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=======================================
Transcript of
press conference by Jamie Shea & Major General W.
Jertz in Brussels on 17 May 1999
[Posted 7 January 2002]
=======================================
JAMIE SHEA:
Welcome to the Allied Force briefing. As you can see,
General Jertz is once again with me at the podium and in
just a few moments, as always, he will give you the
operational details of the missions over the last 24
hours.
What I'd like to do, if I may, very briefly and by way of
an introduction, is to give you a preview of the week
ahead; it is going to be a very busy week particularly on
the diplomatic front and that is very welcome because we
seek, as you know, a diplomatic solution and any efforts
to get the diplomacy to work, to put pressure on
Milosevic, to settle on the basis of the five conditions,
is something that we need and we welcome and hopefully,
from what happens this week that momentum, which has
already begun, will get a further significant boost. As
you know, tomorrow here in Brussels the EU Foreign
Ministers are going to be meeting and they will be
meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister, Mr. Ivanov, as
well as with Mr. Rugova and with President Dukanovic of
Montenegro, so significant meetings there. The focus will
be very much on Kosovo and I expect EU Foreign Ministers
again to state clearly their determination to continue
with the operation until the essential objectives of the
international community are met, but just as much to
start looking ahead to the time when we will have
resolved the crisis in Kosovo and then need to think
about the future development of the region as a whole and
this will be an opportunity for EU Foreign Ministers of
course to finalise some of their ideas and proposals
ahead of the conference in Bonn on the Stability Pact for
South Eastern Europe which is to take place on 27 May so
it is coming close now.
Tomorrow also, Chancellor Schroder goes to Italy to speak
with Prime Minister d'Alema of Italy in Bari which of
course is an important location given that that is the
port from where much of the aid of the international
community and particularly the very considerable help of
the Italian government to the refugees in Albania leaves
from. Chancellor Schroder will also be going to Finland,
I understand tomorrow, to speak with President Ahtisaari
on the latest moves towards a diplomatic solution and
also tomorrow, Prime Minister Blair of the United Kingdom
of course will undertake his second visit in a few days
to the region; this time he is going to Bulgaria and also
to Albania and tomorrow at his first port of call in
Bulgaria he is going to pay tribute to the solidarity
with NATO of these neighbouring countries and I am sure -
in fact I know - that he will reiterate NATO's commitment
to their long-term security and stability. I am sure that
on behalf of the Alliance Prime Minister Blair will also
underscore our gratitude to Bulgaria for allowing our
forces to use its air space and we will recognise the
contribution that these neighbouring countries are making
to bearing the costs of this international solidarity to
put pressure on Belgrade. We are mindful, of course, of
the economic costs and the need for this long-term
programme of reconstruction of the region that must
follow once Kosovo has been pacified.
Let me also stress a number of other meetings which I
think will focus your attention in the days ahead:
On Tuesday, Mr. Chernomyrdin, the Russian envoy, meets
with President Ahtisaari and also the Deputy Secretary of
State of the United States, Strobe Talbott in Helsinki
and Chancellor Schroder you will have seen has just
announced from Bonn - so I can confirm it - will be
coming here on Wednesday to meet with the Secretary
General of NATO, Javier Solana, on these diplomatic
initiatives.
We will also on Wednesday afternoon be receiving an
important Partner of ours, that is to say Ukraine, in the
form of the Foreign Minister, Boris Tarasyuk, for our
regular NATO/Ukraine consultations and Kosovo again will
be a key topic there.
On Thursday, here at NATO headquarters, we are meeting
with Heads of Humanitarian Affairs of all of our Partner
countries in the Senior Civil Emergency Planning
Committee; that will be addressed by the Secretary
General and this will give us a chance to exchange
information and views and help co-ordinate among this
large grouping of 44 countries the current humanitarian
assistance efforts.
Finally, on Friday of next week, we have, as you know,
our meeting at ambassadorial level between NATO and the
seven neighbouring countries. This is a follow-up to the
summit meeting that took place in Washington a few days
ago when again we will be exploring with these countries
ideas for the reconstruction of the region and what I
would like to emphasise is that NATO will have a role to
play in that stability pact in the security area,
fostering and intensifying security dialogue with these
neighbouring countries, helping them through the
Partnership for Peace and other initiatives, to solve
some of their practical security problems, trying to help
them promote vis-a-vis each other co-operative security
relations based on transparency, trust and openness and
that will be, as I say, an important meeting as we make
our contribution for the 27 May in Bonn.
