Send ground troops to Yugoslavia, UA students say

"It's not a very pretty prospect, but under the circumstances, definitely the atrocities that are apparently being committed would warrant it," said Andrew Bockhorst, an architecture graduate student. "I'm not sure how the world can turn a blind eye to that."

Of 25 students questioned yesterday on the UA Mall, 20 said they would support a U.S.-led NATO ground assault in the Yugoslavian province of Kosovo - as a final resort to end the fighting.

Yugoslav military and special police forces in Kosovo have expelled or left homeless about 912,000 ethnic Albanians since March.

Thirteen months ago, prior to the Yugoslav and Serb crackdown on the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army, ethnic Albanians made up 90 percent of the province's pre-war population of 2 million people.

Josh Fullerton, an operations management freshman, said he would support sending in troops to protect ethnic Albanian refugees.

"It might become necessary, because obviously the bombing thing is not working," said Fullerton, a U.S. Marine. "That (ground troops) may be the only way to get the refugees back into their country."

One University of Arizona student who would not support direct, infantry intervention, said U.S. officials and citizens do not understand the events transpiring in Kosovo.

"Especially here in the United States, there's still too little knowledge about what is going on over there," said Chris Kemper, an English literature senior. "I think it (the decision for airstrikes) was too rash. NATO has got themselves into something they can't get themselves out of."

Kemper, who is from Germany, said the conflict in Yugoslavia has been going on for a "long, long time" and was a bad situation for NATO to enter.

Despite a Tuesday cease-fire offer by Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic, NATO stepped up its airstrikes and started to include Yugoslav forces in Kosovo on its target list.

The assault that came after Milosevic's offer was the heaviest since the NATO bombings started March 24, making it clear that NATO countries will continue to hold out for more concessions.

NATO officials demanded that Milosevic withdraw his forces from Kosovo and accept a three-year interim autonomy agreement to be policed by 28,000 troops.

"I'm not sure why we have to be the police power, but with all the refugees over there something has to be done," said physiology senior Lisha Stone, who supported sending in ground troops if necessary. "If someone has to be the police power then the U.S. is capable of doing it."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.