Cook is accused of lying                
 
                                                    
  JOHN BRUTON, the former Irish Prime
  Minister, last night accused Robin Cook,          
  the Foreign Secretary, of not telling the
  truth about the refugee crisis prompted by
  attacks on Yugoslavia.                            
 
  Mr Bruton, the leader of Ireland's Fine           
  Gael main opposition party, said Mr Cook
  was "simply not making a truthful statement
  when he said no one could have foreseen a         
  refugee crisis on the scale of the one now
  happening in the Balkans following the Nato       
  decision to bomb Yugoslavia while refusing
  to commit ground troops under any
  circumstances".                                  
                                                    
  The former Dublin premier added: "He is
  wrong. The present refugee crisis was not         
  only foreseeable, it was foreseen. It is          
  profoundly dishonest to pretend otherwise."       
                                                    
  Mr Bruton said he had predicted the crisis        
  before the bombing, and pointed to a              
  prediction made in Berlin by the Swedish
  opposition leader and former Bosnia
  mediator Carl Bildt, who predicted one
  million refugees within two weeks of the
  start of bombing.