Let me just say a few words finally on the humanitarian
front before handing over to General Jertz. We are of
course continuing to be very preoccupied with the outflow
of refugees, in fact after a few days in which very few
refugees crossed into the former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia, the flow seems to have begun again. Yesterday,
there were 300 but today UNHCR is anticipating up to 1,000
crossing into the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
and these people continue to be obliged to pay over money
to Yugoslav border forces, charging I understand now 200
deutschmarks for people who have already lost almost
everything in order for them to be able to cross.
Thanks to a lot of work by the international relief
organisations and NATO, particularly German engineers,
the Blace and Cegrane camps have some surplus capacity so
that we are in a good position to cope with this
additional influx. At the same time, now over 50,000 of
the refugees in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
have been evacuated to a number of countries. In Albania
the focus again is on evacuating refugees from Kukes to
camps elsewhere in the country and about 1,000 will be
leaving every day after 20 May where they will be in much
safer locations and we can better care for them. Indeed,
at Kukes at the moment there are about 86,500 refugees so
the number has already declined considerably from the
levels of well in excess of 120,000 over the last few
weeks.
I would like, however, today to focus on a refugee
problem that I don't normally focus on so much which is
Montenegro, because there are many refugees now trying to
enter Albania from Montenegro and the UNHCR has reached
an agreement with the Montenegran government so that
refugees can be transferred from some of the camps in
Montenegro, particularly at Rozaj, towards the border
with Albania but we are very concerned here at NATO by
reports that we have been receiving of the Yugoslav Army
stopping these refugees at the border with Albania. On
Saturday morning, for example, one group was turned back
at the Rozaj frontier post and the men - this is I am
afraid a well-noted pattern - between 18 and 65 were led
away. Yugoslavia says that all men between the ages of 18
and 65 are subject to the draft and therefore cannot
leave the country but of course that doesn't mean to say
that those men are necessarily conscripted into the army,
what happens to them thereafter is still a major question
mark and NATO is grateful to the Montenegran government
for all of its help in allowing the refugees to cross
into Albania.
Let me stop there and then ask General Jertz to give you
the military operational update.
MAJOR GENERAL JERTZ:
Thank you very much, Jamie, good afternoon, ladies and
gentlemen.
Yesterday, NATO aircrews flew 539 sorties against a
variety of targets throughout the area of operations.
This number represents a decrease from previous days
because of declining weather conditions into the evening
and overnight and weather continues to affect operations
today. Nevertheless, we were able to continue our air
campaign to strike many Serb positions, particularly in
the Junik area. You will understand that attacks on those
forces in Kosovo of course do remain our first priority.
Yesterday's ground action is shown on this map. Of
particular interest are Serb activities in western Kosovo
which has of course attracted the attention of our
aircrews. We continue to observe a similarity in the
deployment of Serbian ground forces and the UCK.
Logically, this is because of ongoing fighting between
those two forces.
In Kosovo, we struck 6 tanks and several other armoured
vehicles, we struck two bridges, three line revetment
positions, several military vehicles, many of which were
also dug-in, artillery pieces, troops in the open,
various military storage areas and again, command-and-control
facilities. These attacks do continue to degrade and
disrupt the Serbian ground forces in Kosovo and we are
keeping up the unrelenting pressure on these forces for
obvious reasons.
Our strategic strikes included military radio-relay sites
at Urosevac, electrical power transformers supplying an
iron and steel plant in Smederovo and the Bor copper
smelter and refinery; an army command post and barracks
in Pristina and other targets as shown on the slide.
We have received these two photographs that clearly show
the damage to two strategic targets having been hit on
Friday. The first is of the Sjenica airfield which we
have hit before. I draw your attention to the extensive
damage to the runway and taxiways. This strike obviously
degrades the ability of the Serbian Air Force to operate
from this facility.
The second post-strike of the same day is of the Glogovac
power station. Again, our success in this strike is
clearly evident.
Air defence activity was less than we have seen over the
past few days; there were only two surface-to-air
missiles fired along with anti-aircraft artillery.
