Milosevic 'plotted' to kill Blair?

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, JULY 1. As the British media stepped up its campaign against the disgraced former Yogoslav President, Mr. Slobodan Milosevic, The Sunday Times sensationally reported a plot to kill the British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, when he visited refugees in Macedonia during the Kosovo crisis.

It quoted the Yogoslav Army Chief, General Nebojsa Pavkovic, as saying that he was ``ordered to assassinate Tony Blair,'' by blowing up his Puma helicopter at Petrovac airport in Skopje, the Macedonian capital, on May 3, 1999.

``The order came from `the top', he said. Analysts believe this could only be a reference to Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav President, who was extradited to The Hague, last week to face trial for war crimes,'' the newspaper said in a lead story detailing how the attack was to have been carried out. He did not carry out the ``order'' because he feared ``civilian casualties, a loss of support from Macedonia, his country's Slavic ally, and the possibility of being charged with a war crime.''

Gen. Pavkovic is reported to have told this to two journalists who plan to write a book, and The Sunday Times claimed to have a transcript of their `` shorthand notes''. Disclosing the ``plot'', he said: ``I was under pressure to do it since NATO was destroying Yugoslavia. But since I didn't have the precise possibility of monitoring the airport, my main worry was massive civilian casualties.''

He also said: ``we had the possibility to do it and we had the political decision to strike at the airport when Blair was coming. We knew from our intelligence sources when exactly he was coming.''

The Sunday Times said Mr. Blair was accompanied by his wife, Ms. Cherie Blair, the then Chief of Defence Staff, Sir Charles Guthrie, and his Press Secretary, Mr. Alistair Campbell - ``all could have been wiped out in an attack.'' It said NATO officials and intelligence sources in Britain and America claimed to have no information about the alleged plot but regarded it as ``plausible''. ``The assumption was that the Prime Minister was a target,'' it quoted a Downing Street source as saying.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : Indian woman sentenced in U.S.
Next     : BDR chief transferred