Nato plan to open up new front in Hungary against the Serbs
Although the force would not be large enough to invade Yugoslavia, it would be able to protect the 350,000 ethnic Hungarians in the northern province of Vojvodina.
The artillery would include a specially-adapted version of the Multiple Launch Rocket System with an enhanced range of up to 100 miles, capable of destroying an area the size of a soccer pitch.
Plans have been prepared for America to use the system at the Taszar air base in the south of Hungary, along with A-10 ground attack combat aircraft.
Several thousand American troops would be needed to secure the base, along the lines of the 5,000-strong force supporting the Apache attack helicopter force in Albania.
It is hoped that these weapons will deter Slobodan Milosevic from attacking the Hungarian minority in Serbia.
George Robertson, the British Defence Secretary, visited Budapest, the Hungarian capital, yesterday and said there was a risk that the last large non-Serb minority in Serbia would be persecuted unless Milosevic was beaten in Kosovo.
``Vojvodina will be next in the drive for ethnic purity,'' he predicted.
He said that Milosevic had used ``genocidal violence'' in Kosovo and denied it was scaremongering to say that the same methods would be used in Vojvodina.
Mr Robertson was the first Nato defence minister to visit Hungary since Operation Allied Force began on March 24 and he brought a message of thanks to the government of one of the frontline states with Yugoslavia for its support of the air campaign.
While Hungary has not taken part directly in Nato's air campaign it has allowed American aircraft to operate from its airfields.
Eight American tankers are based in Ferihegy, Budapest's main airport. By the end of this week the first of 24 F/A18 Super Hornet attack aircraft from the US Marines will arrive at Taszar. They will be operational within days and it is hoped that by attacking Serbia from the north-east they will free up the congested air corridors used for most of the combat missions flown from the west of Serbia.
(Daily Telegraph, London)
- TIM BUTCHER
