Pressure mounts on ground troops’ use
Apache copters to be deployed
WASHINGTON, April 5 — Amid questions about the success of NATO’s air strikes against Yugoslavia, lawmakers from both parties said yesterday that President Bill Clinton should no longer foreclose use of ground troops as a military option in Kosovo.

20 more die in Ambon unrest
AMBON (Indonesia), April 5 — Christians and Muslims fought with bows and arrows and spears in Indonesia’s Far East today as searchers pulled 20 bodies from burned-out buildings, taking the death toll to 54.

NATO planes bomb airfield
Refugees pour into Albania

BELGRADE, April 5 (Reuters) — NATO aircraft launched fresh attacks on targets in Kosovo last night bombing Slatina airfield southeast of the provincial Capital Pristina and the Gnjilane area further east, the state news agency Tanjug said.

Tanjug said six explosions were heard in the Gnjilane area but gave no details of the targets or the damage caused.

In Novi Sad, northern Serbia’s largest city, Yugoslav state television reported a large explosion in the eastern outskirts but had no details of the target of the attack.

Air raid warning sirens sounded in Belgrade last night, Serbian state media said, but there were no immediate reports of a fresh attack, following missile strikes on a heating plant and a suburban oil refinery early in the day.

NATO was expected today to approve a US plan to send Apache ground attack helicopters to step up the alliance’s air strikes against defiant Yugoslav forces pushing ethnic Albanians out of Kosovo.

The US plan, part of a NATO pledge to intensify the bombardment of Yugoslavia, was announced yesterday as thousand of refugees streamed into Albania and Macedonia amid mounting, but at times confused, international efforts to send aid and offer sanctuary.

A stubborn Yugoslavia, shrugging off the impact of missile attacks on Belgrade, called for an urgent UN Security Council meeting to stop the NATO air strikes and end western support for "terrorist" Kosovo Albanian rebels.

While western leaders pledged to smash the Yugoslav military and send the refugees home, thousands more Kosovans sought safety abroad, driven on by Serbian forces who, they said, burned their homes and threatened to kill them if they stayed.

By yesterday, more than 350,000 ethnic Albanians had poured out of Kosovo to Albania and Macedonia, whose pleas for international help brought planeloads of emergency aid and offers of shelter from countries shocked by their plight.

In Washington, the Pentagon announced it planned to send 24 Apache helicopters and 2,000 support troops to Albania to ratchet up the 12-day-old NATO air campaign against Yugoslavia.

"This is pure and simple an expansion of the air operation," Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon told reporters. "It’s to give us the type of tank-killing capability that the bad weather has denied us."

Bacon insisted the despatch of the low-flying helicopters was not a prelude to the use of US ground troops in Kosovo.

French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said in Paris that the Rambouillet peace accord for Kosovo, signed by the ethnic Albanians but rejected by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, remained valid but would have to be adapted.

"When we get back to a political solution, we’ll have to add elements," he said on TF1 television. "We will have to include some thing about the right of the refugees to return, and how that should be organised."

WASHINGTON (PTI): The USA is considering if it can any longer deal with President Slobodan Milosevic, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has said.

Albright yesterday told NBC’s "meet the press" programme that "what the world is witnessing is reminiscent of the worst things we have seen in the century of barbarism" and this cannot be tolerated.

"More and more people are asking that question. Is it going to be possible to deal with somebody who is behind all this, and that is something we are focusing on," she said in reply to a question whether it was possible to deal any longer with Milosevic.

She said the European Union had agreed to take a hundred thousand Albanian refugees and that the USA will take "several thousand."

Albright refused to comment on the German Defence Minister’s suggestion that Milosevic’s presidential palace be bombed. "I am not going to discuss any of the targeting. Our targets are chosen by the military in order to carry out our air campaign."

