Serbians Commemorate Victims of NATO Bombing
The 12th anniversary of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia was observed across Serbia on March 24 with wreaths and tributes to the estimated 3,500 killed and the more than 12,500 wounded during 78 days of aerial attacks, reported the Serbian news agency Tanjug.
In Belgrade, Mayor Dragan Djilas laid flowers at a monument named "Why?" in downtown Tasmajdan Park. It commemorates the victims of the bombing of the Radio Television Serbia (RTS) studios in the early hours of April 23, 1999, where 16 employees were killed.
In the second largest Serbian city, Novi Sad, air raid sirens sounded at noon to mark the anniversary. Novi Sad was NATO's first target: at 7:55 p.m. local time on March 14, 1999, a Tomahawk cruise missile destroyed the Kilsa police training site; a few minutes later the Majevica military barracks were hit.
Igor Pavlicic said Novi Sad had not yet recovered from the consequences of NATO air strikes, but stressed the human cost.
"The buildings, houses and bridges we will manage to repair or rebuild, but innocent people's lives we cannot, nor should we forget," said Pavlicic.
In the central square of the southern Serbian town of Vranje, a wreath was laid by Minister of Defense Dragan Sutanovac accompanied by General Mladen Chirkovica and Brigadier General Milosav Simovic.
The official goal of the NATO bombing campaign, code named Operation Noble Anvil, was to force the withdrawal of Serbian security forces from Kosovo. These forces were alleged to have committed human rights abuses against the ethnic Albanian civilian population. The campaign ended with the establishment of a caretaker UN mission in Kosovo.
Approximately 90 percent of the southern Serbian province of Kosovo is ethnic Albanian. In 2008, Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia, which refuses to recognize Kosovo as anything other than an integral part of its territory. Kosovo has been recognized by the U.S. and leading European states. With its numerous churches and monasteries, Kosovo is regarded by most Serbs as the historical heartland of the medieval Serbian state.
The anniversary of the NATO bombing was also observed in the Serb-dominated areas of northern Kosovo with a rally of about 4,500 people protesting against integration into Kosovo institutions.
"We cannot be forced to live in an independent Kosovo and to accept independence which was paid for in human organs and by drug trafficking," said Mayor Krstimir Pantic of Kosovska Mitrovica, making reference to some of the illicit activities of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) currently under investigation.
"The bombing of Yugoslavia -- under the pretense of humanitarian intervention -- in fact supported secessionist movements and the Kosovo Albanian mafia. The attack on Serbia was essentially for their interests," said Milos Jovanovic, vice president of the Democratic Party of Serbia in Belgrade, calling the bombing an illegal act.
