DEFENSE DEPARTMENT REPORT, SUNDAY, MAY 2, 1999

Secretary of Defense William Cohen and General Joseph Ralston, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, say the United States has enough munitions to continue to support the NATO air campaign against Serb forces in Kosovo for months, even years.

In an interview on NBC-TV's "Meet the Press" May 2, Cohen was asked about reports that say the United States is running dangerously short on munitions. "We're prepared to wage this campaign for some months to come," Cohen said.

According to Ralston, the United States has "precision-guided munitions to last for months and years." He refused to speculate on how long the air campaign might continue, but noted: "We're in it for as long as it takes."

Cohen said the Clinton Administration is confident that the Congress will approve an increased supplemental funding for U.S. military efforts in Kosovo.

The Secretary also discounted reports that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic has now moved 100,000 troops into Kosovo. Cohen said there is no evidence to support Milosevic's claims made in an interview with United Press International (UPI) May 2.

Cohen did say that there is strong evidence that Serb forces have now massacred as many as 4,000 Kosovar Albanians and that there may be "tens of thousands more" dead. Milosevic's decision to free three captured U.S. soldiers, according to Cohen, "cannot obliterate or overcome the stench of evil and death that has been inflicted in those killing fields of Kosovo." And any meeting between Milosevic and President Clinton is "highly unlikely," said the Defense Secretary.

"We have to keep our focus on what Milosevic has done and continues to do," Cohen said.

The Secretary said that NATO will be intensifying its air attacks against Serb military targets and will politically and economically isolate Serbia. He noted that the European Union has agreed to increase economic sanctions on Serbia and that there will be maritime interdictions of petroleum products to that country.