NATO Mulls Yugoslavia Airstrikes
NATO positioned itself for airstrikes on Yugoslavia Monday, preparing to give a pre-attack activation order as talks between the U.S. envoy and President Slobodan Milosevic came to an abrupt end.
U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke briefed NATO Secretary General Javier Solana by phone on his latest attempts to persuade Milosevic to abide by U.N. Security Council demands in Kosovo, a NATO official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said.
Holbrooke will leave Belgrade Monday for Brussels to brief ambassadors of the 16-member NATO on the results of his talks with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, a U.S. source told The Associated Press. The source spoke on condition of anonymity.
Reuters was reporting Monday that more talks between Holbrooke and Milosevic were scheduled for Tuesday.
If the talks fail, the officials in Brussels were expected to vote on an "activation order," the last military step before any military strike can be launched.
Germany on Monday said it would back a NATO activation order, which would authorize the use of force in Yugoslavia should diplomacy fail. It was the last member state of the Western military alliance to do so.
The Pentagon ordered six B-52 bombers to Britain and a contingent of A-10 antitank planes to Italy in anticipation of an attack.
Ambassadors of the 16-member NATO were meeting in Brussels pending the results of talks between U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke and Milosevic.
CBS News Senior European Correspondent Tom Fenton reports that if airstrikes are ordered, the six B-52 bombers that flew into England would be part of the first wave of attack. The bombers would be used to launch cruise missiles against Yugoslavia's air defense systems.
The tank-buster A-10s in Italy could also have a role to play in the attack.
The aircraft carrier Eisenhower is on station near Yugoslavia, as well as a French carrier.
The activation order would transfer command over the airplanes and other military hardware needed for an airstrike from member countries to Supreme Allied Cmdr. Wesley K. Clark and authorize the deployment over Yugoslavia.
Clark could then, in consultation with NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana, order planes and missiles launched.
Holbrooke described his earlier overnight meeting with Milosevic as "intense indeed, and at times very heated." He said the standoff between NATO and the Yugoslav president "can only be called an emergency."
Italy authorized the use of its military bases for any NATO raid on Monday, while the German government said it intends to allow German warplanes to participate in any attack.
In Paris, French Defense Minister Alain Richard said his country would provide about 40 aircraft for possible airstrikes.
The foreign presence in Kosovo was being reduced in anticipation of NATO action.
Most of an international diplomats' mission observing events in Kosovo lef for neighboring Macedonia before midday. Sources at the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade said all but 12 foreign staff members were being evacuated to Budapest.
A State Department advisory urged all U.S. citizens to leave Yugoslavia, and the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo asked U.S. citizens in the Serb part of neighboring Bosnia to evacuate.
The German and British embassies also were closed Monday.
CBS News Correspondent Allen Pizzey reports from Kosovo that ethnic Albanians there are not convinced that NATO airstrikes will do any good in the region. Many people say they won't feel secure until there's a military presence on the ground to protect their villages and homes.
"We are not sure to come back to our houses until foreign forces come," one ethnic Albanian told Pizzey.
The Americans and Europeans are demanding that Milosevic halt the crackdown he launched Feb. 28 against the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army. Kosovo, where 90 percent of the population is ethnic Albanian, is a Serbian province in southern Yugoslavia.