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Crisis in Kosovo NATO calls Milosevic’s cease-fire offer a sham By George Jahn The Associated Press BELGRADE, Yugoslavia —Yu goslav President Slobodan Milose vic declared a unilateral cease-fire Tuesday in his campaign to crush rebels in Kosovo, saying he wanted to honor the Orthodox Easter holi day this weekend. Western leaders called the move a sham and pledged to press ahead with airstrikes. Moments after the cease-fire took effect at 8 p.m. (2 p.m. EDT), air-raid sirens wailed in Belgrade, heralding new NATO attacks. At least six explosions could be heard late Tuesday in the direction of the Batajnica military airport just north of Belgrade and tracer rounds from anti-aircraft were seen in the night sky. Yugoslav television stations re ported further attacks Tuesday night around the Kosovo capital of Pristina; at Uzice, 75 miles south west of Belgrade; near Krai jevo, 75 miles south of Belgrade; and at Pancevoand Cacak, two industrial towns. U.S. officials say a muni tions plant is located at Cacak. Another missile struck a resi dential district in Podgorica, capi tal of the tiny Yugoslav republic Montenegro. There were no in juries, but several buildings were damaged, according to Associated Press reporters on the scene. The Yugoslav cease-fire declara tion was clearly aimed at staving off further NATO attacks and at presenting Milosevic’s govern ment as a champion of peace. President Clinton and NATO in sisted that half-measures would not end the NATO air campaign that began March 24, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s office said Milosevic’s announced truce “doesn’t go nearly far enough.” A rebel spokesman also rejected the cease-fire, which was an nounced on Belgrade television sta tions, and said the only way the group would agree to a truce would be if NATO troops enforced it. The statement also pledged the government would work for the re turn of ethnic Albanian refugees. However, it wasn’t clear if that meant an immediate halt to the mili tary actions forcing them to flee. Russia alone welcomed the cease-fire. “Any peace initiative must be useful,” spokesman Dmit ry Yakushkin quoted President Boris Yeltsin as saying. On the refugee front, NATO na tions and others rushed in tons of aid Tuesday for the 400,000 ethnic Albanians who have been driven out of Kosovo and into poor neigh boring states. Armies of aid workers and sol diers set up row upon row of mili tary tents and latrines for the refugees, while aid flights clogged nearby airports, including the one at Tirana, the capital of Albania. Some doctors were on hand, but the squalid conditions and lack of sanitation left many refugees sick with diarrhea. Conditions were most desperate at frontier enclave at Blace on the Macedonian border, where some refugees have died. In order to relieve the refugee pressure on Macedonia, Western countries began an airlift to evacu ate thousands of refugees from the former Yugoslav republic. Several thousand left on flights late Mon day and Tuesday for Norway and Turkey. Meanwhile, the Clinton admin istration announced that its naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, would be a temporary “safe haven” for up to 20,000 Kosovar refugees in the coming days. In its statement, the Yugoslav leadership said the cessation of hostilities against the ethnic Al banian Kosovo Liberation Army in advance of Sunday’s Orthodox Easter was a “gesture of good will.” Neither the cease-fire declara tion nor statements from Yugoslav officials said anything about hold ing fire against NATO forces, which mounted their most inten sive strikes of the two-week-old air campaign late Monday and early Tuesday, and promised heavier firepower to come. The allies demand that Milose vic withdraw military and para military troops from Kosovo and accept an international military force to police a settlement that grants autonomy to Kosovo, a province of the main Yugoslav re public of Serbia. But in a sign of deteriorating rela tions, unknown assailants hurled a hand grenade at Belgrade’s only mosque Tuesday. The blast injured no one, but shattered windows and slightly damaged the building. Beta news agency reported. In Washington, Defense Secre tary William Cohen said the Serb cease-fire offer is “not only com pletely unacceptable, but it’s ab surd.” He said accepting a cease fire now would be an “abdication of responsibility” by NATO. Visar Reka, a rebel spokesman in Albania, agreed. “We do not trust Milosevic’s cease-fire,” he told The Associated Press. “We will not ac cept any cease-fire without NATO presence in Kosovo.” Yugoslav deputy prime minister Vuk Draskovic said if NATO pressed ahead with airstrikes now, “it would be very clear... NATO is against peace.” The declaration followed a night of intense attacks in which NATO planes and missiles blasted fuel depots, oil