The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, has called on NATO to err on the side of the principle of proportionality where there were risks to civilians in the bombing of Serbia. "People are not collateral damage, they are people," she said.
There must not be a political solution to the conflict over Kosovo which avoids accountability for violations of human rights, she said, and she repeated that there was an urgent need for countries to follow through on their commitments to evacuate refugees.
"Beginning with my own country. It has promised to take 1,000 refugees but, I understand, has not taken one." Ireland and other European countries needed to take a more practical approach to the problem. It was "very serious" and "becoming intolerable," she said.
Mrs Robinson who was speaking yesterday at a press conference in Skopje, the Macedonian capital, prior to her departure after a two-day visit to the country, also disclosed that a scheduled meeting between herself and the Yugoslav ambassador to Macedonia yesterday morning had not taken place. "I was informed there was a change in programme and I did not meet the ambassador," she said.
Her visit to Macedonia had been a welcome opportunity to make a personal assessment of the very grave human rights problems for those who came across the border from Kosovo, she said. At the Blace crossing (on Sunday) she had heard "terrible accounts of flagrant violations of human rights", she said.
She expressed her appreciation to the Macedonian Minister for Justice, Mr Kambovski, who co-hosted the press conference with her, and to the country's government for the support they have given to the human rights monitoring mission in Skopje and at the refugee camps "where the deportees have come. And I say `deportees' because these people were forced to leave their homes and in many cases their homes were burned," she said.
The human rights monitoring mission was working in co-operation with OSCE personnel and the International Crimes Tribunal, she said, to help ensure there will be "accountability, no impunity from this savage violation of human rights we have been witnessing."
The Commission on Human Rights was determined to use all human rights mechanisms at its disposal, including the rapporteurs on women, torture, and summary executions as well as the various treaty bodies, in this instance, she said.
"We must ensure it is very professional, very rigorous, and very verified to ensure there will not be impunity. It [the current conflict] must not be resolved politically to avoid impunity." What has taken place was "terrible. It is not acceptable in the last year of the century. The human rights community is determined there will be accountability," she said.
Questioned as to whether she planned to go to Belgrade and meet President Slobodan Milosevic she said she hoped to have the opportunity to meet him "and I will, to say the least of it, have quite a lot to say when we do meet."
Concerning her comments on NATO's bombing of Serbia on the BBC Today programme, she said she had referred to the jurisdiction of the International War Crime Tribunal and was explaining that the precise wording used by the special prosecutor applies to all parties, "potentially to NATO". She was drawing attention to fundamental principles including the principle of proportionality, for example when civilians were affected.
She was not however equating "the appalling scale of ethnic cleansing and the action of NATO bombing," she said. It was important, in the context of the Human Rights Commission, to refer to the underlying principles of proportionality and legality. "If it is not possible to ascertain civilian buses on bridges they should not be blown," she said.
On the refugee crisis she said "I have been made acutely aware since coming here that the pressure on Macedonia is becoming intolerable. It is very serious for this country."
At a separate press conference Mr Ron Redmond of the UNHCR disclosed that while over 11,000 refugees entered Macedonia on Monday, 734 were evacuated to other European countries.
The humanitarian convoy of 11 trucks which left Ireland on April 28th bound for Albania reached its destination yesterday to deliver aid for Kosovan refugees.
The convoy, organised by Trocaire and Tesco Ireland, carried more than 200 tonnes of relief supplies including food, sanitary supplies, nappies and toiletries, as well as tents and blankets.