WASHINGTON – President Clinton yesterday opened the door to a “bombing pause,” but warned that Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic first must be “ready to end the nightmare” in Kosovo.
“We could have a bombing pause if it’s clear that it will be in aid of that larger purpose,” Clinton said – ruling out an unconditional bombing halt as a thank-you to Milosevic for freeing the three American POWs he held captive.
At Andrews Air Force Base, civil-rights leader Jesse Jackson – returning from his victorious freelance mission to free the GIs – blasted the administration’s “arrogance of power” for refusing to give Milosevic a break.
“The United States and NATO has the power to fight … Both of them must have the strength to negotiate,” Jackson said.
Jackson decried the bombing casualties, saying: “In Yugoslavia, we are not fighting soldiers. We are unintentionally killing civilians, which we call ‘collateral damages.'”
In the latest civilian deaths, a NATO bomb reportedly struck a bus traveling from western Kosovo to Rozaje in neighboring Montenegro, killing 17 people and injuring 21 others. Over the weekend, 47 civilians were killed when a NATO missile ripped another bus in half near Pristina, in Kosovo.
NATO declined to comment, but Montenegro’s news agency said yesterday’s target was believed to be a nearby military checkpoint. The Serbs claimed the bus was packed with women and children.
Clinton, at White House press conference, said he was “very thankful” and “grateful” for the GIs’ release, but warned: “Our air campaign cannot stop until Mr. Milosevic shows he is ready to end the nightmare for the people of Kosovo.
“Three Americans are home … But nearly one-and-a-half million Kosovars are not home,” he said, insisting he only wants “the minimal conditions necessary for the Kosovars to be able to go home and live in security.”
But even as Clinton sent signs that he could strike a deal, the Pentagon talked tough.
“It may be 40 more days, or 40 after that. We’ll continue to strike [Milosevic’s] military until it’s either destroyed or he quits,” said Major Gen. Charles Wald.
And a late-afternoon meeting between Clinton and former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin ended without any breakthroughs.
Also yesterday:
*A New Gallup Poll shows 58 percent of Americans back the airstrikes, but 55 percent oppose sending in ground troops and only 16 percent feel confident in Clinton as a military leader.
*Former Vietnam POW Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) waged a scathing attack on Clinton on the Senate floor, saying the president’s ruling out ground troops to fight the Serbs “may be smart politics according to the president’s pollster, but it is inexcusable, irresponsible leadership.”
*NATO vowed to “turn the power off whenever we want to” after “soft bombs” struck key electrical facilities across Yugoslavia. In Belgrade, nurses at the Institute for Prematurely Born Infants struggled to keep alive 70 babies who were in incubators when the power went out, and warned that the infants could freeze to death in another blackout.
*NATO said Serb forces have suddenly switched tactics – reportedly forcing “the most vulnerable,” women and children, fleeing Prizren in southern Kosovo to turn back and letting the men go on toward the border.
*Rep. Rick Lazio (R-L.I.), just back from the region, said less than 15 percent of Milosevic’s military capabilities have been destroyed. “We need to do better than that,” he told CNN, blaming the lackluster results on “politicians interfering” in military decisions, such as bomb-site selections.