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UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has announced a humanitarian assessment mission to Kosovo province in Yugoslavia, aimed at permitting the return of refugees in a secure environment. Annan met with Russia's Balkans envoy, Viktor Chernomyrdin, to discuss the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Kosovo and the deployment of an
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U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan cautioned against expecting a quick resolution to the Kosovo crisis after returning from talks in Russia and Germany. Meanwhile, NATO's air campaign against Yugoslavia intensified, with warplanes striking at multiple power plants and transformer yards. Diplomatic efforts continued, with President Clinton softening his
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Australian officials are scheduled to hold talks with Indonesian President B.J. Habibie in Bali on Tuesday, emphasizing the need for a peaceful resolution to the crisis in East Timor. The talks aim to persuade Indonesia to disarm rival factions and free East Timorese rebel leader Xanana Gusmao, who is
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Senior Australian and United Nations officials stated that a proposed large-scale UN presence in East Timor would help calm tensions despite reports of continued political killings and plans to partition the territory. The UN presence is expected to begin after May 5, when Indonesia and Portugal are set to approve
Kosovo
The 50th-anniversary NATO summit, set to begin today, has been overshadowed by the ongoing Kosovo crisis, with President Clinton and other leaders calling for a unified response to the conflict. The Yugoslav capital, Belgrade, has offered to accept an international presence under U.N. oversight to protect ethnic Albanians in
Kosovo
Yugoslavia abruptly closed its main border crossing into Albania on Monday, leaving tens of thousands of Kosovar refugees uncertain about their fate. The move came as U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan prepared to visit Moscow next week to discuss the Kosovo conflict. Meanwhile, NATO airstrikes continued, with Serb media reporting
United Nations
The United Nations has lifted its sanctions against Libya after the country handed over the Lockerbie bombing suspects for trial, paving the way for British engineering and aviation firms to exploit the new business opportunities. Weir Group, a Scottish engineering firm, Brown & Root, a civil engineering company, and British
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The PanAm flight 103 disaster, which occurred on December 21, 1988, over Lockerbie, Scotland, resulted in the tragic loss of 270 lives. The US and Britain accused Abdel Baset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi and al-Amin Khalifa Fhimah of the bombing, with Libya denying involvement. The international community imposed various sanctions and
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UNSCOM Executive Director Richard Butler aggressively denied allegations that the agency had improperly shared intelligence information with U.S. spy agencies. Butler emphasized that the organization's mandate was to ensure Iraq's disarmament in accordance with Security Council resolutions, and that UNSCOM had never conducted spying for
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UN Special Commissioner Mr. Richard Butler categorically denied US press reports that he helped Washington collect sensitive Iraqi communications to undermine Saddam Hussein's regime. The allegations, which appeared in US newspapers, were fully disputed by Butler, with no credible evidence to support them. In a related development, a
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A UN aircraft carrying 14 people, including four crew members and 10 passengers, has crashed in Angola. The plane, a C-130, was operated by TransAfric and chartered by the UN. The crew and passengers were on their way to Saurimo, in Lunda Sul province, when the accident occurred. Most of
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The military and political success of the four-day bombing campaign in Iraq is in serious doubt as President Saddam Hussein remains firmly in control, and the US and United Nations policies towards him are in disarray. Despite the US and Britain's claims of achieving their military objective, the
