Kako je ratno vazduhoplovstvo Jugoslavije iznenadilo NATO snage na Tuzlanskom i Tiranskom aerodromu i nanelo im ozbiljne gubitke. O napadima naše avijacije 1999 godine u vreme NATO agresije na aerodrome u Tuzli i Tirani NATO nije izustio ni jednu reč. Krije se to, jer kako bi takva sila priznala da su joj neki srpski piloti očitali lekciju iz taktike i veštine letenja nanevši joj pri tom i značajne gubitke. Posebno poražavajuće po NATO zvuči činjenica da su srpski avioni izvodili takve borbene letove dok su im iznad glava bili silni Avaksi i jata tehnički znatno superiornijih NATO aviona...
Voice of Russia
March 23, 2007
IRAQ AND KOSOVO: SYMBOLS AND COINCIDENCES
It looks like timing political decisions for
anniversaries is very much becoming a tradition in the
West.
March has been no exception either, with Saddam
Hussein’s onetime second in command, Taha Yassin
Ramadan, hanged in the early hours of March 20,
exactly four years after the start of the US-led
invasion of Iraq.
The low-key execution brought back memories of a
similar hanging of Saddam Hussein who was hastily put
to death right before the onset of the new year 2007.
The symbolism of these two acts is really hard to
ignore.
The biggest hit, however, at least from the Western
point of view, could be a resolution on Kosovo to seal
the region’s de jure independence from Serbia.
It’s well worth mentioning the fact here that the
approval of the controversial resolution has been
timed for March 24, which is exactly the day when,
eight years ago, NATO planes started bombing
Yugoslavia as if to defend the Kosovo Albanians.
It is already clear, however, that this hit will die
before it’s born: Russia’s ambassador to the United
Nations has made it perfectly clear that under no
circumstances will he vote for the proposed draft.
Meaning that this time round the world will be spared
another strange coincidence.
There was someone in recent European history who, too,
had a predilection for timing his actions for specific
dates and was very fond of March to boot.
As you might have already guessed, this man was Adolf
Hitler, a very superstitious type who even had his
personal astrologer to consult with. The Fuehrer was
also a sucker for other symbols and coincidences.
The Beerhall Putsch of November 9, 1923 was timed for
the fifth anniversary of the end of WWI and the
ensuing revolution in Germany.
The outbreak of WW2 fell on the first day of the fall
and the German troops crossed the Soviet border on the
day of the summer solstice of June 22, 1941.
Moreover, France’s formal surrender in 1940 was signed
in the very railway car where representatives of the
German high command inked their country’s capitulation
in 1918…
March bore witness to all of Adolf Hitler’s main
actions leading up to the Second World War.
On March 7, 1936, in violation of the terms of the
1919 Versailles peace treaty, the Fuehrer sent his
troops marching into Rhineland which quickly became
part of the Third Reich.
On March 11, 1938, in another breach of the Versailles
accords, Hitler annexed his native Austria, and on
March 15, 1939 the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia
which, unlike the previous two invasions, was an act
of direct aggression because the Czechs had no desire
to become part of the Third Reich.
All this will hardly make happy the admirers of
glorious dates in Washington and Brussels because
tying up far-going political decisions to memorable
dates often ends in a flop, just like it happened in
Iraq and Kosovo.
Maybe because the ancient Romans venerated Mars as the
god of war and the month of March, named after this
belligerent deity, has since been seen by astrologers
as the start of bloody wars....The problem is,
however, that oftentimes the stars and history may be
of no help.
