Online NewsHour: Accidental Bombing -- April 15, 1999



	CASUALTIES OF WAR

April 15, 1999
		NATO today admitted to accidentally bombing civilians in a convoy in Southwest Kosovo yesterday. Yugoslav sources say 64 refugees were killed and 20 wounded in the attack.

Crisis in Kosovo Index.

March 26, 1999:
National Security Adviser Berger

NATO

US State Department

Serbian Ministry of Information

Both NATO and Pentagon officials expressed their remorse for the incident but said it would not affect the ongoing air campaign against Yugoslavia.

"NATO confirms, from its preliminary investigation, it appears that one of its aircraft mistakenly dropped a bomb on a civilian vehicle in a convoy yesterday," an alliance statement issued Thursday read. "We cannot confirm the figures given by Serb sources, but NATO regrets any harm to innocent civilians, and reminds that the circumstances in which this accident occurred are wholly the responsibility of [Yugoslav] President [Slobodan] Milosevic and his policies."

The Serb government called the incident a deliberate attack on civilians and an atrocity. Alliance governments were quick to accuse the Milosevic government of hypocrisy.

"How dare they now produce crocodile tears for people killed in the conflict for which they are responsible," British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said.

U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen said the accident needed to be looked at in the context of pressures alliance pilots are facing during the campaign.

"It has been confirmed by NATO that an error did in fact occur, but it was under extraordinary circumstances with the kind of stress placed upon pilots," Cohen told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "I think we have to take into account the very fact that you've got pilots who are traveling at four or five hundred [miles per hour], or perhaps even in excess of the speed of sound, having to make split-second determinations under very extraordinary circumstances where they are being fired at by [antiaircraft artillery] fire and surface-to-air missiles."

NATO also released a tape of an interview with the F-16 pilot who dropped the bomb on the convoy. He indicated he flew over the convoy twice before attacking it.

Alliance countries reiterated their pledge to make the strikes as precise as possible.

"We go to extraordinary lengths to reduce the risk to innocent civilians," Secretary Cohen said. "I don't think any other nation or combination of democracies would consider going through what we go through in the way of planning and training and exercising every conceivable precaution in order to reduce harming innocent civilians. And we should take great pride in that."

The confirmation of the attack came after a day of charges and counter-charges between Belgrade and NATO.

The government-controlled media in Yugoslavia initially reported the convoy consisted of a hundred vehicles, including tractors, cars and military escorts. They also claimed there were two strikes that involved civilians.

"There were two separate attacks," a Serb official in Pristina said. "In one in the village of Zrze, six people were killed and 11 wounded. In another one, in the village of Meja, 64 people were killed and 20 wounded including three Serb policemen who were escorting the convoy."

At first the Pentagon and NATO indicated they believed the strikes had been on military targets and indicated that the Yugoslav military may had attacked the convoy.

"We did hit military vehicles in a convoy," Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon told reporters Wednesday. "We are quite sure we hit only military vehicles. We will obviously review what happened."

Bacon also said that fleeing refugees told relief workers that Yugoslav aircraft have been used to attack civilian convoys, although he added these are "preliminary reports that may or may not be correct."

The convoy strike was the second bombing to result in civilian casualties in a week. Over the weekend, a missile struck a bridge while a passenger train was crossing. Reports indicate the death toll from that accident may go as high as 27.