planes destroyed, including 23 of 83 MIG 29s and MIG 21s; nine strategic surface-to-air missile radar systems destroyed, nine of 17 military airfields and 40 aircraft hangars destroyed; 20 road and rail bridges destroyed, all railway lines servicing Kosovo cut, plus three of the eight roads; one fifth of all major ammunition storage depots significantly damaged and almost a fifth of all army barracks attacked, says Alliance, RTS, Serbian state television (back on air) says five (possibly 20) people killed in Surdulica.
Television transmitter on roof of 23-storey USCE business centre, HQ of ruling Socialist Party, destroyed, says official Yugoslav news agency, Tanjug, and Studio B radio station; Serb media also reported attacks near Novi Sad, strikes at a military air field in Sombor near the border with Hungary, and on the Danube bridge in Backa Palanka; in Kosovo, Pristina airport and targets on Mount Goles, near Lipljan, also hit.
Some 1,000 civilians have died in war, Yugoslavia tells UN Secutiry Council; also damaged by NATO bombing "several thousand private homes and flats, some 300 schools, dozens of hospitals and health institutions, hundreds of places or worship and cultural monuments have been destroyed.
President Milosevic emerges from seclusion to lay Yugoslav National Day wreath at Mount Avalas monument to commemorate soldiers fallen in battle.
Refugees:
Macedonia refugee camps completely full, new refugees will have to sleep in open under plastic sheeting, says UNHCR.
3,.500 refugees arrived Monday joining 183,800 who came since air strikes began March 24; 69,960 refugees being held in six refugee camps, 27,990 airlifted out of country, says government adding it cannot cope any more.
Diplomacy:
US deputy secretary of state Strobe Talbot holds talks in Moscow with Viktor Chernomyrdin; Talbot says both countries working together on crisis; Talbot also has "extremely intense, constructive discussions," with foreign minister Igor Ivanov.
In The Region:
Hungary, only NATO ally to border Yugoslavia, poised to allow Alliance use its airfields, prime minister Viktor Orban, says two airports under consideration as possible base for 50 NATO was planes and 20 tanker aircraft; Hungary concerned for some 250,000 ethnic Hungarians in Vojvodina province of northern Serbia.
Socialist People's Party of Montenegro demands that pro-Western government fall in line with Belgrade. "The Montenegro government should desist from (spreading) groundless fears, desist from its vulgar egoism and align its policies with the interests of Montenegro and Yugoslavia...and with the Montenegrin people's mood in war conditions," says Zoran Zizic, deputy leader of the party which a close ally of Milosevic's ruling party in Serbia.
Quote Of The Day:
We stress our solidarity with the Yugoslav people and leadership in the face of aggression and external threats. - Saddam Hussein.