''According to our estimates, the total economic damage caused by NATO aggression and measured in relation to gross domestic product will likely exceed that caused in World War II,'' Group-17, a caucus of independent, market-oriented economists said this week.

''We are drawing the attention of the international community to the fact that the NATO aggression on Yugoslavia represents an act of brutal retaliation against an entire nation and not a punishment of Milosevic's war machinery,'' the group added.

According to statistics released by the Yugoslav government, 517 civilians have been killed all over Serbia since the NATO air campaign began. The report did not specify how many of them were ethnic Albanians.

The direct damage inflicted on industrial, commercial and civil facilities and structure exceeds 10 billion US dollars, while indirect war damage can be put at several dozen billion US dollars, as more than 500.000 people have lost their workplaces , official and independent experts coincide.

According to a suppressed Air Force report obtained by NEWSWEEK, the number of targets verifiably destroyed was a tiny fraction of those claimed: 14 tanks, not 120; 18 armored personnel carriers, not 220; 20 artillery pieces, not 450. Out of the 744 "confirmed" strikes by NATO pilots during the war, the Air Force investigators, who spent weeks combing Kosovo by helicopter and by foot, found evidence of just 58." -- From "The Kosovo Cover-up" by John Barry And Evan Thomas, May 15, 2000.

Chemical Warfare by NATO -- Illegal Use of Depleted Uranium, again

Note that in 1996 the United Nations Human Rights Tribunal called upon states to "to curb the production and the spread of weapons of mass destruction or with indiscriminate effect, in particular nuclear weapons, chemical weapons, fuel-air bombs, napalm, cluster bombs, biological weaponry and weaponry containing depleted uranium;"

March 2000, about 9 months after the bombing ended, finally NATO admitted to the UN that it used depleted uranium. NATO said they dropped 10 tonnes of depleted uranium in shells.

However, NATO is still holding back critical data on how depleted Uranium was used, while being urged by the UN to clean up its uranium debris in Kosovo, as reported by the Guardian.

Restive Allies:
"Throughout Europe, but especially in Germany, Italy, and France, on both the left and the right, the conviction has been growing that the Kosovo war is essentially an Anglo-American "war against Europe". Britain, which refused to adopt the common European currency, is pursuing its traditional policy of keeping the continent divided as it urges the United States on in a war for which Europe risks paying a heavy price, not only economically but politically and morally as well."

Russia saw NATO attacks on Yugoslavia as a direct threat to itself. In fact apparently some polls showed that 92 percent of Russians condemned the
bombings while 70,000 young Russians had even registered as would-be volunteers for Yugoslavia.

An article in the April 14 New York Times stated that Yugoslavian President Milosevic "has absolutely refused to entertain an outside force in Kosovo, arguing that the province is sovereign territory of Serbia and Yugoslavia."

Negotiations between the Serb and Albanian delegations at the Rambouillet meeting in France ended with Yugoslavia's rejection of the document that had been adopted, after much prodding, by the Kosovo Albanian party.

[From the same source:]On February 20, the Russian ITAR-TASS news agency reported from Rambouillet that unnamed "Contact Group members may offer, as a compromise, Milosevic an option under which a multinational force will be deployed under the U.N. or the OSCE flag rather than the NATO flag as was planned before."

Agence France Presse reported the same day that the Serb delegation "showed signs that it might accept international peacekeepers on condition that they not be placed under NATO command" and added that the head of the Serb delegation "insisted that the peacekeepers answer to a non-military body such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe…or the United Nations." A U.S. official confirmed this to AFP: "The discussions are
on whether it should be a UN or OSCE force," the official said.

As the link also points out, a leaked version of the Pentagon's 1994-1999 Defense Planning Guidance report advises that the United States "must seek to prevent the emergence of European-only security arrangements which would undermine NATO. Therefore, it is of fundamental importance to preserve NATO as the primary instrument of Western defense and security, as well as the channel for U.S. influence and participation in European security affairs.". This is setting a pretty serious precedent -- even though perhaps there may have
been better options available, the US did not want to consider them, because it wanted to have a (leading) role in Europe's security affairs and keep Europe dependent on it.

According to this media advisory, "New evidence has emerged confirming that the U.S. deliberately set out to thwart the Rambouillet peace talks in France in order to provide a 'trigger' for NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia." This has serious ramifications all over -- from the role of the media to the intentions of NATO.

A senior US State Department official has admitted that the US "set the bar too high" for the Serbs and that they needed some bombing and yet the mainstream media has ignored this. It is also remarkable that NATO has achieved a peace treaty that is almost the same as what was proposed before the bombing began except that it has been very costly to human life and the environment. In fact, both NATO and Milosevic have actually given up some aspects of what the original Rambouillet accord demanded (not that the Rambouillet accord was very fair anyway, but it shows that even some of those demands were lost). Even the Ethnic Albanians have also lost out as the latest peace initiative and resolution does not discuss even the Kosovo Autonomy that the Rambouillet accord suggested. For a nicely summarized table of who gave up and gained what from this conflict, see this link. The mainstream media again has not really analyzed this.

• Around 4,600 Albanians killed by Yugoslavia since NATO bombing started
• increased resentment around the world due to US/NATO unilateral actions
• 800,000 refugees, (the UN reports that over 750,000 people have been repatriated, but thathides the fact that there are still problems with rebuilding the destroyed facilities and infrastructure, problems with housing and accomodation, food, relief, as well as many, many unexploded mines and cluster bombs.)
• a nation who has been bombed continuously for over 70 days that has seen the democratic opposition destroyed,
• environmental disasters making areas difficult to live in without risking health problems,
• destroyed civilian infrastructure that would take many years to rebuild.

"Acid rains" Over Romania
BUKUREST - Rumunian experts accused NATO that, by bombing Yugoslav chemical factories, caused "acid rains", which were spotted in the south, southwest and west of Romania, in past days.

They underlined that enviroment in the border areas of Romania is seriusly imperilled. In that areas, value of "ph" factor was decreased from normal 7 on 5 units, and that is the reason that caused "acid rains".

"Acid rains came as the concequences of NATO`s bombing on Yugoslav chemical factories", said Ilie Cincea, the director of APE, and added that the experts made such conclusion after the thorough exhamination that led to an elimination of all other causes.