I am again pleased to report that all of our aircraft
returned safely to their bases.
We also continued to co-ordinate closely with those
organisations, as you can imagine, sponsoring these
convoys in an attempt to reduce the risks to them and as
the number of convoys grows, we do have to continue to do
our best to provide safety to those humanitarian aid
deliveries.
NATO forces also continued to support humanitarian
agencies and organisations contributing significantly to
the relief efforts in the former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia and Albania. Humanitarian aid flights continued
also. Over the past 24 hours, 10 aid flights arrived in
the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and 17 aid
flights arrived in Albania. These efforts, in co-ordination
with the hard work of the various non-governmental
organisations, continue to provide comfort and support to
those forced from their homes by Serb forces and you have
heard more details about that from Jamie.
That concludes today's briefing.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
JAKE LYNCH (SKY NEWS):
Earlier in the week, we heard that the G8 Political
Directors meeting to work on modalities of the diplomatic
blueprint had been put off till next week but the British
Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, is quoted as saying that G8
is actually quite close to the wording of a UN resolution
so what can he mean so far as you know?
Secondly, clearly a package based on the five objectives
is not yet acceptable in Belgrade, equally clearly NATO
would not put up with a package based on subtracting from
those five objectives. Can you suggest anything that
might be added to them perhaps in the category of the
reconstruction of the region, some kind of economic
benefit, which might serve to hasten its acceptance in
Belgrade in the interests of bringing the resolution that
you have said you want?
JAMIE SHEA:
Jake, thank you for that. You obviously don't need a G8
meeting for progress to go forward. As you know, Foreign
Ministers are talking to each other, exchanging texts in
New York where the resolution would have to be passed;
the delegations of the G8 have been engaging on an
informal basis so yes, things are going ahead and again
that proves the point that what we want is a diplomatic
solution, we would like it to go through a UN Security
Council resolution and that is the priority at the moment
as well as keeping up of course the military pressure,
the two go hand-in-hand, force has to help diplomacy,
diplomacy has to be supportive of force particularly in a
situation like this where it is still necessary to
convince President Milosevic that he has no option. I am
not certain which day a G8 Political Directors meeting
will take place but I anticipate that it is likely to be
this week, that is all for the good.
When it comes to the five key conditions, as you can see
they are still very much there at the forefront. We are
not going to compromise on those because for us they are
the minimum, not the maximum. You can compromise on a
maximal position but not on a minimal one and they are
the minimum as I have said so many times to guarantee
that we are going to solve this crisis once and for all.
President Milosevic has a habit - and he is very good at
it - of drawing out crises endlessly; unlike most of us,
he seems not only to thrive in a crisis but actually to
be quite able to keep one going indefinitely and we don't
want that, we have that experienced more or less
permanently in Yugoslavia since 1991. We want to have
conditions which ensure not simply that the refugees go
back but that Kosovo is stabilised for good and that it
therefore has international protection and some final
definition of its status can be arrived at through the
diplomatic process. We know very well, Jake, that if we
settle for something less than those five conditions
Milosevic within a three- or four-week or three- or four-month
period will have an opening to once again start a crisis
and we don't want that.
When it comes to what could be thrown in, I don't think
anything needs to be thrown in and if you see the pattern
of the last few weeks, we are not moving towards
Milosevic, Milosevic is moving towards us. He is now
putting out feelers in terms of at the beginning saying:
"I won't accept any international presence in Kosovo!"
and now saying: "Yes, I will!" OK, he may not
want it to have a NATO core but now he is talking about
the UN or the OSCE so he accepts that Kosovo has to be an
international issue, that it is not something that he can
or will be allowed to solve purely in a national
framework on his own terms. Then he said; "No arms!"
and now we hear from Belgrade: "Well, yes, weapons"
maybe not of the heavy type that we believe are
indispensable but he is putting out feelers there as well
and some of his ministers have even said: "Well some
NATO countries could participate even if not necessarily
all of them!" so Milosevic has begun to move, he's
got a long way still to go and he will only go the whole
9 yards as opposed to the 1 yard or the 2 yards that we
have seen up until now because the international
community remains united and NATO keeps up the pressure -
that is key. This is not the moment to relax the
pressure, certainly not on somebody with Milosevic's
track record.
