Relentless bombing fails to cut Serb strength in Kosovo BY MICHAEL EVANS, TOM BALDWIN AND PHILIP WEBSTER
SERB troops in Kosovo have suffered only "light casualties" after eight weeks of Nato bombing, although the daily attacks are substantially restricting their movements, Ministry of Defence sources admitted yesterday.
Despite the report of up to 1,000 Serb soldiers deserting and evidence of deteriorating morale, the size of the military presence in Kosovo remains at about 40,000, the same as when the air campaign began, the sources said.
The sombre assessment appeared to undermine the more bullish view expressed by ministers that Nato should be considering deploying an expanded implementation force into Kosovo by late summer on the basis that by then the Yugoslav Army would be in no position to offer much of a fight.
Although it is estimated that Nato airstrikes have damaged or destroyed more than 550 pieces of military equipment, the MoD sources said there was no sign that the Yugoslav Army in Kosovo was about to give up and go home.
Although Belgrade yesterday denied that up to 1,000 Serb soldiers had deserted, the MoD sources said the troops appeared to have decided to go back to their home town of Krusevac after hearing that anti-war demonstrators had been harshly treated by the police. About 400 reservists had also left Kosovo.
The MoD sources insisted that the progress of the air campaign should be judged according to how well the Nato bombers had diminished the Yugoslav Army's capability and hampered the ethnic-cleansing operations. With 600 sorties a day, the Serb troops in Kosovo were experiencing a "nightmare world". However, they had developed sophisticated deception techniques and stayed hidden during bombing, "and there is no sign of them leaving Kosovo in droves".
In fact, rather than contemplating surrender under the weight of Nato bombs, there were growing signs of the Serb forces digging in for a possible land war. Government sources said that some Serb soldiers could be allowed to remain in Kosovo alongside a Nato-led peace force at the end of the conflict, to guard historic monuments and religious sites, as well as acting as a symbolic guarantee of Kosovo's status as part of Yugoslavia.
The disclosure is the clearest sign yet that the Nato allies are prepared to offer a degree of flexibility in its pursuit of a peace settlement.
----
Germans attack 'isolated Blair' BY ROGER BOYES IN BONN
GERMAN irritation with the Blair Government surfaced yesterday when the press described Britain as isolated within Nato on the question of deploying ground troops in Kosovo.
In Britain, George Robertson, the Defence Secretary, tried to play down the differences with Gerhard Schröder, the German Chancellor, who said in Brussels on Wednesday that a ground offensive was unthinkable. "In the 19-nation alliance, with 19 democratic countries, you will always get differences of emphasis," Mr Robertson told BBC radio.
But the Germans see the dispute with Britain as more than a matter of interpretation. Michael Steiner, the Chancellor's foreign policy adviser, said airstrikes should be continued for at least another fortnight to weaken the Serbian leadership "to the level of vulnerability where it will agree to our demands". He said: "We will not deploy ground troops in Yugoslavia. " A headline in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung read: "The British Prime Minister is playing a risky solo role as the know-all in the Kosovo war."
Herr Schröder's comments - in which he said that he would not participate in "this specifically British debate on war theory" - were "directed against Blair, the hawk from London, who is becoming more and more isolated in the Western alliance", wrote the Stuttgarter Zeitung yesterday.