(ANSA) - BELGRADO, 16 MAR - E' morto d'infarto al trentanovesimo giorno dichiarato di sciopero della fame un cittadino serbo impegnato in una forma di protesta estrema per denunciare la mancata promessa di un alloggio nuovo alla sua famiglia in sostituzione della casa distrutta fin dai raid Nato del 1999. Lo scrive oggi il tabloid belgradese Kurir. Protagonista della tragedia, Milovoje Stamenkovic, 60 anni, originario della citta' di Nis (sud del Paese ex jugoslavo). L'uomo, senza casa da ormai otto anni, aveva cercato in tutti i modi di ottenere un nuovo alloggio definitivo, ma non era venuto a capo di nulla malgrado le ripetute promesse delle autorita'. Alla fine ha deciso di portare il suo caso all'attenzione dei media con l'arma dello sciopero della fame, senonche', dopo oltre un mese di privazioni, il suo cuore ha ceduto. Secondo i dati riportati dalla stampa, la gran maggioranza dei serbi rimasti privi di un tetto in seguito ai bombardamenti del 1999 - concentrati soprattutto nel sud - e' costretta tuttora ad arrangiarsi in modo precario. L'intervento militare dei Paesi Nato contro la Serbia - risoltosi in due mesi e mezzo di bombardamenti pressoche' ininterrotti - fu giustificato dall'Occidente con la volonta' di fermare la politica repressiva adottata dell'allora regime serbo-jugoslavo di Slobodan Milosevic per fronteggiare la guerriglia separatista nella provincia del Kosovo.(ANSA). LR
16/03/2007 18:07
http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=9084&cid=45&p=24.03.2007
Voice of Russia
March 24, 2007
The eighth anniversary of NATO bombings of Yugoslavia
Exactly eight years ago today NATO planes started
raining bombs and missiles on the Federal Yugoslavia
at the start of a 78-day campaign which killed an
estimated 3,000 civilians and nearly a thousand
soldiers of the Yugoslav army.
The material damage is estimated at between 50 billion
and 100 billion dollars.
Participants in the Forum for Peace and Equality that
was held in Belgrade on Friday proposed setting up a
special center to collect documented information about
the US-led aggression.
They also asked the Serbian government to file an
official report on the consequences of the use by NATO
of depleted uranium artillery shells and bombs during
the 1999 campaign.
---
http://www.srbija.sr.gov.yu/vesti/vest.php?id=32690
Government of Serbia
March 24, 2007
Memorial service held for victims of NATO bombing
Belgrade – Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica
attended today the memorial service for victims of
NATO bombardment against the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia in 1999, which was held in the St. Marko
Church in Belgrade.
The commemoration was served by Bishop Atanasije of
Hvostan, and besides Kostunica, ministers in the
Serbian government and friends and families of those
killed in the 1999 bombing were also present.
On this day eight years ago the military action
against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia by NATO
began, after which an international protectorate was
established in the Serbian province of
Kosovo-Metohija.
During the 78 days long action of air strikes titled
“Merciful Angel” 1,002 members of the Yugoslav Army
and the Serbian police lost their lives; it claimed
the lives of nearly 2,500 civilians, including 89
children and some 10,000 people were left injured and
hurt.
The air campaign consisted of some 2,300 air strikes
on 995 targets throughout the country. 1,150 NATO
fighter planes launched nearly 1,300 cruise missiles
and dropped 2,900 bombs on not just military but also
civilian targets.
Combined with most deadly weapons, NATO also used
banned weapons against Yugoslavia, dropping 36,000
cluster bombs and 15 tonnes of ammunition with traces
of radioactive elements, which were used for
bombarding 112 locations.
Besides military targets, two convoys of refugees in
Kosovo-Metohija, the Varvarin Bridge, a train in the
Grdelica gorge, and a market place in Nis were also
bombed.
The Dr Dragisa Misovic hospital and the Chinese
embassy in Belgrade were also hit, leaving several
innocent civilians dead.
Targets in Belgrade also included the building of the
state television Radio-Television of Serbia (RTS)
where 16 workers were killed and four were severely
wounded.
Wreaths were laid and candles were lit on the monument
for victims of the bombing on the anniversary of the
NATO military action.
