From the onset of NATO’s aggression from March 24 to June 11, 1999, the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO) flew over 35,000 combat missions over the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia […]
From the onset of NATO’s aggression from March 24 to June 11, 1999, the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance (NATO) flew over 35,000 combat missions over the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Over 1,000 warplanes (among others F-15, F-16, F-117) and 206 helicopters were used in the air strikes. More than 20,000 laser or satellite-guided weapons were launched and over 79,000 tons of explosives were dropped, including 152 containers with 35,450 cluster bombs, thermo-visual and graphite bombs, which are prohibited under international conventions.1
The NATO forces justified the bombing of civilian targets as either “mistakes” or essential to the destruction of Milosevic and the Yugoslav Army. However, these attacks were not made solely against military targets but against the Yugoslav population as a whole. As a direct result of the bombings, thousands of civilians were killed and more than 6,000 sustained serious injuries. A large number of the injured will remain crippled for life. NATO bombings have burned amputated, wounded and disabled many civilians of all-ethnic groups, ages, and genders. Children make made up 30% of all casualties as well as 40% of the total number injured. In addition, approximately 300,000 children have suffered severe psychological traumas and will require continuos medical surveillance and treatment. Children have been victims of the sprinkle cluster bombs, with delayed effects, and will continue to be victimized until all parks, play-fields and open areas have been made safe from the remaining unexploded bombs scattered throughout Yugoslavia.
What follows are the most tragic instances of civilian casualties and suffering as a result of the unprovoked aggression of the NATO Alliance on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as reported by the “Provisional Assessment of Civilian Casualties and Destruction in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from March 24 to June 8 19992” and the “Overview of the Collateral Damage in Yugoslavia.”3 This is not a complete accounting of civilian casualties, which is not yet available at this time (July 31. 1999). Surdulica:An attack on a peaceful rural town on April 27,1999, resulted in 20 civilian deaths, including 12 children between the ages of 5 and 12, and over 100 wounded, of which 24 critically. Several hundred civilian objects were also damaged; some of them completely destroyed. The attacks were repeated the next day, which made it difficult to recover bodies.
Korisa: On the night of May 14, 1999, NATO performed an attack with six missiles on refugees situated on a farm in the village of Korisa. 87 civilians were killed and 70 were severely injured. “NATO spokesmen blamed the deaths on Yugoslavia authorities, claiming they had used the refugees as “human shields” by forcing them to spend the night next to a military or police command center. Despite the report, the refugees said that they saw no signs that the compound was being used as a local military or police command center. Nor did they report seeing any of the artillery pieces located in bunkers that NATO claimed were destroyed in the attack” (Washington Post, 5/21/99).
Djakovica: On April 14, 1999, a convoy of Albanian refugees was bombed four times by NATO planes. The refugees were moving down the Prizren-Djakovica road. 75 people were killed and 100 were wounded. All of the victims were ethnic Albanians, mostly children, women and elderly people. Since the attack was carried out in daylight, the convoy consisted mostly of agricultural vehicles and civilian cars, and the attack was repeated four times with long periods of time between them. The possibility of such an attack being accidental is highly unlikely.
Gredelica: NATO hit an international train, on regular service from Belgrade to Thessalonki (Greece), in the vicinity of Leskovac on Monday, April 12, 1999. 55 passengers were killed, including a ten-year-old child. More than 60 passengers were wounded. All casualties were civilians.
Luzane: On May 1, 1999, on a bridge in Luzane, a ” Nis Express” bus with 70 passengers, on a regular service linking Nis and Pristina, was hit by a missile that directly split the bus in two. One half of the bus remained on the bridge burning for an hour, while the other half plunged into the valley. At least 50 passengers were killed and 13 were injured. In the second wave of the attack, an ambulance was damaged and one medical doctor was seriously wounded in the head. An eyewitness to the attack said that the bus was filled with civilians, mostly children and elderly people.
Istok: On May 21, 1999, at 8:40 am, a prison was hit with two missiles, killing one man and seriously injuring one woman. The attack was repeated at 9:20 am with ten missiles. The second attack left nine people dead including the deputy governor. At least ten people were injured. Since then, NATO has bombed this prison several times. The death toll is now 100.
