IN THREE weeks of NATO's air war in the Balkans, there has been no end of horror and human tragedy on the ground - virtually all of it suffered by the innocent Kosovar Albanians for whom this conflict is waged.

And none, surely, has been more heart-rending than the death of dozens of refugees in an attack on a civilian convoy - above all, as they are the pitiable victims not just of evil and ruthless ethnic cleansing, but of a ruthless propaganda war designed to test the allies' resolve for justice.

This fact needs to be realised, not to evade or cloak the Serbian accusations that this convoy was attacked by NATO planes, but to highlight the whole truth behind the dreadful fate of the civilians killed and maimed in this tragedy.

The confusion and mixed messages in the aftermath means that, at this stage, there is no certainty over who or what was to blame.

NATO error, Serbian trickery, outright murder by the Serbs and retaliation by them against the refugees for the allied attacks - all have been offered as explanations for the horror.

But while the grim inevitability of such human disasters is a product of all wars, the basic reason why these people died, whether it was by accident or design, was because they had been forcibly uprooted from their homes, made into refugees and herded into a convoy as a result of the wicked and genocidal schemes of Serbia's dictator Slobodan Milosevic.

And if, as some reports claim, the people in this convoy were mixed in with Serbian military vehicles and personnel as human shields, then the evil runs deeper still.

Or if - as United Nations officials, not NATO, gather reports from women and children in another convoy being attacked by Serb aircraft - it is the case that this happened to the other convoy too, then it knows no limits.

But, whoever is responsible, the Serbs are clearly and callously exploiting these deaths for their own purposes.

They are seeking to undermine support and stomach for NATO's bombing campaign by stirring up dissent among the allies and to put both domestic and international pressure upon the alliance for a ceasefire that would hand victory to Milosevic, betray the Kosovars and sentence them to death or exile.

There can only be one just outcome for this war and that is not compromise, but the withdrawal of Serb forces from Kosovo, the return of the refugees to their homes and their protection guaranteed by an international force.

The longer it takes to make Milosevic accept this, however, the more we shall see of the horrors of war.

But because of them, NATO must not weaken.

Rather, the alliance must determine to win this war as swiftly as it can and so prosecute it now with an even greater will - so that the horror and evil are finished for good and all and as soon as possible.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.