As for the carrots, yes, we want a Yugoslavia of the
future to be able to participate in the new arrangements
for the economic political reconstruction of the region
but it is very difficult for countries which are not
democratic to participate in democratisation enterprises,
it is also very difficult for countries which have
totally turned their backs on any meaningful market or
fiscal reform and which continue to run something between
a kind of communist and a crony economy, to really
benefit from the type of market-opening arrangements and
free-er trade arrangements and EU partnership
arrangements which are designed frankly for social market
economies and so yes, we want Yugoslavia to participate
but I would venture to suggest that it would have to put
its own house in order first for either its political or
economic integration to be realistic.
QUESTION:
Jamie, I wonder if you could comment on a speech made
by Justice Arbour of the International Criminal Tribunal
last week, a copy of which I left with your very fine
secretary so that you would have reference to it. Judge
Arbour in her speech said that as a result of the NATO
initiatives being initiated on 24 March the countries of
NATO have "voluntarily submitted themselves to the
jurisdiction of her court whose mandate applies to the
theatre of the chosen military operation and whose reach
is unqualified by nationality and whose investigations
are triggered at the sole discretion of the prosecutor
who has primacy over national courts." Does NATO
recognise Judge Arbour's jurisdiction over their
activities?
JAMIE SHEA:
First of all, my understanding of the UN resolution
that established the Court is that it applies to the
former Yugoslavia, it is for war crimes committed on the
territory of the former Yugoslavia.
Secondly, I think we have to distinguish between the
theoretical and the practical. I believe that when
Justice Arbour starts her investigation, she will because
we will allow her to. It's not Milosevic that has allowed
Justice Arbour her visa to go to Kosovo to carry out her
investigations. If her court, as we want, is to be
allowed access, it will be because of NATO so NATO is the
friend of the Tribunal, NATO are the people who have been
detaining indicted war criminals for the Tribunal in
Bosnia. We have done it, 14 arrests so far by SFOR, and
we will continue to do it. NATO
countries are those that have provided the finance to set
up the Tribunal, we are amongst the majority financiers,
and of course to build a second chamber so that
prosecutions can be speeded up so let me assure that we
and the Tribunal are all one on this, we want to see war
criminals brought to justice and I am certain that when
Justice Arbour goes to Kosovo and looks at the facts she
will be indicting people of Yugoslav nationality and I
don't anticipate any others at this stage.
MARK LAITY (BBC):
On the humanitarian convoys, the 12 convoys that are
going in, do you have any means or guarantees that some
of that food will reach the internally-displaced refugees
who are hiding in the hills? Is there any way that that
is actually going to help them as opposed to more easily
accessible people?
JAMIE SHEA:
Mark, a key question. Obviously, we hope that these
humanitarian organisations are going into Kosovo -
despite the great risks let it be said because it is not
an easy thing for them to do - to distribute food to the
needy on a humanitarian basis, that is to say to all, of
whatever race or ethnic or religious group, that require
that assistance so yes, we very much hope that that will
be the case and that they will be able to distribute
those supplies outside Pristina where many of them have
gone thus far into the countryside.
I want to make clear that we support these humanitarian
convoy efforts.
Having said that, of course it is true that the situation
is very grave. Just before coming here today I was seeing
a report from Urosevac which has been emptied of its
population to the tune of 60 per cent where, according to
a UNHCR report that I was reading, the food shops do not
sell any food whatever to ethnic Albanians, it is a kind
of "Serbs only" regime, and this of course is
very worrying and many of the refugees that have arrived
in Albania or the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
say that hunger is a factor why they were leaving. Of
course obviously they were leaving because of a desperate
security situation and because of forced expulsions but
the added impetus to come out of the mountains to try get
over the border is of course the critical supply
situation.
Let me just add that NATO will co-operate with those
humanitarian convoys but they also have to co-operate
with us and we are very much interested in a clear set of
procedures so that we know of their activities, that is
to say that through the UNHCR they give us 48 hours'
notice of their decision to undertake a mission, that
their vehicles are clearly marked, that they choose clear
routes and let us know those routes and do not deviate
from those routes and that they travel by day and not by
night and that of course will help NATO to be aware of
their activities and take those into account but
obviously we cannot guarantee the security of those
humanitarian convoys and our air operations will continue.