Varvarin: 17 civilians were killed while 74 were injured in an attack on a road bridge on a busy market day.
Belgrade: Belgrade suffered the most hits during the entire two months of NATO’s aggression. On May 20,1999 at 12:55 am NATO directly hit the “Dragisa Misovic” hospital in the neurological ward, the gynecological ward and the children’s ward for lung diseases were completely destroyed. NATO admitted that one of the laser-guided bombs overshot it’s target by about 1,500 feet. Four patients were killed and several women in labor were wounded. The Chinese Embassy Building also suffered numerous direct hits as well. One half of the building was destroyed. Four Chinese citizens were killed and 20 were injured. On April 23, 1999, around 2 am, the Serbian National Broadcasting Network was destroyed just a few hundred feet from a children’s theater, the City Children Center and the local market. A transmitter used by foreign journalists situated in Belgrade was also destroyed. More than 15 civilian employees of the TV station were killed. A three-year-old girl named Milica Rakic was killed in the NATO attack on Batajnica, a satellite suburb of Belgrade. Her death became a symbol of the meaningless loss of life of innocent civilians in this war. The Administrative Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was hit several times. Several civilians passing by at the time of the attack were killed.
Nis: On May 7, 1999, at least 16 civilians were killed when cluster bombs fell on the town market. 80 civilians were also injured in a repeated attack on housing blocks in central Nis. Cluster bombs are used for the destruction of people and are forbidden by the Geneva Convention.
Savine Vode: OnMay 3, 1999, during a NATO attack, another civilian bus on the route between Djakovica-Podgorica was hit. At least 20 people were killed and 43 injured. There were large numbers of women and children among the victims. During the attack, cluster bombs were used. Several civilian cars were also destroyed. Rescue teams and ambulances were not able to help the victims due to the prolonged attack.
Aleksinac: Five NATO missiles hit Aleksinac, a small mining community on April 6, 1999. 17 civilians were killed, although there is no military infrastructure in the residential area that was bombed. More than 400 homes were destroyed.
Kursumilija: In NATO attacks on Kursumilija, a small town in Southern Serbia, 13 citizens were killed and more than 25 were severely injured.
Novi Pazar: 13 civilians were killed and 35 were wounded in an attack on the residential area in the center of the town during which 25 buildings were completely destroyed.
Nagavac: 11 civilians were killed and 5 wounded in an attack on a rural area.
Pristina: 10 civilians were killed including 7 children during an attack with cluster bombs upon a peaceful rural village.
Murino: 6 civilians including two children were killed and 8 injured in an attack on a village predominately inhabited by Albanians.
Merdare: 5 civilians were killed, including an 11-month-old baby, and several wounded when 8 containers holding, 1,920 cluster bombs were dropped in an attack on the Prokuplje-Pristina road.
Doganavici: 5 Albanian children were killed and two wounded when they came upon an unexploded cluster bomb in a field.
Grijilane: 4 civilians were killed and 19 wounded in an attack in the Argicultural Complex “Mladost” and transport company “Kosmet Prevoz.”
Pancevo: On Saturday May 1, 1999, 3 civilians have been killed and 4 wounded in attacks on commercial and industrial facilities.
Ralija: 3 civilians were killed and 3 injured, two of whom were children, in an attack on the village of Ralija.
Kragujevac: More than 120 workers, who were forming a live shield, were wounded in a deliberate attack on the “Zastava” car factory.
Vranje: 2 civilians were killed and 23 wounded in an attack on central Vranje.
Kraljevo: In an attack upon civilian target in Vitanovac, Varca, and Bogutovac, 14 civilians were killed.
Novi Sad: NATO attacked an oil refinery in Novi Sad more than 10 times. Due to the smoke from burning refineries, normal breathing for the people of Novi Sad is now very difficult. Water from the public water supply is no longer drinkable. As a result of the bombings, one civilian was killed and 45 injured.
Trstenik: In an attack on a bridge, one civilian was killed and 17 injured.
Vladcin Han: 2 civilians were killed and wounded in an attack on a road bridge on the Juzna Morava river.
Village Rodosta: 2 two children were killed and one wounded in a NATO cluster bomb attack on this peaceful village near Orahovac.
