Many leaders backs strikes; China Russia call foul

Many leaders backs strikes; China Russia call foul

TOKYO (AP): Many Asian and European leaders backed NATO
airstrikes on Yugoslavia as vital to preventing further bloodshed
in Kosovo, but Indonesia joined China and Russia in condemning
the attacks.

"Japan understands NATO's use of force as measures that had to
be taken to prevent humanitarian catastrophe of a further
increase in victims," Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura
said in a statement on Thursday.

Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi also expressed support, calling
the strikes "an unavoidable step to prevent a humanitarian
atrocity," according to the Kyodo News agency.

Similarly, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said
Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic's refusal to end attacks
on Kosovo's ethnic Albanians made military action necessary.

"History has told us if you sit by and do nothing, you pay a
much greater price later on," he said.

U.S. and allied aircraft pounded Yugoslavia with missiles and
bombs Wednesday after months of diplomacy failed to end a year of
fighting between Yugoslav forces and ethnic Albanian separatists.

More than 2,000 people have been killed in the conflict and
over 400,000 left homeless in Kosovo, a Yugoslav province.

China, Russia and Indonesia spoke out against the bombings.
"I am extremely concerned and worried," state media quoted
Chinese President Jiang Zemin as saying Wednesday in Milan,
Italy, where he is on a state visit.

"We appeal for an immediate end to the airstrikes and to put
the Kosovo issue back on the track of political solution," Jiang
was quoted as saying by China's state-run Xinhua News Agency.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin said his nation was "deeply
upset by NATO's military action against sovereign Yugoslavia."

Russia called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council
in New York, where Secretary-General Kofi Annan chided NATO for
acting without consulting the Security Council.

In Indonesia, the government expressed sorrow over the
bombings and called on all parties to stop violence and return to
negotiations.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said that although
his country usually condemned military solutions to international
crises, it supported the NATO strikes as necessary to prevent
genocide.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Don McKinnon agreed that NATO
strikes were justified and inevitable.

"We want to see relief for the misery of people of Kosovo and
a peaceful and durable negotiated solution," McKinnon said.

And in Sweden, officials seemed resigned. "All efforts to
resolve this by peaceful ways failed," Foreign Minister Anna
Lindh said Thursday on state-run TV.

Earlier, in Berlin, 15 European Union leaders issued a
statement saying Milosevic could "stop the military actions by
ceasing his use of violence in Kosovo without delay and accepting
the Rambouillet accords" - the pact aimed at bringing peace to
Yugoslavia.

French President Jacques Chirac said the attacks were launched
to defend "peace on our soil, peace in Europe."

In Toronto, about 50 Serbian-Canadians demonstrated outside
the U.S. consulate. The protesters chanted "Hey, hey, U.S.A., how
many Serbs you kill today?" They carried signs that read "NATO:
Don't end a war by starting another."

Up to 400 protesters gathered outside Blair's residence in
London on Wednesday night to condemn the bombings, Scotland Yard
said.

In front of New York's Grand Central Terminal, about 80
supporters of the airstrikes traded jeers with some 300
protesters. Chants of "Stop the bombing, stop the war" by the
protesters were countered by proponents chanting "Drop the Bomb"
and "U-S-A."