Pressure mounts on ground troops’ use
Apache copters to be deployed

WASHINGTON, April 5 (AP) — Amid questions about the success of NATO’s air strikes against Yugoslavia, lawmakers from both parties said yesterday that President Bill Clinton should no longer foreclose use of ground troops as a military option in Kosovo.

Still, administration officials insisted there were no plans to send combat forces into the province. “We do not believe an invasion force...is in the national interest,” said Mr Sandy Derger, US National Security Adviser.

But ruling out ground troops only emboldens Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic into pressing his attack against ethnic Albanians, lawmakers said.

“Diplomacy won’t start until our President stops saying no to ground troops,” said Sen Richard Lugar, Republican (Indiana) and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Democratic senators Charles Robb of Virginia and Joe Biden of Delaware, also appearing on Sunday talk shows, urged the President to abandon the no-ground stand.

By ruling out such an option you immediately convince Milosevic that we’re not really serious that we’re not ready to stay the course,”. Mr Robb said on ABC’s “This Week”.

“To say no ground troops is a mistake,” Mr Biden said on CNN’s Late Edition.

The debate over ground forces intensified as the Clinton administration said it would send Apache helicopters gunships to the region as well as troops to support the helicopters.

Mr Berger and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright emphasised that these troops would be in support of the air campaign and no ground forces would go into Serbia or Kosovo”, Mr Berger said on CBS’ “Face the Nation”.

IANS adds: U.S. military top brass is becoming increasingly doubtful about whether the NATO-led airstrikes against Yugoslavia, which entered their 12th day, would force its President Slobodan Milosevic back to the negotiating table or stop violence in Kosovo.

They fret that the American public is not adequately prepared to accept a prolonged air operation. But they too have been frustrated by the incremental progression of the bombing, which they blame not just on bad weather but also on the requirements of conducting war by consensus among all 19 NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) members, says the Washington Post.

The daily claims that in the weeks before NATO launched its air campaign, U.S. military chiefs had expressed deep reservations about the Clinton administration’s approach to Kosovo and warned that bombing alone might not achieve the political aims.

It says the Pentagon’s senior four-star officers, meeting in closed-door sessions in the secure “tank” room, argued that the administration should use more economic sanctions and other non-military levers to compel Belgrade to make peace in the rebellious Serbian province before resorting to airstrikes.

They also reportedly complained about what they saw as the lack of a long-term vision for the Balkans and questioned whether U.S. national interests there were strong enough to merit a military confrontation.

Led by Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the commanders challenged in particular the “domino theory” being pressed in inter-agency discussions by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. “Losing” Kosovo, she and her allies in the discussions maintained, would lead to wider destabilisation in the Balkans that would sooner or later damage U.S. interests in Europe — so better to act before it was too late.

Ultimately the chiefs agreed unanimously to go along with airstrikes, embracing the administration’s view that U.S. leadership in NATO had to be preserved and the looming humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo had to be addressed, the daily adds.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has offered NATO new weapons that will allow it to “get up close and personal” with Serbian armoured units in Kosovo. Its spokesman, Ken Bacon, said U.S. Apache attack helicopters, sophisticated rocket system artillery and about 2,000 soldiers would be from Germany into Albania. He, however, made it clear that this did not mean a step towards the deployment of ground troops in Kosovo.

“This is pure and simple an expansion of the air operation,” he added. He said NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander of Europe, Gen. Wesley Clark, requested the additional weapon systems and Defence Secretary William Cohen signed the deployment orders.

LONDON (Reuters): British Prime Minister Tony Blair said today NATO ground forces would only be sent into Kosovo only to police an agreed political settlement.

In an article in the top-selling tabloid Sun, Mr Blair said the NATO military campaign against Yugoslavia was never going to be simple but the alliance would win.

“There is no question of NATO ground forces being sent in unless it is to police an agreed political settlement,” Mr Blair said. “But what NATO is doing is make Milosevic pay a higher and higher price until he calls off his brutal commanders”.

Mr Blair said NATO’s aerial bombardment was systematically destroying Milosevic’s war machine.

