In case of a ground operation in Kosovo the North Atlantic Alliance will run up against the resistance of 150,000 armed Serbians, General Neboisa Pavkovic, commander of the third Yugoslavian army, which is deployed in Kosovo, stated on Saturday.

"There are now 150,000 armed men on the territory of Kosovo," the general stated. "If each shot they fire kills at least every third enemy, that will be the price which the aggressor will have to pay for setting foot on our land. We are ready to wage a nation-wide war," he added.

The general said that NATO officials were deceiving public opinion and concealing their losses in the operation against Yugoslavia. Only the third Yugoslavian army, he noted, has shot down sixteen NATO aircraft, five helicopters, forty-six cruise missiles, and four unmanned planes since the beginning of the aggression, i.e. March 24.

Pavkovic believes that the NATO aggression was of any help to the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army only at the very outset, but soon prompted the Serbian security troops to rout the terrorists. "I am in a position to report that the terroristic forces in Kosovo have been fully wiped out. This is evidenced by the fact that new gangs are now being knocked together with NATO help on the territory of Albania and Macedonia, which are trying to worm their way into Yugoslavia. We are waiting for them here," the general stressed.

In his opinion, the only way to settle the Kosovo crisis is to stop the aggression against the Serbians, who are "an exceptionally brave and proud nation". Discontinuation of the NATO aggression, he believes, will be followed up by a political settlement of the crisis by means of talks with representatives of the Kosovo ethnic Albanians.

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