
"...it is more than obvious now that the ruthless destruction of Serbia during the 1999 NATO bombing was carried out with one goal and that is to turn the province of Kosovo-Metohija into the first NATO state in the world..."
The bombing campaign, officially against then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SRJ), was conducted by 19 armies of the Alliance's member states. The sustained attacks lasted for 11 weeks, or 78 days. Germany, France, the U.S. and Italy participated with most soldiers. The bombing was supposed to last 7-10 days and result in a surrender of Serbia, according to a pre-war estimate by General Wesley Clark, then the supreme NATO commander. 36,000 sorties were flown dropping 23,000 bombs and missiles.
Official data shows that 1,002 members of then Yugoslav Army and Serbian MUP were killed, along with around 2,500 civilians, including 89 children. 10,000 people were wounded.
Serbia's infrastructure, commercial buildings, schools, healthcare institutions, media outlets and monuments of culture sustained heavy damage during the war. Estimates differ as to the material damage done to Serbia. The government of that time asked for compensation of damages that it said ran into about USD 100bn. But G17 Plus economists believe the number is at USD 30bn.
The attacks began on March 24, 1999, a little after 20:00 CET, after then NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana gave the order to start the bombing. During the 78 days of this NATO campaign of air strikes, the capital suffered with almost all RTS transmitters destroyed, as was the TV tower on Mt. Avala, the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, the building of the Yugoslav Army General Staff, and, two hours after midnight on April 23, bombs hit the RTS building in central Belgrade, killing 16 employees and inflicting grave injuries on four others. On the fourth day of the war, Serbian AAA downed F117-stealth bomber. NWO techno-wonder wasn't secret any more. After it became evident that there would be no quick surrender of Serbia, NATO started to change its tactics. After 17 NATO aircraft and three rescue helicopters have been destroyed at Tuzla airport, NATO leaders took out their rage on Serb civilians. For three days in a row, NATO aviation targeted Uzice and its vicinity, including the city center. The most important strategic victory for Serbia that the April 18 Tuzla raid represented was that the Bosnian airport was never again used by NATO during the bombing campaign against Serbia. Especially daring were the two Serbian Air Force attacks on NATO aircraft stationed at the Tirana airport in Albania which also took place in April 1999. That's where NATO had positioned a squadron of 12 Apache helicopters that were supposed to provide air support for the "Atlantic Brigade," a ground force that was supposed to attack Serbia from Albania. The Atlantic Brigade consisted of some 6,000 Albanian volunteers from Diaspora, who were trained by American military instructors. Along with the KLA terrorists who operated inside Kosovo, but retreated to Albania, the Atlantic Brigade and the KLA were to occupy take the southern part of Kosovo since the NATO air campaign had not produced the desired results. So altogether, this was a ground force of some 20,000 fighters, including the foreign, mostly American, instructors and special forces. The first air raid in Albania by the Serbian Air Force took place on April 13, when four Serbian warplanes attacked the preparation camp of the Atlantic Brigade near Kamenica in northern Albania. One of the Apaches was destroyed and serious losses inflicted on the Atlantic Brigade troops. This was repeated on May 5, when three Serbian Eagles and two Seagulls attacked the Atlantic Brigade several times within short intervals. But one of the most spectacular actions the Serbian Air Force had undertaken against NATO took place on April 26, when the U.S. Apache air base near Tirana was attacked. In the wake of the two air raids, five Apache helicopters were destroyed. The strategic significance of this attack was that NATO never used the Apache helicopters again for the duration of the war. NATO succeeded in damaging only 13 of the Serbs' 300 battle tanks in Kosovo, despite alliance claims of large-scale destruction of Belgrade's heavy armor. Hundreds of "dummies" managed to fool the NATO dummies into believing they were bombing Serbian tanks and artillery. The Yugoslav Army used well-practiced Russian camouflage techniques which involved placing dummies around the countryside, some of them next to dummy bridges with strips of black plastic sheeting across fields as fake roads to delude NATO bombers into thinking they had a prime target to hit. By all accounts, the bombing was indiscriminate, killing farmers, suburbanites, city dwellers, factory workers, reporters, diplomats, people in cars, busses and trains, hospital patients, the elderly and children.
Aleksinac. Five Nato missiles hit Aleksinac, a small mining community, on April 6. Seventeen civilians, taking shelter in a basement of a house, were all killed. Although there is no military presence in the residential area that was bombed, more than 400 homes were destroyed.
