Nato pilot bombed refugees

Nato has admitted that it bombed a refugee convoy on Wednesday, leaving Kosovo refugees dead after a pilot
mistook the civilian vehicles for Yugoslav military units.

But apologising for the loss of the life, Nato spokesman Jamie Shea said that the "tragic accident" would not undermine the alliance's resolve to bring an end to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's ethnic cleansing of the province.

"Sometimes one has to risk the lives of the few to save the lives of the many," said Mr Shea.

Nato's admission came the day after more than 60 refugees were reported to have been killed in at least two
attacks in the south of the province. 

At first the Pentagon had suggested that Serb forces had attacked convoys of refugees - a statement it later
withdrew.

'Bombed in good faith'

Speaking to reporters at Nato headquarters in Brussels, Mr Shea said: "A Nato pilot was operating over
western Kosovo and saw many villages being burnt.

"This is an area where the Yugoslav special forces have been conducting ethnic cleansing in the last few days."

Mr Shea said the F-16 fighter pilot identified vehicles moving on the main road between Prizren and Djakovica,
a route described by Nato as a key military supply corridor.

"The pilot attacked what he believed to be military vehicles," said Mr Shea. "He
dropped his bomb in good faith, as you would expect of a trained pilot from a
democratic country.

"The pilot reported at that time that he had attacked a military convoy.

"The bomb destroyed the lead vehicle which we now believe to have been a civilian vehicle."

Mr Shea said that despite the accident, Nato was taking more measures than any other force in combat history to minimise harm to civilians.

But he stressed that even with the best military hardware available, there could never be a guarantee that there
would not be tragic accidents. 

And he added: "The refugees want Nato to continue its operations. And continue we will.

"One tragic accident cannot and will not undermine our conviction that our cause is a just one."

Cook denounces 'hypocrisy'

UK Foreign Secretary Robin Cook accused the Yugoslav authorities of hypocrisy.

"How dare they now produce crocodile tears for people killed in the conflict for which they are responsible," he
said.

Marko Gasic, spokesman for the Serb Information Exchange, told the BBC that the convoy had been returning to the town of Djakovica when it was attacked twice by Nato bombers.