Many leaders backs strikes; China Russia call foul<\/p>\n
TOKYO (AP): Many Asian and European leaders backed NATO
\nairstrikes on Yugoslavia as vital to preventing further bloodshed
\nin Kosovo, but Indonesia joined China and Russia in condemning
\nthe attacks.<\/p>\n
\"Japan understands NATO's use of force as measures that had to
\nbe taken to prevent humanitarian catastrophe of a further
\nincrease in victims,\" Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura
\nsaid in a statement on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi also expressed support, calling
\nthe strikes \"an unavoidable step to prevent a humanitarian
\natrocity,\" according to the Kyodo News agency.<\/p>\n
Similarly, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said
\nYugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic's refusal to end attacks
\non Kosovo's ethnic Albanians made military action necessary.<\/p>\n
\"History has told us if you sit by and do nothing, you pay a
\nmuch greater price later on,\" he said.<\/p>\n
U.S. and allied aircraft pounded Yugoslavia with missiles and
\nbombs Wednesday after months of diplomacy failed to end a year of
\nfighting between Yugoslav forces and ethnic Albanian separatists.<\/p>\n
More than 2,000 people have been killed in the conflict and
\nover 400,000 left homeless in Kosovo, a Yugoslav province.<\/p>\n
China, Russia and Indonesia spoke out against the bombings.
\n\"I am extremely concerned and worried,\" state media quoted
\nChinese President Jiang Zemin as saying Wednesday in Milan,
\nItaly, where he is on a state visit.<\/p>\n
\"We appeal for an immediate end to the airstrikes and to put
\nthe Kosovo issue back on the track of political solution,\" Jiang
\nwas quoted as saying by China's state-run Xinhua News Agency.<\/p>\n
Russian President Boris Yeltsin said his nation was \"deeply
\nupset by NATO's military action against sovereign Yugoslavia.\"<\/p>\n
Russia called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council
\nin New York, where Secretary-General Kofi Annan chided NATO for
\nacting without consulting the Security Council.<\/p>\n
In Indonesia, the government expressed sorrow over the
\nbombings and called on all parties to stop violence and return to
\nnegotiations.<\/p>\n
Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said that although
\nhis country usually condemned military solutions to international
\ncrises, it supported the NATO strikes as necessary to prevent
\ngenocide.<\/p>\n
New Zealand Foreign Minister Don McKinnon agreed that NATO
\nstrikes were justified and inevitable.<\/p>\n
\"We want to see relief for the misery of people of Kosovo and
\na peaceful and durable negotiated solution,\" McKinnon said.<\/p>\n
And in Sweden, officials seemed resigned. \"All efforts to
\nresolve this by peaceful ways failed,\" Foreign Minister Anna
\nLindh said Thursday on state-run TV.<\/p>\n
Earlier, in Berlin, 15 European Union leaders issued a
\nstatement saying Milosevic could \"stop the military actions by
\nceasing his use of violence in Kosovo without delay and accepting
\nthe Rambouillet accords\" - the pact aimed at bringing peace to
\nYugoslavia.<\/p>\n
French President Jacques Chirac said the attacks were launched
\nto defend \"peace on our soil, peace in Europe.\"<\/p>\n
In Toronto, about 50 Serbian-Canadians demonstrated outside
\nthe U.S. consulate. The protesters chanted \"Hey, hey, U.S.A., how
\nmany Serbs you kill today?\" They carried signs that read \"NATO:
\nDon't end a war by starting another.\"<\/p>\n
Up to 400 protesters gathered outside Blair's residence in
\nLondon on Wednesday night to condemn the bombings, Scotland Yard
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
In front of New York's Grand Central Terminal, about 80
\nsupporters of the airstrikes traded jeers with some 300
\nprotesters. Chants of \"Stop the bombing, stop the war\" by the
\nprotesters were countered by proponents chanting \"Drop the Bomb\"
\nand \"U-S-A.\"<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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