refineries, roads and bridges across Yugoslavia. The bombings Tuesday includ ed a midmoming strike in Pristina. Yugoslavia’s Tanjug news agency reported raids near the western Kosovo city of Pec. A NATO missile late Monday struck a residential neighborhood in Aleksinac, a mining town of 17,000 people about 100 miles southeast of Belgrade. Yugoslav of ficials said at least 12 people were killed and dozens hurt. NATO said its weapons had tar geted a nearby military post. NATO Air Commodore David Wil by of Britain said it was possible that one of the weapons “fell short” due to a guidance system fault, in coming fire or another cause and that “any unintended damage” is “very much regretted.” In Aleksinac, two bodies, along with pools of blood and human body parts, could be seen in the wreckage of the apartment build ing. Bricks and roof tiles were strewn about, some hundreds of feet from the blast. The number of casualties in the central Serbian town could not be independently confirmed. Russian tycoon to be arrested for money laundering By Angela Charlton The Associated Press MOSCOW — Russian prosecu tors issued an arrest warrant Tues day for tycoon Boris Berezovsky on charges of money laundering, the latest blow to one of the coun try’s most controversial figures. Berezovsky, with his close ties to the family of President Boris Yeltsin, has become a symbol of the wealthy oligarchs seen by many as dominating the economy and influencing government, amid frequent charges of corrup tion. The warrant against him — which he denounced — is likely to fuel opposition calls to probe al leged corruption in Yeltsin’s gov ernment. His arrest was ordered by the of fice of the prosecutor general, Yuri Skuratov, who is already locked in a bitter feud with Yeltsin over his investigations into alleged bribe taking by Kremlin officials. Skuratov submitted his resigna tion Tuesday for the second time in two months, but he added that he would continue work if Parlia ment backs him after Yeltsin’s at tempts to oust him. The Kremlin has been trying to fight off allegations of corruption, including recent charges of kick backs for huge contracts to reno vate government property. Yeltsin, weakened by repeated ill health and widespread unpopu larity for his poor performance, faces an impeachment vote in the lower chamber of parliament on April 15. Berezovsky, who was in France Tuesday, said he would not seek asylum abroad and that he would return to Russia, although he did n’t specify when. “I know that there are many shameless and not very bright people in the prosecutor’s office,” Berezovsky said in a telephone in terview from France carried by In terfax. “They don’t have a single chance for success. ’’ Investigators suspect Bere zovsky of setting up a Swiss com pany to hide hard currency earn ings of Russia’s largest airline, Aeroflot, the Interfax news agency reported. Russian media say Bere zovsky has a stake in Aeroflot, whose general director is Yeltsin’s son-in-law, Valery Okulov. Berezovsky has denied wrong doing around Aeroflot and other reports of corruption against him in the past. Prosecutors also issued an ar rest warrant Tuesday for former Aeroflot commercial director Nikolai Glushkov on money laun dering charges. A billionaire whose empire re portedly includes oil, airlines and media, Berezovsky has suffered a string of defeats in a battle with Prime Minister Yevgeny Pri makov this year. The latest was Berezovsky’s formal ouster last Friday as the executive secretary of an alliance of former Soviet re publics. Yeltsin, distancing him self from Berezovsky, had barred him from the post last month. Prosecutors recently searched offices of companies where Bere zovsky is believed to have hold ings, including Aeroflot, and are investigating charges he set up a bugging network to eavesdrop on government officials. Berezovsky says the charges are trumped up by Russian secret services with Primakov’s bless ing. “Even Communists today are less dangerous than Primakov,” Berezovsky said in an interview with the weekly Moscow News published Tuesday. “He poses a greater danger — he wants to again build the (Soviet) emnire.” V v d/ y o- la/ h kv o-^vu . . . the UO will offer 9 weeks of intensive language study (equivelent to a full year) in the following languages this summer? B U R M E S E Filipino Indonesian Khmer Lao T I I A i V I E T N A M E S E There are still a few spaces available I’I case contact l.ori O'l.loltarcn at I f>2 I or < 1 olio 11 'a Oregon > for more details. Don’t just spend your summer. classes • workshops « mini-courses OSU Summer Session offers more than 400 courses in 70 departments. So, if you re home for the summer, take a course you haven’t been able to get, lighten your load before next fall, or get a jump on graduation! And for nonresidents there are no out-of-state fees. 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