Europe must do more for refugees, says Robinson

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Robinson, said yesterday that other European countries, "including my own country", must do more to relieve the refugee crisis in Macedonia.

Speaking at the Blace border crossing, Mrs Robinson said she thought the response of other European countries to the crisis to date was not adequate. She called on them to come forward with practical proposals to fulfill their commitments.

At the Brazde refugee camp, she said: "We must have accountability. We cannot have impunity." Describing what she had heard as "an appalling story of human misery", she said: "We cannot forget this in a few months' time. Otherwise, at the end of this century, what have we gained for human rights? There must not be impunity."

Irish Times reporters add:

The US vowed yesterday that NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia would continue and intensify despite the release of three American prisoners of war in Belgrade, and despite controversy over an incident in which up to 60 people were killed when a bus carrying civilian passengers was hit by a NATO missile north of Pristina, the capital of Kosovo.

"As we welcome our soldiers home, our thoughts also turn to the over one million Kosovars who are unable to go home because of the policies of Belgrade," President Clinton said. "Today we reaffirm our resolve to persevere until they too can return with security and self-government."

As Sgt Christopher Stone (25), Cpl Steven Gonzalez (22) and Sgt Andrew Ramirez (24) walked off a plane at the Ramstein air force base in Germany, the US Defence Secretary, Mr William Cohen, threatened an intensification of NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia.

"We will not stop the bombing but intensify the bombing," he said on NBC's Meet the Press. "We are prepared to wage this campaign for some months to come," he said The Deputy Secretary of State, Mr Strobe Talbott, said Washington was "delighted" at the Rev Jesse Jackson's success in releasing the prisoners, but he dismissed a letter given to Mr Jackson for Mr Clinton by Mr Milosevic as a public relations "stunt".

Speaking on CBS's Face the Nation, Mr Talbott said it would be a "bad idea" for NATO to respond favourably because "Milosevic is an absolute master manipulator."

President Yeltsin's special envoy on the Balkans, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, is to visit Washington today for talks with Mr Clinton on the conflict. The decision to send Mr Chernomyrdin to Washington was made in a telephone call yesterday between Mr Yeltsin and Mr Clinton.

The US president leaves for Germany tomorrow to meet US combat pilots taking part in the NATO air campaign.

In Germany, Mr Jackson called the release of the soldiers "a bold decision", noting that it had occurred despite the fact that NATO had mistakenly bombed a passenger bus killing 60 people.

NATO admitted its planes hit a bus crossing a bridge in Kosovo on Saturday, but said they had done so unintentionally. Serb state television put the death toll at 60, and said at least 16 people, including four Albanian children, had been seriously wounded.