Word: civilianized
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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NATO says it is doing its best to concentrate its fire on Serb military units in Kosovo, and yet reports are trickling out of its capital, Pristina, of large numbers of ethnic Albanian civilians whose homes, limbs and loved ones have been blown away by alliance munitions. Throughout Yugoslavia and even beyond its borders, weapons deemed "smart" and "precision-guided" have veered off target, destroying property and lives. On Monday -- only a day after NATO apologized for a Saturday air strike that killed 47 people on a civilian bus in Kosovo -- it was reported from Montenegro that the alliance...
...defenses been crippled, the pilot could have flown closer to that target, seen it was civilian and aborted the strike and the resulting global horror it provoked. A fellow F-16 pilot, from the 555th Fighter Squadron at Aviano, call sign "Buster," was frustrated by the snafu. "The last thing we want to do," the major says, "is help Milosevic do his job." But mixing Serbian troops with Albanian civilians has been part of Milosevic's strategy. Buster says he has seen "truck, truck, tractor, military, military, bus" convoys. "They're using Albanians as shields," he says, "and that makes...
...have killed more than 70 ethnic Albanians, Clark told a news service he had "strong evidence" that Serb forces had fired at the refugee column. By the next day, embarrassed NATO officials admitted that their first claim was wrong and that an American F-16 had indeed attacked civilians. NATO tried to recover, releasing an audiotape of an F-16 pilot who may have struck the civilian convoy. He described how he thought he was attacking Serb military vehicles. The tape only added to the muddle. Pentagon officials, some of whom still suspect that Serb forces killed the civilians...
However, the U.N. proposal was officially turned down on April 16. Yugoslav diplomats said that the nation would not withdraw its troops until the bombing had ceased, in essence asking NATO to make the first move. In addition, Yugoslavia would allow only civilian observers, not military forces, into Kosovo. These conditions are unacceptable. The expulsion of the Albanians demonstrates that Milosevic cannot be relied on to obey international human rights conventions, so his compliance with international agreements may be unsteady. If the bombing stopped first, Yugoslavia could easily delay the withdrawal of troops long enough to continue its ethnic cleansing...
...increasing effectiveness of the bombing campaign. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees now estimates that 670,000 of the 1.8 million Kosovar Albanians have been forced from their homes since March 1998, and it seems likely that the aim of the Yugoslav Army is to expel the entire civilian population...