Cuprija: One civilian was killed and 14 injured in an attack on the central residential area of the town. Over 800 housing units were demolished during the attacks.
Krk Bunar: One civilian was killed and 3 injured (French philosopher Daniel Schiffer, “Times” reporter Eve-Ann Prentis and “Corriera della Sera”) in an attack on the central residential area of the town. Over 800 housing units were demolished during the attacks.
Mijatovac: 4 Romanian humanitarian workers were wounded in an attack on a bridge near Mijatovac.
Zlatibor: The recreational center on the mountain of Zlatibor was attacked by NATO. As a result, three civilians were killed.
Cacak: A residential area near the factory was also destroyed. Two persons were killed, one of them a 74-year-old woman, and 7 were injured. Urosevac:A residential suburb of Urosevac was demolished in a NATO attack. Several people were killed.
Many of NATO’s targets were in clear violation of the Geneva Convention of 1949, which prohibits bombing that is not justified by clear military necessity. Under the protocols of the convention, if there is any likelihood that the target has a civilian function, bombing is prohibited.4 For instance, in the case of the targeting of bridges that were used primarily by civilians, it is not enough to say that NATO was merely reckless as to the fate of civilians. NATO targeted not just the military apparatus of Yugoslavia, it sought to devastate and did devastate the civilian infrastructure of Yugoslavia. Electricity power stations, water supplies, schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, train tracks, factories, offices and thousands of homes and families were torn apart.
1. Provisional Assessment of Civilian Casualties and Destruction in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from March 24 to June 8, 1999, www.beograd.com.
Origins of images: Facebook, Twitter, Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Flickr, Google, Imageinjection, Public Domain & Pinterest.
Read our Disclaimer/Legal Statement!
Donate to Support Us
We would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging the truth on history, global politics, and international relations.
Read the truth about "Srebrenica Massacre" in 1995.Origins of images: Facebook, Twitter, Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Flickr, Google, Imageinjection, Public Domain & Pinterest.Read our Disclaimer/Legal Statement!Donate to Support UsWe would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging the truth on history, global politics, and international relations.[wpedon id="4696" align="left"]The Al-Qaeda-linked ‘El-Mujahedeen’ brigade of the Bosnian Muslim Army parading in downtown Zenica in central Bosnia in 1995
NATO was always more about offense than defense, about America controlling the policies of Alliance members, increasing their numbers, pressuring them to stress militarism more than they’d chose otherwise – and selling them lots of US weapons.When founded in April 1949, Soviet Russia was a North Atlantic Alliance enemy in name only, ravaged by WW II – needing years after Stalin’s April 1953 death to regain pre-war normality, peace essential to restore it.Washington controls NATO, covering 75% of its budget, calling the shots, installing subservient Alliance officials to serve its agenda.At a time when no US enemies exist, they’re invented ...
Kosovo Muslim Albanian jihad fighters in the Middle East as ISIS members (2016)How accurate is the theory that there are tragic events of exceptional strength that really shape the identity of a nation? How is this happening and what if we do not learn a lesson out of those experiences?– The prominent French writer Renan wrote in his lecture “What is a Nation?” that people are often connected by memories of shared suffering, and Serbs are no exception. Today, when Yugoslavia is no more, there is no reason why Jasenovac should not be brought back to the center of the ...
While the typical narrative of American history positions the United States as a supporter of democracy and opponent of fascism which helped to defeat the Nazis, key figures in Washington also supported dangerous dictators in Italy and Germany in their early days of power.Noam Chomsky, the renowned political philosopher, historian and scholar, examined the flip side of U.S. opposition to dictatorship in a conversation with Zain Raza, a senior editor at the independent media outlet acTVism Munich. An excerpt from the conversation was published Sept. 30 as part of acTVism Munich’s “Reexamining History” series.Speaking to Raza about Italian dictator Benito ...
On February 5, Military Times published a report stating that Washington has failed to publicly disclose potentially thousands of lethal airstrikes conducted over several years in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. The investigation reveals that in Afghanistan in 2016 alone, the U.S. air force carried out at least 456 bombings. The open-source report published by the Air Force Command doesn’t include these figures.According to the Military Times, the information was obtained from “Congress, American allies, military analysts, academic researchers, the media and independent watchdog groups” and it shows that much of what the Pentagon has disclosed may be misleading or simply ...