---
[ Minor English editing and a couple of clarifications cf. on geography of
the referred to locations are given in brackets. -- PT ]
www.glas-javnosti.co.yu
Glas Javnosti daily, Belgrade
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Today is the eight-year anniversary of the beginning of the bombing of the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Suffering and deaths must not be forgotten
Abstract:
During 78 days of air strikes approximately 2,500 people died, including
557 civilians, while some 12,500 were wounded. The administration at that
time estimated that material damage of 100 billion dollars was done
On today's date eight years ago NATO began the bombing of the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia because, as then NATO secretary-general Javier
Solana explained, "all efforts to achieve a political solution through
negotiations of the Kosovo crisis have failed".
During [the] 78 days of air strikes approximately 2,500 people died,
including 557 civilians, while some 12,500 were wounded. Various
[pieces of] information have been presented regarding [the] material
damage. The administration at that time estimated that material damage of
100 billion dollars was done, while G17, then a group of independent
economists, assessed the damage at 29.6 billion dollars. The NATO
aggression against Yugoslavia [FRY, later renamed into Serbia-Motenegro]
lasted 11 continuous weeks during which [the country's] infrastructure,
[as well as many] commercial buildings, schools, health institutions,
media houses and cultural monuments were damaged or destroyed.
After unsuccessful negotiations regarding a proposed peace agreement in
Rambouillet near Paris conducted from February 6 to March 19 [1999] by the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Kosovo Albanians, and the collapse
of negotiations between the FRY president Slobodan Milosevic with U.S.
special envoy Richard Holbrooke, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on
March 23 made the decision to bomb FRY.
Then NATO secretary-general Javier Solana who after the meeting of the
NATO Council issued an order for the initiation of the campaign 'Merciful
Angel' accused the government in Belgrade for the collapse of negotiations
and emphasized that actions would be directed toward "interruption of
violent attacks being carried out by the Serbian Army and special police
forces and the reduction of their capabilities" .
Attacks began on March 24, 1999 just before 8:00 p.m. The Yugoslav
government soon proclaimed a state of war, and on the first night more
than 50 buildings in various parts of the country were targeted, including
in Pristina, Kursumlija, Uzice, Danilovgrad, Novi Sad, Pancevo, Podgorica,
Kraljevo, Kragujevac...
According to communique by the Yugoslav Army General Staff, during the
first night 10 soldiers were killed and 38 were wounded. As the bombing
continued, attacks increased in frequency and became more fierce, and the
targets of the bombers were no longer just military but also civilian
ones.
In addition to air combat in Kosovo and Metohija all 78 days there were
ongoing battles between the Yugoslav Army and the Kosovo Liberation Army,
which received logistical and military support from NATO. The Alliance
carried out attacks from ships in the Adriatic, from four air force bases
in Italy, and some operations involved strategic bombers who took off from
bases in western Europe and even the U.S.A.
By April 1 one of the symbols of Novi Sad, the Varadin Bridge, had been
destroyed; two days later the Liberty Bridge was also destroyed, while the
most resilient, the Zezelj Bridge, long resisted the bombs but also ended
up in the Danube at the end of April. In Kursumlija on April 2, 13
civilians died and 25 were wounded, and in the bombing of Aleksinac on
April 5, 13 died and more than 50 people were wounded.
Cuprija was bombed on April 8 and on that occasion a settlement of about
800 buildings was destroyed. The next day in an attack on the Kragujevac
factory "Zastava" 124 workers were injured. The Grdelica Bridge was bombed
on April 12 at the very moment a train was crossing the bridge: 14
passengers were killed and more than 20 sustained serious injuries. On
April 14 NATO planes bombed two columns of [Kosovo ethnic] Albanian
refugees on the road from Djakovica to Prizren [in southern Kosovo],
killing 75 and wounding more than 100 civilians.
During the bombing of Batajnica [suburb of Belgrade] on April 17, a single
projectile killed three-year old Milica Rakic in her home. In an attack on
Nis on April 19 one civilian was killed and 11 were seriously wounded. A
settlement of refugees from Krajina [the region in today's Croatia that
used to be overwhelmingly populated by ethnic Serbs] located near
Djakovica was also hit: five people were killed and 19 wounded, and the
settlement burned to the ground.
