EmergencyNet NEWS Service-Friday, April 2, 1999-08:58CST

CRISIS NEWS BRIEFS

ALBANIA (EmergencyNet News) - The flood of ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo into Albania continued with undiminished intensity Friday, threatening to swamp the ability of the impoverished country to cope. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said around 10,000 people had passed through the Morina border crossing in the destitute north of the country between midnight and 0800 hours local time.

RUSSIA (EmergencyNet News) - A Russian reconnaissance ship set sail for the Mediterranean on Friday in a symbolic gesture intended to show solidarity with Belgrade and increase pressure on NATO to stop bombing Yugoslavia. Russian and Ukrainian navy spokesmen said the Liman (Estuary) had left the Black Sea part of Sevastopol in Ukraine's Crimea peninsula at about 0130 EST. It is due to arrive early next week.

SERBIA (EmergencyNet News) - Yugoslavia appeared set to go ahead on Friday with a military trial of three captured U.S. soldiers, while more ethnic Albanian refugees poured out of Kosovo. Powerful blasts shook southern Serbia earlier in the day -- Good Friday -- in the 10th day of NATO air strikes against Yugoslav military targets.

From the ERRI Watch Center ...

SERBIA (EmergencyNet News) - There were a number of minor developments in the Serbian/Kosovo crisis overnight. NATO said pilots had been hampered by clouds overnight and that more planes than expected had returned to base without using their bombs.

Yugoslavia's leading independent radio station, B-92, was taken off the air last week but reappeared on the Internet and via satellite. But by mid-morning Friday broadcasting had ceased completely. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said on Friday that around 10,000 ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo had entered Albania between midnight and 0800 hours local time (0200 EST), bringing the total to more than 120,000.

The fate of three U.S. soldiers captured by Serbian forces Wednesday remained unclear. They were due to go before a Yugoslav military court on Friday, but state media have given no details. POTUS has said he will hold Yugoslav President Milosevic responsible for the prisoners' safety.

International pressure against the NATO operation, led by Russia, a traditional Slav Orthodox ally of Serbia, appeared to be mounting. A Russian reconnaissance ship set sail for the Mediterranean Friday with the country's defense minister Igor Sergeyev saying it could be joined by another six ships soon.

A spokesman for Britain's Defense Ministry says intelligence sources have uncovered a possible plot by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to carry out a coup of Montenegro's President Milo Djukanovic. Djukanovic, whose government has been largely neutral during NATO's air campaign, is known for his Western-style reform policies. Montenegro and Serbia are the two remaining republics of Yugoslavia.

Unconfirmed reports Wednesday said Milosevic had ousted General Radosav Martinovic, the head of the 2nd Yugoslav Army, which is based in Montenegro, and replaced him with one more loyal to Belgrade.

U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen assigned 13 additional F-117s to the NATO forces attacking Yugoslavia, bringing the total of radar-evading Nighthawks to 24. The new deployment means half the Air Force's total fleet of roughly 50 F-117s will be part of the NATO campaign.

Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said on Thursday that NATO forces attacked at least one Yugoslav military unit in central Kosovo believed to have participated in the ethnic cleansing of Albanians from that region. NATO also attacked an ammunition storage facility. The attacks are believed to have been successful.

The OA-10, a surveillance version of the tank-killing Warthog A-10, has taken part in Operation Allied Force. No A-10s have yet dropped ordnance in this conflict.

LONDON (EmergencyNet News) - It was reported on Thursday night that one of the captured U.S. soldiers paraded on Serbian television tried to tell a worldwide audience that he felt sick and unsafe. The voice of battered and bruised Sergeant Christopher Stone, 25, was blocked out when he was shown on Serbian television, with Staff Sergeant Andrew Ramirez, 24, and Specialist Steven Gonzales, 24.

A lip-reading expert consulted by the London newspaper Daily Record saw the exact words spoken by Sgt Stone. According to the lip-reader, he said: "I don't feel safe ... I feel a bit sick about it all."

Specialist Gonzales said: "To everybody at home, I'm fit and I want to get out of this prison."

And, the lip-reader said the third soldier, Andrew Ramirez, mouthed: "Our brief was to avoid capture."

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