Bomb hits hospital and envoys' homes By Toby Helm in Brussels and Lara Santoro in Belgrade
NATO refused to confirm yesterday that one of its bombs had hit a hospital in Belgrade killing three people as well as damaging the nearby Swedish, Spanish and Norwegian ambassadors' residencies.
But the alliance, which did admit that one of its bombs went 1,500 ft off course over the city early yesterday, was criticised by neutral Sweden. As hospital beds were seen hanging out of windows and the Yugoslav media claimed that two women in labour had been injured, the Swedish Prime Minister, Goran Persson, launched an official protest at the latest blunder. He said: "We don't accept that our embassy is subject to this kind of violation and we have protested against this. We have asked for an explanation."
The action was particularly serious, said Mr Persson, because the location of Swedish sites were well known. Earlier this month, Nato accidentally bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, killing three people and wounding at least 20. The error sparked anti-Nato riots in China. Sweden is currently acting as representative in Belgrade for the Nato members Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway.
Annika Soder, a spokesman for the Swedish Foreign Ministry, said the blast had caused structural damage to the home of its ambassador, Mats Staffansson, with nine windows shattered. No one in the building was hurt. She said: "The US embassy phoned us today to apologise, saying they would investigate what had happened." Mr Staffansson said he heard two large explosions within 200 yards of his house and went out to inspect the damage.
Norway said windows were smashed at its ambassador's residence nearby and Spain, which is a Nato member, also announced damage to its representative's home. Its Foreign Ministry said: "The Spanish government considers it to be of the utmost importance to ensure that military activities are carried out with the greatest caution in order to avoid victims in the civilian population and damage to buildings that are not considered strategic targets."
Reporters who visited the remains of the Dr Dragisa Misovic hospital in Belgrade's wealthy Dedinje area said the neurological ward had been worst hit and the gynaecological and maternity sections nearby were also damaged. The Yugoslav claims of three dead and the two injured mothers could not be confirmed but Leposava Milicevic, the Serbian Health Minister, told a news conference that the body of a hospital guard was one of the dead and she predicted more bodies would be dug out of the debris.
She said: "Patients in comas or the paralysed and babies - they seem to be Nato's ideal targets. They can not hide, can not run, can not complain. They can only die silently." The area around the crater was strewn with spent ammunition apparently from a rifle. It was not clear whether the spent bullets had been fired at Nato jets on Wednesday night or whether they had been there before the bombing raid.
Jamie Shea, Nato's spokesman, said the alliance had been aiming at an army barracks at about 1am yesterday when a laser-guided bomb went astray. He said: "Seven laser-guided bombs hit the target. One laser-guided bomb failed to guide correctly and we can confirm that it struck the base of a building about 1,500 ft from the centre of the target area."
Yugoslav army sources said the barracks had been evacuated on the first day of air strikes. Mr Shea had no details about any buildings struck accidentally but described Serb claims that the attack was deliberate as "completely false". Gen Walter Jertz, Nato's military spokesman, said it took time for the alliance to verify what had happened to bombs that went off course. It always suspects the Serbs of manufacturing propaganda to swell public feeling against Nato at home and fuel doubts about the bombing abroad.