On the thirtieth day of the bombing, April 22, two missiles hit the
residence of FRY president Slobodan Milosevic in Uzicka Street number 15.
The next day at 2:00 a.m. the Radio Television Serbia building in
Aberdareva Street in Belgrade was hit. On that occasion 16 workers died
and four were seriously wounded. After this tragedy then RTS director
Dragoljub Milanovic was later sentenced to a 10 year prison term for
refusing the carry out orders to remove personnel and technology from the
television building.
In the attack on Surdulica on April 27 20 civilians died, including 11
children, and 200 people were wounded. Belgrade survived the fiercest
attack on April 30 when the building of the Yugoslav Army General Staff
and the old building of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs were hit,
the television tower on Mt. Avala was toppled and several private
buildings in the Vracar quarter destroyed. Three people died and 38 were
wounded. In the village of Murino na Limu five people were killed, and
another person later died from sustained injuries.
In the village of Luzane near Pristina on May 1 40 died and 16 passengers
of a bus bombed by NATO aviation were wounded. Two days later another bus
was targeted with a missile on the Pec - Kula - Rozaje road. Twenty
passengers died, many of them children, and 43 people sustained some
degree of injury.
On May 7 NATO bombed the embassy of the People's Republic of china in New
Belgrade "by mistake", it later explained. Three Chinese citizens were
killed and seven seriously wounded. The same night the Hotel Yugoslavia
was targeted with missiles.
The Cacak industrial zone was bombed on May 10. Four people were killed,
and 13 were wounded. The next day in attack on the Sever industrial zone
in Nis two people were killed, and two high school students in the center
of Vladicin Han. Another column of Albanian refugees was bombed on March
13 near the village of Koris near Prizren. Eighty-one people were killed
and more than 70 wounded.
The penitentiary-rehabilitation center in Istok was bombed the first time
on May 19 and at that time three prisoners were killed and six wounded. In
a second attack two days later 93 prisoners and guards were killed, and
some 200 people were wounded. The following day the Clinical Medical
Center Dr. Dragisa Misovic in Dedinje was hit: three patients and a guard
were killed, and a large number of patients and personnel were wounded.
In an attack on Aleksinac on May 28 three civilians were killed and about
20 were wounded. During the bombing of the bridge on the Velika Morava in
Varvarin on May 30 10 people were killed and more than 40 were seriously
wounded. Surdulica was bombed again on May 31 and on that occasion the
Health Center for Lung Diseases and the Home for the Elderly were hit.
Twenty died and 40 were wounded.
The center of Novi Pazar was bombed on June 1. In a housing building that
was hit 13 people died and 35 were wounded. The last missiles fired at the
FRY were fired on June 9 at 7:30 p.m. near Urosevac, and the next day at
about 1:00 p.m. at the village of Kololec in Kosovska Kamenica
municipality.
The bombing of Yugoslavia ended on June 10 with the adoption of UN Security
Council Resolution 1244. The previous day representatives of the Yugoslav
Army and NATO signed the Military-Technical Agreement in Kosovo detailing
the withdrawal of Yugoslav Army forces from Kosovo and Metohija and the
deployment of international military troops in the province.
Sinisa Dedeic
=== 7 ===
IN MEMORIAM
Instead of a requiem to the innocent victims, and in order to prepare
in following three months actions of warning of humanity facing the
challenge of NATO industry of murder, here is a calendar of main crimes
only.
Remember that 80% of all NATO targets were civilian.