A good tradition of the British and the West European colonialismOrigins of images: Facebook, Twitter, Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Flickr, Google, Imageinjection, Public Domain & Pinterest.Join the debate on our Twitter feed: @OvsishteRead our Disclaimer/Legal Statement!Donate to Support UsWe would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging the truth on history, global politics and international relations.[wpedon id="4696" align="left"]Belgian Congo
It's no secret that President Trump believes NATO is an anachronism. It's also no secret that French President Emmanuel Macron wants a Grand Army of the EU and a single EU Finance Minister to further integration of the EU into the United States of Europe.He and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have been championing these two things since the day after Macron took office. They are both pushing hard for the EU to conduct independent foreign policy, framing Trump's belligerence as the catalyst for its need now.So, I’m not surprised in the wake of Merkel’s garden summit with Russian President Vladimir ...
“This is an historic opportunity to demonstrate the even-handedness of international justice” – Michael Mandel, law professor, York University, Toronto, Canada, 1999NATO leaders found guilty of war crimes in Yugoslavia “NATO leaders acted in open violation of the Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12th August 1949, and the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8th June 1977 . . .” Dr Will Podmore, The Lancet (June 26th 1999)In the District Court of Belgrade on September 22, 2000, the President of the court, Veroljub Raketic, handed down guilty verdicts against government leaders of NATO countries for ...
RT: Kosovo wants to establish an army and has received several Humvee armoured vehicles from the USA. Although there was official NATO restraint, how much is the establishment of a Kosovo Army a fixed development?Marcus Papadopoulos: Kosovo is, effectively, a NATO protectorate today – and has been ever since Belgrade lost control of this Serbian province in 1999. It follows, therefore, that the illegal entity which is the Republic of Kosovo will begin the process of creating its own armed forces so that, in time, Kosovo will gain entry into NATO.RT: The EU has rejected the introduction of Kosovo sanctions ...
Kosovo is Clinton Country: a 10-foot-high statue of Bill overlooks “Bill Clinton Boulevard” in the capital city of Pristina. Hillary is also memorialized in what has become the crime capital of Europe: right off the street named for her husband is a store named “Hillary,” featuring women’s clothing modeled after the putative Democratic party nominee for President. Pantsuits figure prominently. As Vice puts it: “While former President Bill Clinton has had a boulevard named after him, it’s without a doubt that his wife’s the real star out here.” Why is that?As Gail Sheehy pointed out in her biography of Hillary, ...
Bosnia and Kosovo are two of the biggest exporters of jihadists joining the Islamic State (ISIS) and al-Nusra Front (al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria) from the Balkans. As The Cipher Brief reported last month, legacies of the Communist era and the wars of the 1990s – presence of foreign fighters, economic and physical destruction, a lack of funding to rebuild, and the near eradication of moderate Islamic institutions – paved the way for Islamic extremist groups to establish a foothold in both countries. Now, ISIS recruiters are targeting Bosnia and Kosovo, and many Bosnians and Kosovars have left to fight in Syria and ...
Remember watching ancient Orthodox Christian monasteries in flames in Kosovo dozen times.Old, noble constructions, spiritual and historical testimonies of past times.I also remember that majority of Orthodox Christian monasteries, churches and relics has been attacked and destroyed after NATO forces (officially: KFOR) took full control of the Serbian province.It amazed me to see how Western soldiers, under full equipment and heavy armament, often didn’t make a single move to stop Albanian violence; over 200 000 Serbs had to flee, in order to save their bare lives, bearing whole their lives in few suitcases if they were lucky enough.It turned out ...
As it appears Lithuania expects major changes in the near future. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius was on an official visit to the United States of America from the 20 to the 24 of February 2017. During a visit he said that Lithuania seeks the permanent presence of United States troops in its territory."We have requested stationing of military forces in our country on a more permanent basis - not only rotational but also more permanent," the minister told BNS in the telephone interview from Washington D.C.Linas Linkevicius' call for the permanent presence of United States troops in Lithuania territory ...