MARK LAITY:
On the issue of human shields which has now become more
common after the Korisa incident, I know that NATO is
saying they are not certain about it but after you talked
about it more recently, can you give us some indication
of the kind of evidence you have accepting that it is not
100 per cent; what are the indications you are getting,
where is this information coming from?
JAMIE SHEA:
It is coming mainly from ethnic Kosovar Albanian sources,
Mark, and you may have seen, I think it was on Reuters
this morning, an interview reported on German radio with
a Kosovar Albanian talking about people being rounded up
and taken to Korisa. I can't corroborate these stories, I
want to make this crystal clear, I have no evidence of
this but there are a number of Kosovar Albanian sources
that have spoken about people being taken down from the
hills and being concentrated in that particular location.
We do have however - and have had for weeks - from a
number of Kosovar Albanian sources stories of young men
at the beginning - but now others - being taken away and
placed at factories, at production plants, at airfields,
at military bases. I reported the other day on two
particular incidents on 13 May at two different bridge
locations where people were used as human shields and
Kosovar Albanians, Mark, reportedly tell us - or tell the
humanitarian organisations, particular KADON (phon), the
OSCE monitoring mission which continues to function in
the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia - of human
shield incidents so there are a lot of indications but
evidence is difficult. I understand KADON has over 80
individual recorded incidents of human shields, in fact
one of them, which I referred to some time ago in a
briefing, was as you know the use of human shields during
an artillery firing operation against UCK strongholds but
the most usual story is simply of military vehicles
mixing themselves up with tractors and civilian vehicles
on roads obviously as a deterrent to NATO.
GREG:
Jamie, following up on that, will that then force NATO to
rethink a little bit at least its air strategy, that
perhaps the high-altitude bombing is not going to work,
you are going to have to get lower, you are going to have
to be looking closer at who is there and who is not
there?
And if I just might follow up also, Julian Manning of the
ITN who was in Korisa yesterday, reported that he saw a
lot of Serb military forces in the town of Korisa using
those houses in the village as barracks and saw very
little military in the actual compound itself that was
bombed. Could this be another example of what you have
been talking about, that the soldiers are in the
villages, they are leaving the barracks, the barracks are
empty, you are bombing the barracks but unfortunately in
this case a whole bunch of refugees were put in those
barracks ending in a very bad situation?
JAMIE SHEA:
Again I stress that as regards Korisa it was a legitimate
military target, we had been watching that, reviewing it
and making certain that we were certain of where those
forces were and that is the important point which I want
to stress yet again in all of this.
As for the targeting, General Clark as you know yesterday
made it absolutely clear that we will continue to make
every single effort to avoid targeting civilians and I
can assure that there has been an enormous - I don't have
a figure - but an enormous number of instances where NATO
aircraft have returned to their bases in Italy or
elsewhere with their weapons still on board and when the
pilots have been debriefed they have said: "We saw
civilians, we weren't certain that we could strike the
target accurately, we had our doubts and therefore we
came back!" so I can assure - and General Jertz will
comment further - this is an issue that NATO pilots are
very well aware of. However, we also have good
intelligence, we also make every effort to make sure that
we identify the targets accurately and you have seen from
the briefing that General Jertz has just given you where
last night we had a large number of operations against
the forces on the ground and we took out 6 tanks and a
lot of other pieces of artillery and command posts and so
on, so we are aware of the problem but we can also,
through good intelligence and good analysis, work our way
around it as well and will continue the operations but
certainly yes, a number of missions have been aborted and
probably will continue to be aborted because NATO pilots
will be taking those precautions I can assure you.
MAJOR GENERAL JERTZ:
All I can add is that we do continue our air campaign, in
fact as I already mentioned yesterday, in some areas we
do fly lower than we did at the beginning but that does
not of course indicate that we are more accurate because
we are also accurate at high altitude as you know, but
where we can go closer to the target then of course there
is more effectiveness on the target itself and as I
indicated yesterday, because their ground-based air
defence is really degraded pretty much - and in the
coming days I will give you more details on that - the
closer then of course we do go down to the ground but
still we also have to indicate that the human shield
problem really complicates our military missions. We have
to continue to be updated by intelligence, we do have to
evaluate the targets; before we attack them we evaluate
them of course and after we have attacked them, but to be
very honest with you there is no 100 per cent safety. We
never can reach that in a military tasking.
