NATO STRIKES -- DAY 30

	April 22, 1999
	Correspondent Tom Bearden provides a summary of today's bombing-related events along with an update on the continuing refugee crisis.

TOM BEARDEN: NATO struck one of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's two principal residences in Belgrade last night. The luxurious, two-story mansion was gutted, its grounds littered with debris. The attack came a day after Milosevic's political party headquarters in the center of Belgrade was struck by missiles and heavily damaged. Milosevic and his family weren't in the destroyed residence, but Yugoslav officials called the attack a criminal attempt to assassinate them. Pentagon Spokesman Kenneth Bacon said the building was more than just a residence. KENNETH BACON: It's also a command and control facility. It includes security and military bunkers, as well, and it is indicative of the increasing allied pressure as part of this campaign, and particularly, pressure on the very center of the central nervous system of the regime, the command and control system that controls the military and security forces. REPORTER: Belgrade has charged that NATO and the United States are now trying to kill President Milosevic. Is that true? Are you trying to do that? And doesn't that violate the US ban against attacking foreign leaders and their families? KENNETH BACON: Well, first of all, we are not targeting President Milosevic or the Serb people. We are targeting the military and the military infrastructure that supports the instruments of oppression in Kosovo, and we have been very clear about that from the beginning. There has been no change of our policy, but we are going against the very nervous system that is used to control the military and security forces. TOM BEARDEN: Rear Admiral Thomas Wilson said the air strikes had degraded all major routes between Yugoslavia and Kosovo, and said Serb forces were suffering major desertions. REAR ADMIRAL THOMAS WILSON: We continue to work on the lines of communication, and it's having an impact down in the South. The last time we talked, I believe, three of the four main lines of communication into Kosovo had been interdicted to some degree or another. I would now say four, all four of the main lines into Kosovo have been interdicted, and more seriously than they were before. Probably close to 50 percent of the through-put capacity into Kosovo has now been denied to the Serbs. And we continue to work on bridges, which frankly, are difficult targets. And we also believe that up North the damage to the lines of communications, as well as the psychological impact of seeing them destroyed, is affecting not only the attitude of mobilization, but even the movement and the ability to move reserves and reserve forces around the country. TOM BEARDEN: But critics on Capitol Hill are wondering just how badly the Serbs are being hurt, because refugees arriving at Kosovo's borders continue to tell stories of unrelenting ethnic cleansing. REP. KEVIN BRADY, (R) Texas: I think it is unconscionable to allow the atrocities to continue because we do not have the political courage to seek to cut off the head to go to the heart of this issue. And we are dancing around the Yugoslav soldiers with almost no damage to them. We have a military strategy that is politically correct, instead of seeking a secure victory today in stopping the genocide. TOM BEARDEN: Yesterday, NATO Secretary General Javier Solana announced NATO would update an earlier contingency plan for ground troops. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook were asked if that meant the introduction of ground forces was growing nearer. MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: We are confident that a sustained and relentless air campaign can achieve our objectives, and I think that most recently, the targets of the Socialist Party Headquarters and command-and-control centers are evidence of the continued damage that our air campaign is doing. We do not favor the deployment of ground forces into a hostile environment in Kosovo. We do, however, believe it is prudent to update our plans and assessments and to support Secretary-General Solana's efforts to do so. ROBIN COOK: We are also absolutely clear that we are not sending in troops to fight their way in, in a ground force invasion, and that has never been on. Therefore, what may happen in the future, in the end game, to make sure, when the time is right, when it's appropriate, when it is safe to commit those ground troops to guarantee a cease-fire in Kosovo, that will be a NATO decision. It will be one that will be taken jointly. And there is no difference between us on the need to make sure we do some preparation so we are ready when that moment comes. TOM BEARDEN: The leaders of NATO member countries are beginning to gather in Washington to discuss the Kosovo conflict. Secretary-General Solana has already said that no decisions about ground troops will be made during the talks. Meanwhile, in Macedonia, relief workers were allowed access to a group of some 6,000 refugees stranded without food on a mountain ridge. President Milosevic -- in a rare interview with Houston TV Station KHOU yesterday -- said NATO bombs were the reason the ethnic Albanians had fled Kosovo by the hundreds of thousands. PRESIDENT MILOSEVIC: You are right. There are a lot of refugees, but they are a result of bombing. And they are not only Albanians. Everybody is running away because of bombing -- Serbs, Turks, Gypsy, Muslims. Of course Albanians, their number is biggest. Everybody's running. Deers are running, birds are running, everybody is running away because of bombing. TOM BEARDEN: Milosevic's comments are completely at odds with accounts of western journalists who report the refugees are fleeing atrocities by Serbian forces. Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin met with Milosevic today, and late this afternoon a Russian news agency quoted Chernomyrdin as saying Belgrade was ready to accept an international presence in Kosovo under UN auspices. President Clinton said he had only very sketchy information on the offer. PRESIDENT CLINTON: If there is an offer for a genuine security force, that's the first time that Mr. Milosevic has ever done that, and that represents, I suppose, some step forward. My interest here is in something that will work, that will have the support of the parties. My belief is that the members of our alliance want us all to be able to go in there, and that the Kosovar Albanians want to feel protected, and will expect us to be there. TOM BEARDEN: Chernomyrdin was quoted as saying he could meet with NATO representatives either in Moscow or in Europe as early as tomorrow.