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| NATO BRIEFING: DAY 3 | |
 March 26, 1999 
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NATO spokesperson Jamie Shea confirms the downing of two Yugoslav MiG 29 planes. |
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MR. SHEA: Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon to everybody. Welcome to our briefing. First of all, allow me to introduce my fellow briefer, Air Commodore David Wilby from SHAPE. David will be joining me every day at 3:00 throughout the duration of Operation Allied Effort to give you the operational military update. But before I pass the floor, the microphone, to David, let me just, if I may, make some preliminary remarks. As you know, we are now on the third day of Operation Allied Effort.
Last night we had the second round of airstrikes, beginning at around
8:00 p.m. Sixty- four aircraft participated, once again involving a
number of NATO countries, and this demonstrates the unity of purpose,
the solidarity of allies in carrying out these missions collectively
and togethe Also, a number of cruise missiles were launched from ships. And once again, thankfully, operations were concluded without allied losses. In a minute, of course, David will give you more information on last night's operations, but I think it's fair to say, as a result of the two nights, President Milosevic now fully understands the gravity of the situation in which he finds himself and knows very well that NATO is serious. |
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| NATO's targets. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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I'd like to stress once again, if I may, that the targets against which NATO pilots have been operating are exclusively military targets. Every conceivable effort has been made, is being made, will be made to avoid collateral damage -- that is, danger, risks, to civilians and civilian property. Planes -- aircraft, NATO pilots -- only fire at targets when they have a reasonable degree of confidence of being able to hit those targets accurately. In fact, after the first night of operations, certain planes returned to base without firing their ordnance. We are taking every precaution to ensure the highest possible degree of accuracy against exclusively military targets. This morning the North Atlantic Council, NATO ambassadors, met again to review the situation. I think the message that has emerged from the meeting this morning is a sense of unity, resolve and determination, among all 19 allies, to see this mission through. The decision to act was taken by all 19 allies together, and all 19 allies are determined to meet our essential mission objectives. Let me make clear; this is not an operation that was ever designed to last only for one or two days. We are realists in this alliance. We have known from the very beginning that President Milosevic would be testing our resolve, waiting to see if we had the stamina and the staying power to see this through, before he would realize that he has no alternative but to comply with the demands of the international community. And, therefore, we are determined to see this mission through. And, yes, we do have the stamina, and we do have the staying power. We will continue for as long as it takes to meet our objectives. I have seen in the newspapers in the last couple of days, some headlines talking about war in Europe. I'd like to repeat here today as the secretary-general of NATO, Javier Solana, has said here yesterday, that NATO is not at war with Yugoslavia. We have no quarrel with the people of Yugoslavia, only with the government of that country because it is using unacceptable levels of violence against its own civilian population. It is that which we are trying to prevent. And our objectives in this context are clear and unchanging: We want to stop once and for all, not simply for a couple of weeks or a couple of months, but once and for all, these brutal acts of repression in Kosovo. And in doing that, we want to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe, which is the inevitable consequence, as we have seen, of that continuing repression. Obviously, all allies would like to be in a position to terminate this operation as soon as possible. We are using force only having exhausted all of our preferred means, political and diplomatic means. But it is up to President Milosevic to help us to terminate this operation and by agreeing to our key requirements. He can do so immediately, within minutes, if he would indicate that he is ready to implement a cease-fire on the ground in Kosovo, pull back his forces, stop firing at villages, and if he would withdraw those forces back to their barracks in their normal locations, both inside and outside Kosovo, and leave them there, because military forces have no business repressing civilian populations. |
