Indictment:
Slobodan Milosevic and other Yugoslav leaders indicted for war crimes - including the murder of 340 ethnic Albanians and the deportation of more than 740,000 Kosovans, equivalent to one-third of the province's population.
Judge Louise Arbour, chief prosecutor of the UN's International War Crimes Tribunal, says that in the long term her work will make a "major contribution" to peace in the region. But the evidence used to obtain the indictment, she concedes, raises serious questions about the indicted leaders' suitability to be the guarantors of any deal, let alone a peace agreement: "They have not been rendered less suitable by the indictment. It has simply exposed their unsuitability."
Ivica Dacic, a spokesman for Milosevic's Socialist party (SPS), describes the decision as "monstrous" and insists Louise Arbour should also be "put on the list of war criminals".
There is criticism, too, from within NATO. "I do not approve of this initiative - it does not serve peace," French interior minister Jean-Pierre Chevenement (right) declares. He attacks the tribunal for having a "pseudo-moral" instead of a political vision: "When an adversary is considered a criminal, it makes discussion no longer possible. The conditions for political negotiations no longer exist." Chevenement resigned as defence minister in 1991 over France's involvement in the Gulf War, but has kept quiet about his differences with the government over French policy on Kosovo.
NATO spokesman Jamie Shea says that whether or not the indicted war criminals are acceptable as negotiators of a peace agreement is for the international envoys concerned to decide: "Indicted war criminals must be brought to trial because there can be no lasting peace in the region without justice." NATO will continue to provide evidence of war crimes by Milosevic and others to Judge Arbour's tribunal, Shea stresses.
NATO's campaign:
Yugoslav air defenders fire their greatest number of missiles to date against NATO warplanes, jolting a US F-16 in a "near-miss", NATO reports. The surge in missiles is seen as a sign that Serb commanders are growing increasingly desperate and may believe that the conflict is all but lost.
"One of our pilots had to evade two missiles fired in a salvo against him and he told us one passed so close to the aircraft that he heard and felt turbulence as it passed and exploded near his aircraft," military spokesman Gen Walter Jertz tells reporters.
Diplomacy:
Russia could agree to a NATO-dominated force of 10,000 troops for Kosovo, similar to the one already operating in Bosnia, provided it's headed by a general from a neutral country, according to Itar-Tass news agency.
Viktor Chernomyrdin appears set to visit Belgrade after talks in Moscow with US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, the EU's mediator. Talbott and Ahtisaari leave Moscow without any formal statement on the outcome of their talks, which have been complicated by the indictment of Milosevic. Significantly, military sources tell Tass the decision of the tribunal will not stop Russia's efforts to mediate a peace deal. It is regretted that a joint visit to Belgrade by Chernomyrdin and Ahtisaari cannot be arranged, however, they say.
And . . .
A further 139 Kosovar refugees, comprising a total of 27 families, arrive in Ireland.
Quote of the Day:
"A ground invasion of Yugoslavia will be just as unsuccessful as it was for the Nazis in the second World War. What NATO have shown us is not how things should be done but how things should not be done and that means we must pull ourselves out of this crisis as soon as possible." Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.