Belgrade. Near midnight on June 1, 14 missiles destroyed a block of houses in a suburb of Belgrade killing 5 and injuring 20.Around 1 a.m. on May 20, Nato cluster bombs hit "Dragisa Misovic" hospital in downtown Belgrade. The neurological ward, the maternity ward, the gynecological ward and the children's ward for lung diseases were destroyed. Nato later admitted that one of the laser guided bombs overshot its target by about 1,500 feet (460 meters). On May 8, Nato airstrikes hit the Chinese Embassy, destroying half of the building. According to the Chinese Government there were about 30 people in the building at the moment of the attack. Four Chinese citizens were killed and at least 20 injured. On Friday, April 23, around 2 a.m., the building of the Serbian National Broadcasting Network was destroyed by Nato air strikes. The building is in the very center of Belgrade, a few hundred feet from a children's theater, St. Marko's Church, the City Childrens Center and the local market. More than 20 civilian employees of the TV station were killed. On April 13, a cluster bomb hit the Veterans Army Hospital in downtown Belgrade, injuring sixteen patients.
On May 5, Nato forces destroyed the Sloboda plant, the largest factory in Cacak. This factory produced domestic appliances and employed 5,000 workers. A residential area near the factory was also destroyed. Two persons were killed, one of them was a 74-year-old woman. Seven were injured.
Cuprija. On June 1, 2 civilians were killed and 9 wounded when Nato bombs destroyed more than 100 houses in the center of this small town.
Djakovica. On April 21 70 civilians died and 20 were injured in a refugee camp near Djakovica, home for more than 500 people evicted from Krajina (Croatia). The houses were completely destroyed. Just four years ago, more than 400,000 civilian Serbs were ethnically cleansed from the Krajina region by the Croatian government of Franjo Tudjman. There were 53 bomb craters at the site.
Grdelica. Nato hit an international train, on regular service from Belgrade to Thessaloniki (Greece), in the vicinity of Leskovac on Monday, April 12. Sixty passengers were killed, including a 10 year-old child. More than 30 passengers were wounded. All casualties were civilians.
Korisa. On the night of May 13, six Nato missiles struck a farm in the rural village of Korisa in Kosovo. In this attack, 87 Kosovo Albanians died.
Throughout May, Nato repeatedly targeted the town of Kraljevo, destroying its school and a hospital clinic. More than 20 civilians have been injured. A message on one of the bomb casings found at Kraljevo read, "Do You Still Want to Be a Serb Now?"
Luzane. May 1, Nato planes attacked a bridge in Luzane (12 miles from Pristina), hitting the bus filled with civilians, mostly old people and children. There were about 70 passengers on the bus. A missile hit the bus directly and split it in two. They attacked again 25 minutes later, when an ambulance vehicle was damaged and one medical doctor was seriously wounded in the head.
On May 7, 1999, 15 people were killed and 70 injured when cluster bombs fell on the town market in Nis.
Novi Sad. Nato attacked an oil refinery in Novi Sad more than 10 times. A thick cloud of benzene-laden smoke hangs over the city and water from the public water supply is no longer drinkable. Several residential areas in the suburbs of Novi Sad were demolished. As of June 1 there are more than 100 seriously wounded civilians in Novi Sad.
Novi PazarOn May 31, six Nato cluster bombs hit a four-storey apartment complex in the center of town killing 23 and injuring 20.
Nato forces have repeadedly hit the power plant in the Pancevo petroleum refinery complex, which supplied electricity and gas. The refinery was attacked on several more occasions. A huge amount of toxic material was spilled into the Danube River, which flows all the way from Germany to the Black Sea.
In the early afternoon hours on April 14, 1999, a convoy of Albanian refugees was bombed four times by Nato planes. The refugees were moving down Prizren-Djakovica road, mostly on foot, or in tractor trailers. At least 75 people were killed, 100 wounded.
Savine Vode. On May 3, , during the Nato attack on Savine Vode a civilian bus on the Djakovica-Podgorica Road was hit. At least 20 persons were killed, 43 were injured (23 suffered serious injuries). There were large numbers of women and children among the victims. Rescue teams and ambulance cars weren't able to help the victims due to the prolonged attack.
Surdulica. On May 30, 20 patients in a sanitarium and retirement home complex where killed when the buildings were destroyed by five Nato missiles.
Varvarin. Nato planes took out a bridge in this central Serbian city, killing 11 people who were crossing in their cars when the missiles hit.
NATO's war against Serbia ended on June 10, when the United Nations adopted the still valid Resolution 1244.
UNHCR data shows that after the arrival of the NATO ground forces in the province, some 230,000 Serbs and Romas fled to central Serbia, escaping ethnic violence against them perpetrated by Kosovo's Albanians.
Numerous incidents that followed against Serbs and other non-Albanians resulted in the kidnapping and murder of some 1,500 people. Albanian sources put this number at 500. Another wave of violence and ethnic cleansing took place on March 17-19, 2004, when 4,000 Serbs were also exiled from their homes.
The "Clinton Doctrine"
"Bomb the civilians and the civilian structures until that country's military can't stand to watch it anymore." (Col. David Hackworth, one of America's most decorated soldiers)
open your eyes
link-civilian deaths in the NATO air campaign
link-operation allied force
link-coverage of the war against serbia
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