Jackson Meets POWs

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

April 30, 1999 / 11:25 AM EDT / CBS

Three American prisoners in Serbia got a visit Friday from the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who prayed with them and later described them as having a "great sense of dignity."

Jackson had sought freedom for three soldiers captured a month ago on the Yugoslavia-Macedonia border, but a Yugoslav government official told him that their release was "not on the agenda."

Assistant Foreign Minister Nebojsa Vujovic spoke ahead of Jackson's meeting with the American prisoners of war. The civil rights leader said the POWs were in good health but kept isolated from one another in a military jail.

Jackson, who was visiting with a religious delegation, said prayers were held with the men and that "we're working diligently here on some way to move for reconciliation."

A short while before Friday's meeting, Vujovic told reporters that "their release is not on the agenda, but the delegation will be able to see them and assure themselves they are in good health."

Jackson, who had hoped for their release during his visit, also wants to meet Saturday with President Slobodan Milosevic.

The three American prisoners are Staff Sgt. Andrew A. Ramirez, 24, of Los Angeles; Spc. Steven M. Gonzales, 21, of Huntsville, Texas; and Staff Sgt. Christopher J. Stone, 25, of Smiths Creek, Mich.

Jackson spent the night in the capital during the heaviest air attack yet on the Yugoslav capital in more than five weeks of strikes. Missiles and bombs heavily damaged Yugoslav Army headquarters and other government buildings, and struck a residential neighborhood.

"Until there's a diplomatic breakthrough, the bombing will escalate and will expand," Jackson said, calling the bombing "intense."

"We must love our enemy - that is the key for peace," Jackson said.

Throughout his visit, Jackson trod a thin line on who was to blame for the crisis.

"People are scared and there is pain on both sides," he said after touring the Vracar residential district, where a NATO air raid early Friday damaged at least two houses and injured nine people.

NATO spokesman Jamie Shea acknowledged later that one "missile bomb" had gone astray and landed on houses.

As Jackson watched, an elderly man stumbled through the wreckage of his house, poking through kitchen pots and jars of pickled vegetables and jams miraculously untouched by the explosion.

"This is incredible. I couldn't expect this from our friends," Zhivko Novakov told reporters. "They [NATO] will say again, `Sorry, it was a mistake."'

"Bombing cannot be a solution," said Jackson, visibly touched by the destruction. "But the same goes for the forceful displacement of ethnic Albanians from their homes in Kosovo."

As he was escorted by Serbian Orthodox church officials on a tour of bomb damage sites, Jackson said it was important not to lose sight of the suffering of the ethnic Albanias driven out of Kosovo.

"I have two eyes. One eye is on the damage here. The other is on the damage on the refugee camps," he said.

"We must keep a clear perspective and keep it in context. This is war, and war is hell, and there is pain, and there is violence, and we must break the cycle of it," he said.