"Well, I have to call my husband and tell him about the amount of security we have travelling with us," said a member of the UN humanitarian team that arrived in Belgrade yesterday. "But when I tell him, he's going to have a heart attack."
She giggled nervously.
Indeed, the team which will begin a 10-12 day tour of the country today appears to be prepared for any kind of crisis in a country now suffering from destroyed roads and bridges, absence of petrol, and erratic electricity and water supply in many places.
The convoy will consist of at least 10 vehicles clearly marked with the UN symbol. Several of the cars are towing their own tanks of diesel petrol. But a NATO spokesman, Dr Jamie Shea, said that, despite NATO's insistence that the convoy notify it of its precise routes 48 hours in advance, not deviate from the routes and travel only during the day, the group's safety could not be guaranteed.
As the 18-member team arrived in the capital, Mr Sergio de Mello, heading the mission, said it "will be looking into emergency needs, at the problems of the displaced, particularly in Kosovo . . . assessing basic humanitarian needs" throughout Yugoslavia.
"We are worried about the hundreds of thousands that are said to be on the move in that province," said Mr de Mello, whose team members include experts from the World Food Programme, UNICEF and UNHCR, as well as human rights, rehabilitation and reconstruction specialists.
Mr De Mello said they have been told they would be able to visit all areas of Kosovo, the south, the borders with Albania and Macedonia, the region toward Montenegro and also the areas around the Kosovo provincial capital, Pristina.
"By necessity, this is only an initial assessment but it's an important one," Mr De Mello said. "It's the first time we are able to embark in this kind of way and right in the middle of a war - we are determined to do as professional a job as possible."
Members of the group charged with inspecting infrastructure damage and impact on Serbia's civilian population face a challenging task.
On Saturday, Yugoslav authorities brought reporters to Novi Sad, the country's second largest city, which has been the subject of intense bombing.
We travelled over the last remaining bridge across the Danube in all of Yugoslavia. Inside the city, the dramatic changes to life there were evident. In the afternoon, some 200 or more people crowded together on a barge, carrying bags, boxes, food supplies and bicycles. Five times a day, authorities launch these pontoons, powered by three small boats, to ferry people from each bank.
"But why should we have to live like this?" asked a man named Miloslav, who said he had to board the barge twice a day.
Three major bridges across the river were destroyed here. One, the Slobodan bridge, still has a blue car perched as it collapses into the water. The owner of the car survived the bombing, but the sight of the precariously placed vehicle is a reminder to people here how close they may be to death every evening the bombing continues.
Helen Kinghan adds from Brussels:
NATO is not prepared to accuse the Yugoslav army outright of using ethnic Albanian refugees as human shields. Washington, however, had no such scruples, and in statements used widely yesterday, US sources said it looked as if the civilians who died in the village of Korisa on Friday had been deliberately brought to a target area by the Serbs.
There have been about 80 reported incidents of ethnic Albanians being used as human shields since Operation Allied Force began. They range from reports of refugees being mixed in with military convoys or being placed on tractors on bridges, to using young men taken from their groups by the Serbian police, being placed in factories and places known to be NATO targets.
The truth will come out eventually, the alliance says, through the established agencies, and NATO is prepared to wait. "Korisa was a valid military target," Gen Walter Jertz insisted yesterday in Brussels. NATO still insists it was checked by the pilot before dropping any missiles.
Many displaced people have been hiding in rough conditions. Unsubstantiated reports say the police rounded up a number of them and told them they had dealt with the KLA in the area and they could come home.
It is suggested they were told to stay for the night at Korisa before finding their own homes and were put up in the garrison while the police stayed in the houses. On this NATO will not comment saying, "We are not on the ground. We don't know."
GenJertz claimed a great deal of care was being taken and there were many cases of strikes being called off by pilots who returned to base to report they thought there were civilians and held their fire. He claimed pilots were flying lower when it was safe to do so, in order to be as sure and as accurate as possible. The American Apache helicopters will be able to fly much lower, bringing the conflict into a different dimension. But the Serb forces still have the capacity to inflict tremendous damage on the Apaches and it is unlikely the record of Allied safety will remain.
Reuters adds:
Pentagon chiefs have warned the Clinton administration it cannot achieve its aims in Yugoslavia without the use of ground troops, Newsweek magazine reported yesterday. The Joint Chiefs of Staff sent a letter to the Defence Secretary, Mr William Cohen, a few weeks ago, saying "only ground troops would guarantee fulfilment of the administration's political objectives", the report in the current issue, which goes on sale today, said. The Pentagon had no immediate comment on the report.
Meanwhile, a senior Pentagon official said yesterday that two Serb Army soldiers held as prisoners of war by the US military in Germany were likely to be released today.