On March 23, 2018, the US media published an interview with the newly-appointed National Security Advisor John R. Bolton, where he stated that the only solution for North Korea is complete disarmament – following the example of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi. This scenario is exactly what Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un need to discuss during their negotiations.John R. Bolton is well-known as a hardliner regarding Pyongyang. During his work for the Department of State in the 2000s, he was one of the most furious opponents of any dialogue with North Korea, and more recently he advocated a preventive strike against ...
There was international jubilation when Montenegro seceded from its union with Serbia in 2006 after a controversial referendum. The Referendum Law prevented Montenegrins living and registered in Serbia from voting in the referendum, ensuring that tens of thousands of Montenegrins, in a country of only 622,000, who would have voted to remain the union could not vote in favour of maintaining it.It must be remembered that state-paid workers like teachers and police were told by the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) leader Miodrag Vuković before the referendum May 2006, that someone “cannot work for the state and vote against it,” something objectively ...
The struggle for peace and the struggle for full respect of universal human rights, as defined by UN Declaration on protection of human rights, are interdependent and non-separable. Violations of sovereignty and territorial integrity, military interventions, aggressions and occupations go hand in hand with massive violations of the basic human rights.It is clear that there are no humanitarian military interventions.NATO military aggression against Yugoslavia ( Serbia ) which started March 24rth, 1999 was launched to allegedly protect human rights of Kosovo Albanians. It was carried out in blatant violation of the basic principals of International Law and without approval of ...
Origins of images: Facebook, Twitter, Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Flickr, Google, Imageinjection & Pinterest.Read our Disclaimer/Legal Statement!Donate to Support UsWe would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging the truth on history, global politics and international relations.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has been slammed for mistakenly using a photo taken in Iraq in 2003 to illustrate the Syria 2012 massacre, in which over 100 people, including 32 children, were brutally killed.The picture, taken on March 27, 2003, showed a young Iraqi child jumping over dozens of white body bags containing skeletons found in a desert south of Baghdad.It was posted on the BBC news website under the heading “Syria massacre in Houla condemned as outrage grows”.According to The Telegraph, the caption stated the photograph was provided by an activist and cannot be independently verified, but said ...
The Balkans conflicts of the 1990s saw a massive revival and resurgence of US and Western media propaganda and infowar techniques. The “new” advocacy journalists recalled the “yellow journalism” of William Randolph Hearst, who helped induce the US to engage in the imperialistic or colonial war in Cuba in 1898, the Spanish-American War. This marked the emergence of the US as an expansionist global imperial and colonial power, like Britain, France, Spain, and Germany had been. Hearst was credited with manufacturing or “furnishing” the war in Cuba.Frederic Remington, his correspondent in Cuba, reported that nothing was happening in Cuba, that ...
The New York Times loves NATO, but should you?Judging by comments in social media and the real world, millions of people in the United States have gone from having little or no opinion on NATO, or from opposing NATO as the world’s biggest military force responsible for disastrous wars in places like Afghanistan (for Democrats) or Libya (for Republicans), to believing NATO to be a tremendous force for good in the world.I believe this notion to be propped up by a series of misconceptions that stand in dire need of correction.1. NATO is not a war-legalizing body, quite the opposite. NATO, like the United ...
The NATO forces justified the bombing of civilian targets as either “mistakes” or essential to the destruction of Milosevic and the Yugoslav Army. However, these attacks were not made solely against military targets but against the Yugoslav population as a whole.
Nis: On May 7, 1999, at least 16 civilians were killed when cluster bombs fell on the town market. 80 civilians were also injured in a repeated attack on housing blocks in central Nis. Cluster bombs are used for the destruction of people and are forbidden by the Geneva Convention.
Many of NATO’s targets were in clear violation of the Geneva Convention of 1949, which prohibits bombing that is not justified by clear military necessity. Under the protocols of the convention, if there is any likelihood that the target has a civilian function, bombing is prohibited.4 For instance, in the case of the targeting of bridges that were used primarily by civilians, it is not enough to say that NATO was merely reckless as to the fate of civilians. NATO targeted not just the military apparatus of Yugoslavia, it sought to devastate and did devastate the civilian infrastructure of Yugoslavia. Electricity power stations, water supplies, schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, train tracks, factories, offices and thousands of homes and families were torn apart.