“This was never going to be a simple a military operation. NATO was never going to be able to stop overnight the door-to-door barbarity going on in Kosovo,” he said.

BLACE (Macedonia): Tens of thousands of hungry and exhausted Kosovo refugees waited in no man’s land between Yugoslavia and Macedonia for a promised airlift that never began.

Buses stood ready at the border to carry them to Skopje airport for flights to Turkey, which Macedonia expected to start during yesterday afternoon and see a plane taking off every 15 minutes.

But as darkness fell, the refugees were still huddled in a muddy, stinking field covered with human excrement, fighting among themselves over loaves of bread and facing another night of misery without shelter or medical assistance.

NATO countries stepped forward with offers of temporary shelter yesterday — Germany 40,000, the USA 20,000, Turkey 20,000, Norway 6,000, Canada 5,000 and Greece 5,000.

Germany, as head of the European Union, said the EU as a whole might take a total of 100,000 refugees.

The West also began adjusting its war aims to stress its demand that the refugees be allowed to return to their homes, and to envisage sending ground troops to escort them.

Resume talks on NPT: Ackerman

WASHINGTON, April 5 (UNI) — Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans Co-Chairman Gary L. Ackerman has urged US President Bill Clinton and Indian Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee to have a telephonic talk to avert the possibility of a stalemate in the 10-month-old non-proliferation dialogue between the two countries.

Speaking at the annual conference of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) in Atlantic city (New Jersey) this week-end, he said such a simple gesture could help propel the negotiations to a quicker conclusion.

He said the process, set in motion by Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh in June last, appeared to be slow. The negotiations, from the outset, had a whiff of optimism. That whiff is starting to turn stale. We need action lest it turns into stalemate.

I believe, now is the time for the political leadership of both countries to give their negotiators a fresh impetus, a fresh push — new marching orders, if you will, asking them to be bold and creative in their approach — so that the momentum doesn’t fizzle out. We must realise that we simply can’t afford a stalemate in these talks — stalemate is the worst enemy of visionary breakthroughs in diplomacy, the Democrat Congressman remarked.

In this context, he suggested a simple gesture of a long telephone call between President Clinton and Prime Minister Vajpayee.

He said it is important to realise that when we are dealing with co-equals — especially an ancient and proud civilisation such as India — one should not necessarily dictate or offer preconditions to the other.

AI crash suspect’s wife accused of fraud

TORONTO, April 5 (PTI) — Canadian police is probing into allegations that wife of a prime suspect in the Kanishka bombing case had concealed an income of $ 100,000 Canadian (Rs 27 lakh) and claimed “illegal” social assistance from the government for nearly five years.

The police alleged Satnam Kaur illegally claimed $ 1,100 Canadian per month from 1991-96 from the Satnam Education Society where she served as a volunteer while her husband Inderjit Singh Reyat was in prison in connection with Tokyo airport blast case.

In an application moved before a court in Victoria last week, the police sought search warrants against Satnam Kaur on the grounds that she received money from the trust every month and also claimed social assistance without revealing her income to the government.

Reyat is serving 10-year imprisonment for devising a bomb that killed two baggage handlers at Tokyo’s Narita airport in 1985. The bomb exploded less than an hour before an Air India Jet, which had taken off from Vancouver, crashed over the Atlantic killing all 329 persons on board.

Reyat, whose sentence ends in 2001, is the prime suspect in the Air India bombing case and had been denied parole twice in recent months, his family said.

20 more die in Ambon unrest

AMBON (Indonesia), April 5 (Reuters) — Christians and Muslims fought with bows and arrows and spears in Indonesia’s Far East today as searchers pulled 20 bodies from burned-out buildings, taking the death toll to 54.

“It’s true, 20 more bodies were found in some villages, under the wreckage of burned-out buildings,” south-east Moluccas Military Chief Lt Col, Ery Susanto told Reuters from the remote Kai islands, 3,300 km East of Jakarta.