LUKE:
You gave us a week ago intelligence information about the
low morale of the Serbian Army. Can you give us the same
information about the morale of the pilots who were
ordered to bomb Korisa?
MAJOR GENERAL JERTZ:
You can imagine I am not going to comment on this
question. The morale of the pilots, if you are talking
about if the morale is high to continue to attack the
targets according to the campaign to really stop the
killing in Kosovo, yes, the morale is very high. If that
is what you meant, yes, Sir, the morale of the pilots is
high.
JAMIE SHEA:
Luke, if I can just add something. Any conflict brings
its share of risks and accidents. Therefore, if NATO
pilots, NATO commanders, NATO leaders are not willing to
accept those risks they would never use military force.
The pilots would stay at home, the troops would stay in
their barracks, apart from the occasional exercise they
would never go anywhere and frankly, what we see in
Kosovo would carry on because nobody would ever try to
stop it and so at the end of the day whatever obviously
the risks, NATO pilots continue because they know that it
is to stop a much greater evil that they are operating.
I would like just to recall a phrase that came to me
yesterday which I think is very appropriate from Edmund
Burke, who wrote "Reflections on the Revolution in
France" at the end of the 18th century: "The
only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good
men to do nothing!" and NATO isn't prepared to do
nothing. We'd rather accept those risks than simply allow
Milosevic to carry on expelling the entire Kosovar
Albanian population.
QUESTION:
I think what he is asking is you seem very willing to
speculate on morale in the Yugoslav Army. Can you give us
some idea of what happens to morale when these pilots
realise that a dreadful mistake has happened?
JAMIE SHEA:
General, as a pilot yourself you can comment on that.
MAJOR GENERAL JERTZ:
I can only repeat what Jamie said but I'm not good enough
in all the things you have done so far. Of course, pilots
are human beings like everybody on the Earth and of
course we do think of what we do have to do, but to stop
somebody who is doing cruel and brutal things then of
course we are out to fulfil our tasks.
JAMIE SHEA:
And I remind you also because this is a key point of what
the refugees in the camps in Albania and the former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia told the Secretary General
when he visited them last week. You will remember I
quoted from one old gentleman in particular at Cegrane at
the end of the Secretary General's visit who said that
even if this is the price that we, the people of Kosovar,
the Kosovars, have to pay, that some of us will be killed
because of these accidents, it is a price that is
necessary in order to defeat Milosevic and allow us to go
home.
Now that doesn't mean to say that NATO will not take
every single measure to avoid any harm to anybody, Serbs
or Kosovar Albanians, we are going to continue to do that
but those refugees know full well that if NATO stops its
action tomorrow nobody else in this world is going to be
there to help them to get back home and so we are going
to continue. We owe it to them, and they make it clear
that they are willing to accept those risks because they
know at the end of the day only we are going to get them
back home.
DOMINIC:
A question in English this time, a question to General
Jertz.
One of our reporters yesterday in northern Albania came
face-to-face with a platoon of American soldiers from the
82nd airborne battalion or company. What were they doing
up north near the Albanian border, is that a sign that
the Apache helicopters are finally ready to go into
action and if not why is it taking so long for the pilots
to go into combat in Kosovo?
MAJOR GENERAL JERTZ:
It is a very easy question for me to answer because I
have answered it several times. It is up to General
Clark, SACEUR, and the political leaders to decide when
and where these forces are ready to be in action and the
time they come but we have to await their decision.
QUESTION:
I have a follow-up on that one for General Jertz if I may.
Could you clarify the status of the Apache force in
Albania? Does it react to the order of General Clark, the
Pentagon and under what procedure would it be fully and
officially part of the NATO force? What is the status of
this force?
MAJOR GENERAL JERTZ:
Military-wise, there are a set of plans and once a
transfer of authority has taken place and once the
military and political leaders in the United States have
decided that they will be transferred to NATO command,
they will be ready to go but this theory, as we call it,
has not taken place yet.
