MILOSEVIC "WILL FIGHT BACK"

The Times, Monday, October 5, 1998

by Micheal Binyon

Yugoslavia's Supreme defence Council yesterday said that the country would defend itself by all available means against any NATO air attack. The Council, headed by President Milosevic, met as the country began to call up reservists and Russia gave a warning that Nato air strikes could undermine the whole system of current international relations. Meanwhile thousands of young men where yesterday transported to strategic sites, while hundreds, fearful of the call-up, went into hiding. The Yugoslav moves came as George Robertson, the Defence Secretary, said in a BBC television interview that Nato troops would have to be sent to Kosovo to enforce any political settlement. He rejected what he called a cosmetic return of Serb troops to barracks. Human rights activists and politicians today used a protest march in London yesterday to call for Mr Milosevic to be indicted as a war criminal.