Serbia seeks answers 25 years after bombing
BELGRADE — Twenty-five years on, people in Serbia are still feeling the pain after NATO’s bombing of the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, while justice has yet to be done in the case of the aggression.
On March 24, 1999, NATO started an aerial bombing campaign against Yugoslavia without the authorization of the United Nations Security Council. During the 78-day bombings, Serbia lost thousands of police officers, soldiers and civilians, and suffered immense damage to its transport and energy infrastructure.
Among NATO’s targets were houses and apartment buildings, schools, hospitals and even kindergartens, while the weapons deployed included missiles containing depleted uranium and cluster bombs.
Three Chinese reporters were killed during bombardments against the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
March 24 is now marked by Serbian people as Remembrance Day for the Victims of NATO Aggression. This year, the ceremony was held at the main square of Prokuplje, a city some 250 kilometers south of Belgrade, in the presence of President Aleksandar Vucic, government officials, police officers, soldiers and thousands of civilians.
Verica Tomanovic, president of the Association of Families of Kidnapped and Missing Persons in Kosovo and Metohija, recalled the arduous journey for hundreds of families. Representing 570 families who are still pining for their loved ones, her life journey over the past 25 years has been an unrelenting quest for truth and justice.
Assurances crumbled
“Every passing day becomes heavier,” Tomanovic said. “The assurances of NATO officials about safety and security crumbled as violence engulfed the region. People were targeted and killed on the streets based on ethnic affiliation.”
Despite promises of protection, her husband Andrija, head of the surgical department in Pristina, became a victim of the conflict, abducted in broad daylight while bystanders, including NATO soldiers, looked on.
She mourns the absence of humanitarian rights in Kosovo and Metohija, where, despite tireless appeals to domestic and international bodies, answers remain beyond reach, “without exhumations, without identification, without accountability”.
At a conference held in Belgrade on the 25th anniversary of the bombing, Serbia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Milos Vucevic said, “It’s evident that on that fateful day, justice was undermined, and fairness was compromised.”
Everything raises the question of whether the aggression that began on March 24, 1999, really ended on June 10 of that year or is still continuing, he added.