More buildings were torched today and sporadic clashes between Christians and Muslims continued on two islands in the group, Kai Besar and Kai Kecil, he said.

Thousands of women and children have fled their villages in the islands to seek refuge in military compounds, churches and mosques.

Gangs of men — Christians with red headbands and Muslims with white — roamed the streets and guarded their neighbourhoods.

Time person of century suggested

NEW YORK, April 5 (PTI) — Mahatma Gandhi, the apostle of peace, and Adolf Hitler, author of Jew Holocaust, are among those who have been suggested to the American News Magazine “Time” for nomination as the person of the century.

Apple computer co-founder Steve Jobs chose Mahatma Gandhi because “he showed us a way out of the destructive side of human nature.”

“He (Gandhi) demonstrated we can force change and justice through moral acts of aggression... Never has our species needed wisdom more,” he said.

United States Ambassador-designate to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke, however, suggested Hitler’s name.

Pak gets French sub
KARACHI: Pakistan has received final parts of the third Agosta 90-B submarine under an agreement of transfer of technology with France, Pakistan Navy sources said on Sunday. A Holland registered ship carrying parts for the submarine arrived at Karachi port and these were handed over to navy officials on Saturday, they said. — AFP

Iraqi station destroyed
BAGHDAD: A US and British air raid destroyed the main Iraqi station pumping crude oil to Mina Al-Bakr port on the Gulf, an Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesman here said. “US and British aircraft carried out a cowardly attack yesterday, demolishing the main station in charge of pumping crude to Mina-Al-Bakr,” the spokesman said, quoted by the official INA news agency. The station is located in Hamdan, near the city of Basra, about 70 km north of the port. — AFP

Exit strategy
WASHINGTON: Four and a half years after he began probing US President Bill Clinton’s financial dealings, Mr Kenneth Starr wants out, Newsweek magazine reports in its latest edition, due out on Monday. But the already unpopular independent counsel, whose report led to the second presidential impeachment trial in history, is hunting for an exit strategy to avoid a backlash of negative publicity, the weekly says. — AFP

Mrs Netanyahu
JERUSALEM: A photo-montage published on the website of the Israeli Labour Party showing a naked Sara Netanyahu, wife of the Israeli Prime Minister, was met with fury by her husband’s Likud party. “It is quite unacceptable. It is shameful that the Labour Party should use such methods in its election campaign,” said a LIKUD statement on Sunday, referring to the parliamentary polls to be held on May 17. — AFP

Shwedagon pagoda
YANGON: A golden umbrella-shaped plate was winched atop the soaring Shwedagon pagoda in Myanmar on Sunday, the first step in the wholesale restoration of one of Buddhism’s greated shrines, the elevation of the tier one of seven which make up the structure’s Htidaw or umbrella was preceded by the offering of 9,000 candles, 9,000 flowers and 9,000 fruits to the Lord Buddha. Nine is an auspicious number in Buddhist lore. — AP

Blast kills 9
BEIJING: Nine persons, four of them children, were killed in an explosion which destroyed an illegal fireworks factory in the central Chinese province of Hunan, state media reported on Monday. They said the blast on Saturday wrecked a two-storey house in a village in Shuangfu township where farmer Jiang Guobin was producing fireworks illegally. Most of the killed were farmers. — Reuters

Sri Lankan PM
COLOMBO: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike has entered the 1999 Guinness Book of Records for being the oldest Prime Minister in the world. In the book of records, Ms Bandaranaike gets the record mention of page 27 under the heading “Oldest Prime Minister in the World.” — UNI

Iraq bans Viagra
BAGHDAD: Iraq has banned Viagra, less than four months after the Health Ministry approved the impotency pill. The ban was made public on Sunday in Babil, which is published by President Saddam Hussein’s eldest son, Odai. The newspaper cited health sources,“ as warning against the import, use or purchase of Viagra pills in Iraq.” — AP