SAME QUESTIONER:
At the moment it is a strictly American force
independently of the NATO command?
MAJOR GENERAL JERTZ:
It is strictly American embedded in the other forces but
it is still under US command.
SAME QUESTIONER:
But how much co-ordination is there in the possible use
of the Apache force as one is fully aware of the
political consequences it would have beyond of course the
military necessities? Are there at the moment discussions
at NAC over this or discussions, it seems according to
"The New York Times", between the Pentagon and
General Clark? What is really going on?
MAJOR GENERAL JERTZ:
I can only refer to what I said before. US officials and
the NATO leader, General Clark, will decide when and how
these forces will be in place and will be taken. That is
all I can say so far and it is their decision to announce
when they are ready and then under which command they are
fighting. Of course, as I already said, they are embedded
in the forces; of course they do have a lot of co-ordination
going on with the other forces stationed in Albania but
that is on the military side of the house; on the
political side of the house that is another decision
which I cannot comment on.
JAMIE SHEA:
If I can just add a point, I don't believe that the
United States would have gone to the trouble, time and
expense to deploy 24 - 22 now - Apaches in Albania with
upwards of 5,000 supporting troops and a multiple-launch
rocket system as well which took hundreds of flights to
deploy and then done all of this intensive night and day
training if there was no intention to use the Apaches and
to use them effectively.
QUESTION: The Italian government said yesterday evening
that it was informed only late in a very dramatic way
about the bombs released by NATO aircraft over the
Adriatic Sea. Do you have any comment on this?
JAMIE SHEA:
General Jertz will I think give you details but let me
just make it clear that NATO works very successfully and
co-operatively with the Italian government whose support
for us is absolutely crucial both diplomatically and
militarily in this operation and as you know, the bombs
that are jettisoned in very rare cases by pilots
returning from operations are done so in certain pre-designated
areas so that those areas are well known and so that
naval vessels can also go and remove those weapons at the
appropriate time to clear the sea bed. This, as General
Jertz said the other day, is something which is an
operational necessity because it is much safer obviously
to jettison these bombs at sea rather than to take the
risks of damage should they explode overland so this is a
very important safety precaution and my understanding is
that the Italian government has taken measures to forbid
fishing activities in those areas of the Adriatic which
are concerned, but General Jertz you have something to
add?
MAJOR GENERAL JERTZ:
I can add on the military aspect. Since quite a while
there have been five areas designated in the Adriatic Sea.
They are in international waters, they have been very
clearly defined in space and the military has tried to
make sure that, especially in deep water, these areas are
in effect, and in the rare cases where we have to use
them they are being used. Unfortunately I don't have them
on a slide. All the fliers do have them and they are also
distributed to the naval agencies; they are distributed
to what they call NOTMARs which means mariners are
normally getting this information like the fliers have
notices to airmen; they are notices to mariners and these
notices have been distributed from the beginning by the
military agencies to everybody who should know where
these dropping and jettisoning areas are, but also keep
in mind that we try to do our best to make sure whenever
we have to jettison an ordnance to send a navy vessel
down there to pick up the ordnance if it is possible, and
in those cases when it is jettisoned the ordnance does
not explode because using the military term they are
"dumb weapons" on the way down so there will be
no explosions, and I have never heard of an explosion up
to now.
XAVIER:
The Finnish President, Mr. Ahtisaari, seems to be called
to play an important role with Mr. Chernomyrdin in the
future dialogue with Belgrade. I would like to clarify
what is his status, who has elected him or ratified him
to play this role? Has the NAC discussed it, the European
Union, or has it been just a casual informal agreement?
JAMIE SHEA:
The NAC was briefed on the latest diplomatic initiative,
as you know, by Strobe Talbott last Friday in some detail.
There has not been any decision yet about the role that
President Ahtisaari could play and I understand that he
himself has also naturally to make a decision but
certainly he has been in touch with a number of leaders
as you know and will be this week. I understand also that
he is to have dinner with the Secretary General of the
United Nations, Kofi Annan so I don't want to speculate
on that, it would be up to him to announce any role
himself in due course when he has made up his mind but he
is somebody of great weight in the international
community. Of course, his country will shortly be the
President of the European Union, following Germany;
secondly, he himself is a former senior official of the
United Nations and spent many years in the UN and he is
an expert at dealing with tough negotiating situations
although here, as I said, it is really a question of
persuading Milosevic to accept the five conditions and he
is someone who is trusted throughout the international
community so should he be called upon to play an
important role, he undoubtedly is the best candidate to
play that role but I don't want to prejudge sensitive
negotiations which are clearly ongoing for the moment.