CALENDAR OF NATO RAIDS AGAINST FR OF YUGOSLAVIA IN 1999
24TH March NATO aggression commences
25th March Leskovac - air raid to "Zdr avlje" Chemical industries
27th March Pancevo - heavily damaged Aeroplanes Factory "Lola-Utva"
28th March Cacak - heavily damaged Factory "Sloboda"
1st April Novi Sad - destroyed "Varadinski bridge"
3rd April Novi Sad - destroyed bridge "Freedom"
4th April Novi Belgrade - Heating plant hit, one person killed
Pancevo - raid on Oil refinery, two persons killed
5th April Vranje - town attacked, two persons killed
Aleksinac - town centre attacked, seven civilians killed
Nis - heavily damaged Tobacco Factory DIN
Lucani - damaged Chemical Industry "Milan Blagojevic"
7th April Belgrade - missile attack, heavily damaged building of the
Government of Serbia
8th April Cuprija - attack on the town, one person killed
Tornik - attack on the Sports centre "Cigota", three civilians killed
9th April Kragujevac - heavily damaged Industries "Crvena zastava"
11th April Merdare - five civilians killed in a missile attack
12th April Grdelica Gorge - attack on the international train Belgrade -
Salonika, twenty passengers killed
14th April Pavlovac (Vranje) - missile attack, one person killed
Pancevo - heavily damaged Chemical Factories "Petrohemija" and
"Azotara"
Valjevo - damaged structures at "Krusik" Factory
15th April Rakovica - by missile attack damaged factories "Rekord", DMB,
IMR, "Minel"
Krusevac - damaged factory "14. October"
Smederevo - destroyed bridge Smederevo-Kovin
Nova Varos - destroyed bridge "Bistrica"
17th April Batajnica - in a missile attack killed four-years old girl
Milica Rakic
Baric - in a missile attack damaged Factory "Prva iskra"
18th April Novi Sad - damaged building of the Provincial Executive
Council
19th April Nis - attack on the city, one person killed
21st April Belgrade - heavily damaged building of the Head Committee of
the Socialist Party of Serbia
22nd April Belgrade - in an attack heavily damaged official residence of
the President of FR of Yugoslavia
Uzice - destroyed building of the Post &Telecommunications
23rd April Belgrade - attack on Serbia Broadcasting Corporation (RTS),
17 civilians killed
25th April Novi Sad - destroyed "Zezelj Bridge"
27th April Surdulica - missile attack on a housing area, ten civilians
killed
29th April Belgrade - in the missile attack heavily damaged buildings of
: Interior Ministry, Foreign Affairs Ministry, Ministry of Defence and
General Staff, Government of the Republic of Serbia
30th April Belgrade - attack on housing buildings in the Maxim Gorki
and Vardarska Streets, one person killed
Trstenik - missile attack, on person killed
2nd May Sremska Mitrovica - missile attack on the town, one civilian
killed
7th May Nis - attack on the city centre , fourteen civilians killed
Novi Belgrade - attack on the building of the Embassy of China
Novi Belgrade - attack on Hotel "Yugoslavia", four persons killed
10th May Cacak - attack on the company "Cer", four persons killed
11th May Nis - missile attack, one person killed
Doljevac - missile attack, one person killed
17th May Zajecar - attack on Yugopetrol warehouses, one person killed
18th May Valjevo - missile attack, one person killed
Vladicin Han - missile attack, one person killed
20th May Belgrade - missile attack to Medical centre "Dragisa Misovic',
four persons killed
21st May Sombor - missile attack on town, four civilians killed
25th May Sabac - missile attack, one person killed
26th May Ralja, Belgrade - missile attack, three persons killed
27th May Cekavicki most, Lebane - two persons killed
28th May Aleksinac - missile attack to the town centre, two killed
29th May Cerovacki most, Leskovac - one person killed
30th May Varvarin - nine civilians killed when a bridge attacked
Novi Sad - missile attack, completely destroyed Serbian Broadcasting
Corporation building
Nis - missile attack, two killed
31st May Belgrade, Ripanj - one person killed
Obrenovac - one person killed in the attack
Novi Pazar - missile attack, eleven persons killed
Surdilica - thirteen persons killed
7th June Boljevac - thirteen persons killed
8th June Novi Sad - missile attack, one person killed