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The Secretary of State for Defence George Robertson said yesterday that while the Serbs wage war on the population of Kosovo all the operations

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The Secretary of State for Defence, George Robertson, said yesterday that while the Serbs wage war on the population of Kosovo, all the operations carried out by British and other allied forces must be scrupulously checked to ensure they comply with international law. During a visit to Germany, Mr Robertson said that he, the Attorney General, John Morris, and the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, "pore over" the targets before any authorisation is given. "While Milosevic is tipping human beings over the border like garbage, we are trying to do our utmost to make sure we never sink to anywhere near their level," he said "I am the chairman of the Defence Council. EVERY NATO air strike against Slobodan Milosevic's regime has to be cleared by Government law officers to ensure it does not break international codes of war. He said it would be based in a neighbouring country and give Kosovo Albanians a means of communication which President Milosevic could not block.. Milosevic must withdraw his forces from Kosovo, he must cease the policy of ethnic cleansing and he must allow an international force in to allow people to return to their homes and villages. That must be the only set of terms on which Nato must settle this matter."Mr Blair predicted that President Milosevic would now try to divide the Nato alliance, but insisted there were "no splits".Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, announced that Britain is to fund a new information network run by former journalists forced to flee from Kosovo.

Any effort to create an internationally overseen humanitarian haven within Kosovo for the ethnic Albanians would require the presence of ground troops.EU interior ministers were last night urged by the commission to be prepared to open their doors to the most needy of the Kosovars.. TONY BLAIR warned last night there would be "no compromise" with Slobodan Milosevic and that Nato would continue to bomb Yugoslavia until he conceded all of its demands. "This policy of ethnic cleansing must be seen to be defeated so that this type of appalling situation is not allowed to happen again," Mr Blair said. "There must be no question of half measures ... Airlifts should be used only as a last resort and if the people volunteer.She stressed the need to alleviate the pressure on the frontline states. She was also harsh in her criticism of the frantic efforts to bundle people on to planes for destinations as "bizarre" as Cuba and Guam: "These people are not parcels."Ms Bonino said the priority had to be to help Kosovars to remain in the region.

Hans Van den Broek, the EU commissioner for foreign relations, even spoke of offering the Skopje authorities an association agreement, often the first step to EU membership.The unspoken idea is to avoid EU splits over refugees coming to western Europe by getting the frontline states to keep their borders open. "I would hesitate to use the word `reward'," Mr Van den Broek said. "We need to do this so we can ask them to co-operate fully in helping the refugees." It was important to allow as many Kosovars as possible to remain in the region to "avoid giving the wrong signal both to Milosevic and to the Kosovars".Emma Bonino, the European commissioner for overseas aid, said that it was "regrettable" the Macedonians had apparently moved up to 10,000 Kosovars to the Albanian border without informing agencies. Moving to pre-empt an unseemly row over who will bear the biggest share of Kosovo refugees, the European Commission in Brussels called on member states to first dip into an emergency reserve of pounds 200m to "buy off" Yugoslavia's neighbouring states. Roughly half of the emergency money would be earmarked to help to alleviate the pressure on Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro, which are all believed to be in danger of political destabilisation.In what smacked of a bribe to get Macedonia, in particular, to keep its doors open, the commission dangled the prospect of an immediate cash package for Macedonia and a long-term free trade and political co- operation deal going beyond anything previously available. On a scale of wickedness, of course - and those empty streets told their own story - there was no doubt who bore the most blame.

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