PIERRE:
Avez vous finalement plus de precisions sur le pourquoi
de la presence des civiles a Korica et deuxieme question
o en est-on au niveau des renforts de l'Alliance demandes
par le General Clark ?
JAMIE SHEA:
Pierre, en ce qui concerne Korica, je n'ai rien a ajouter
a ce que j'ai dit soit hier, soit au cours de ce Point de
Presse. Rien en plus a ajouter. En ce qui concerne les
renforts, comme vous le savez, ils arrivent. Nous avons
deux sortes de renforts. D'abord l'augmentation du nombre
de bases dans plusieurs pays mises a la disposition de
l'OTAN et ensuite presque tous les jours vous lisez dans
les depeches, les annonces quant a l'arrivee de nouveaux
avions au service du General Clark. Donc tout ceci suit
bien son cours.
Let's take a few final ones. Gentleman there. Just a
couple of final ones and I think we'll stop for today.
QUESTION:
I have been handed a report here from Reuters saying that
the Yugoslav Army is accusing NATO saying that because of
the NATO bombing its troops are being prevented from
leaving the province. What comment do you have on that?
JAMIE SHEA:
The comment I make is as follows: it is like an alcoholic
blaming a whisky company for his problem. Next question.
QUESTION:
You spoke about the intensive diplomatic activities next
week. Did Mr. Rugova ask to be received in NATO
headquarters and could you comment on the political clash
between the UCK government and Mr. Rugova?
JAMIE SHEA:
First of all, Mr. Rugova has a standing invitation which
he received from the Secretary General to visit NATO
headquarters and therefore we would be happy to see him
at any time he wants to come. I understand he is going to
be with the European Union tomorrow.
As for the UCK and Dr. Rugova, they have worked in the
past harmoniously together at Rambouillet and I hope that
they will work harmoniously again for the future of
Kosovo. The safety of their people, the future economic
development of the province of Kosovo and the political
stability will be greatly enhanced if the Kosovo
Albanians remain united, we hope they would do so.
If I could go back to the earlier question because you
probably thought I gave you a bit of a cryptic answer, I
think it is rather perverse for the Yugoslav Army to say
that NATO bombing is a reason why they cannot withdraw.
They announced a few days ago a partial withdrawal and
they didn't seem to think they would have any difficulty
then accomplishing that partial withdrawal and even
trumpeted the fact that they had taken out 250 personnel
and therefore obviously when they announce a partial
withdrawal they seem to take out people without worrying
too much about NATO bombing, I am sure they can take out
a lot more. As I said, I think to blame it on NATO is to
put the Z before A, to put the alphabet back to front and
as I have said, it is rather like an alcoholic blaming
his problem on the whisky company.
MAJOR GENERAL JERTZ:
Plus the humanitarian aid agencies do come in with
convoys so obviously a few roads are still open which are
being used, maybe he can use those too.
QUESTION:
Still on the diplomatic side, you said there is a strong
will to reach really a diplomatic solution and we are all
wondering where this could be because you are insisting
on the five points that are indispensable if I take it
like that. There is an objection, if I'm not mistaken, by
Mr. d'Alema who says one should stop the air attacks, see
how the Serbs react and then if nothing is happening go
in with the full power of ground troops. Would this be a
way of looking at the thing differently to what we have
done now?
JAMIE SHEA:
As I said when I was asked a similar question at my
briefing this morning, NATO welcomes any diplomatic
efforts, particularly those that come from Allied
governments such as the government of Italy, which can
help achieve a UN Security Council resolution, can help
to unify the international community and can help to show
Milosevic that he is isolated and he has no alternative
but to meet the basic conditions of the international
community.
Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen and so we will
meet each other, then, in the morning at 11 o'clock,
slightly before, and then General Jertz will be back for
the operational update with me at 3 tomorrow afternoon.
(c) 1999 M2 Presswire Reprinted For Fair Use Only
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