Senior Serbian officials on Thursday commemorated the victims of the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, which started on March 24, 1999 – a day that Defence Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic described as “not only a symbol of our pain, but also a symbol of injustice”.
“It’s an injustice that has been done to our country, and for which no one has yet apologised clearly or loudly enough,” said Stefanovic as he laid a wreath near a memorial at the Jugovicevo army barracks in the city of Novi Sad.
President Aleksandar Vucic also laid a wreath at a monument to soldiers of the Yugoslav Army’s 125th Motorised Brigade in the city of Krusevac, and unveiled a monument to Veljko Radenovic, a deceased Serbian police officer who commanded special units involved in operations during the Kosovo war.
“As a nation and a state, our obligation is to nurture the memory of great people who are owed a debt by Serbia for their actions – some built it, some defended it, and late General Veljko [Radenovic’s nickname] built and defended it,” Vucic said at the ceremony.
Belgrade officials also laid wreaths at a monument to 16 media workers who were killed when NATO bombed Radio-Television Serbia, and at a memorial to three-year-old Milica Rakic and other children killed during the bombing.
The Western military alliance launched 78 days of air strikes in March 1999 to force Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to accept the terms of an agreement to end his military campaign against the Kosovo Liberation Army, which involved widespread ethnic cleansing.
The Serbian government estimates that at least 2,500 people died and 12,500 were injured during the NATO campaign, although the exact death toll remains unclear. Humanitarian Law Centre data says 756 people in total died during the air strikes.
The air strikes ended on June 10, 1999 after Milosevic agreed to withdraw his forces from Kosovo.
In Kosovo, retired US General Wesley Clark, who led the NATO operation in 1999 as Supreme Allied Commander, addressed parliament with a video message, saying that March 24 was a day that “changed the history of Kosovo and of Europe”.
“For me, it was an honour of a lifetime to be able to be NATO Commander and to help stop ethnic cleansing,” Clark said.
“Twenty-three years ago, NATO did the right thing. We did the right thing for the people of Kosovo, we did the right thing for NATO, we did the right thing for the world,” he added.
Prime Minister Albin Kurti said that the NATO military intervention was “rightful and necessary”.
“In the 1990s, Albanians [in Kosovo] were ending a decade of terror and discrimination by Serbia’s state installed apparatus,” Kurti said.
In a video address to the nation, President Vjosa Osmani said that “everyone’s fates and lives took a turn towards hope” on March 24, 1999./Balkaninsight