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| NATO's objective. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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So I want to stress that the solution to this crisis is in Belgrade, and that is where we have to look. NATO's objective from the very beginning, has not been to find a military solution but to support the achievement of a political solution. That is the only way out, and we will continue to make every effort to achieve that objective. I will now hand over to David for his military operational update. COMMODORE WILBY: Thank you, Jamie. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We are now nearly two days into Operation Allied Force. Let me remind you of our current mission statement, which was so ably articulated by SACEUR yesterday; in short, to coerce the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to cease hostile action and agree to a cease- fire agreement and a peace settlement. The current situation: There is no evidence that the ongoing Serb counterinsurgency operations will cease. Fighting continues in the north and southwestern areas as you can see on the map, and there is evidence of a buildup of armored units in the border area to the north of Kumanovo. Serbian troops have been reported as conducting brutal and violent attacks on Kosovar Albanians and of kidnapping of leading intellectuals. We have also learned of the release of some 300 hard- line Serbian prisoners, who have been added to the ranks of the paramilitary troops. The UCK continue to mount attacks across the main lines of communication between the various Serbian points. You will have seen through the media, the isolated violence that has spread to bordering NATO embassies, particularly in Skopje. On the operational front, we continue to prosecute our attacks on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's integrated air defense system. We have now struck over 50 targets, and our battle damage assessment is showing us that our attacks have been effective. I know that you will always be pressing me for results, but I am afraid that we like to be very sure of our facts, and this takes a little time. I am sure that you appreciate very well the sensitivity and care that goes into this meticulous process. However, I can now give you some results of our efforts. And please remember that this is a truly multinational allied effort with most NATO nations participating in either combat or supporting roles. We have conducted some 400 sorties. And here is a list of some of the air-defense facilities that we have struck to date. MR. SHEA: That might be somewhat microscopic for the people in the back. But we'll give you those afterwards. COMMODORE WILBY: You will see from the map the rough aim points by the places where those targets lie. And in many cases, there may be several aim points associated with these important installations. I will also show you some filmed airborne recordings of these attacks. I hope you can see from the back there, but this is some photography of some of our targets struck. And you are welcome afterwards to come a little closer, should you feel the need. But you will see here there is very obvious damage and in this position here. MR. SHEA : David, can you show what that target is please? COMMODORE WILBY: Yeah. That is the Danilovgrad facility. It is an SA-6 site, supporting facility. I am afraid my pronunciation will probably not be perfect. This is the Novi Sad heliport and vehicle storage depot. And once again, you will see very obvious signs of target damage. And this was the Kacarevo (sp) early-warning site. Batajnica aviation repair facility; and once again, very obvious signs of damage. And finally, similarly, another aim point on the same facility. You can see obvious damage where the target has been struck. What I'd like to do now is just to dim the lights and give you a chance, if the facilities work, to show you what the crews are looking at from the cockpit. STAFF: Go ahead? COMMODORE WILBY: Right. We can now roll it when you are able. You can see there is the graticule that's on the target, and there you can see where the explosion has occurred. Now, this is an ammunition facility, and you can tell by the ferocity of the fire that's coming out that there has definitely been a fair amount of explosive in there. Once again, you can see the graticule on the target. It's very easy for us sitting in this room, but bear in mind these attacks are being carried out at night and in hostile territory. There are some very steady hands there putting the... points on. You will obviously realize that the imagery that you're seeing is not as good as it can be viewed through close-up, proper instruments. Last night our attacks were carried out with no apparent fighter opposition. And although some surface-to-air missile systems were detected, only one possible launch was noted, with no success. Perhaps that goes some way to demonstrate the effectiveness of our campaign against this highly sophisticated, integrated air defense system. I can give you a small update from night one. Whilst I'm obviously unable to give you the tactical details, I can confirm that three MiG 29 Fulcrums were shot down, one over Kosovo and two over the central Federal Republic. One up there, one there, and one here. In summary, our operations continue, and you can expect us to maintain our careful and systematic campaign to interdict, disrupt, and to neutralize the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's integrated air defense systems. We will achieve this with the minimum of effort necessary and with as little collateral damage to the civilian population and property as possible. I think Jamie and I now stand by to answer your questions. |
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