REMEMBERING THE 5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE NATO AGGRESSION
March 24, 2004

SERBIAN NEWS AGENCY RECALLS NATO'S AIR CAMPAIGN IN 1999
Tanjug - March 23, 2004

Belgrade, 23 March: On Wednesday (24 March), it will be five years since NATO, the most powerful armed force in the world, launched an aggression on the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY).

This year's commemoration of the onset of the air campaign, explained as an attempt to protect the human rights of Kosovo Albanians, has been marked by an escalation of ethnic Albanian violence over Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija province.

Even senior representatives of the international community these days openly said this latest violence was an act of ethnic cleansing. The immediate cause for the 1999 NATO aggression was a clash between Serbian police and members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) in Racak village on 15 January 1999, when OSCE Kosovo-Metohija observer mission chief William Walker proclaimed the deaths of 45 ethnic Albanians a massacre of innocent civilians, before an official investigation.

Official Serbian representatives, however, claimed that police clashed with ethnic Albanian terrorists in Racak.

A further official reason for the bombing was that a delegation led by Milan Milutinovic, now on trial at the international tribunal in The Hague, failed to accept the conditions of an agreement proposed at talks held in Rambouillet near Paris.

Then secretary-general of NATO Javier Solana made the decision to attack the FRY in the late evening hours of 23 March 1999, and the federal government of Prime Minister Momir Bulatovic the same evening declared a state of immediate threat of war.

The aggression began on 24 March, and the first missiles fell on Pristina at 1945 hrs (1845 gmt), followed by attacks on airports, command points, barracks, military warehouses, radar centres, but civilian targets as well.

The air campaign ended on 9 June 1999, when representatives of the Yugoslav Army and NATO signed a Military Technical Agreement on the withdrawal of the army and police from Kosovo-Metohija.

The NATO secretary-general ordered an end to the air strikes on 10 June, and the United Nations (UN) Security Council adopted Resolution 1244 on the arrival of international peacekeepers in Kosovo, Kfor (Kosovo Force), with the task to establish peace in the southern Serbian province.

About 2000 citizens were killed in the territory of the FRY, including 90 children, in the course of the 78 days of constant air strikes.

Source: Tanjug news agency, Belgrade, in English 1523 gmt 23 Mar 04

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Prayer for innocent victims of NATO's bombing

15:31 BELGRADE , March 24 (Tanjug) - Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Pavle held on Wednesday at the Church of St. Marko a service and prayer for the absolution of sins and resting in peace of all those killed in NATO's bombing and in Kosovo and Metohija "just because they belonged to this people."

At the church service were present a large number of citizens, as well as members of the Serbian government, headed by Premier Vojislav Kostunica.
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NATO's bombing helped Albanian terrorists, Dacic
 
20:30 BELGRADE , March 24 (Tanjug) - Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) main board president Ivica Dacic assessed on Wednesday that in Serbia it had become clear that NATO's bombing, on March 24 1999, was an act against international law and a boost to Albanian separatists and terrorists to realize their goals.

Following last weeks' developments in Kosovo and Metohija "it has also become clear to some in the international communty whom they were helping politically," Dacic said at a news conference.
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NATO's aggression crime against people, state, history, Tadic says

14:22 PRESEVO , March 24 (Tanjug) - Serbia and Montenegro Defence Minister Boris Tadic said on Wednesday in the village of Reljan near Presevo that NATO's aggression on FR Yugoslavia in 1999 was a crime against our people, state and history and that we must never forget the crimes and the victims.

"We want peace for our citizens, but also for our neighbours, a peace based on respect for others, but we will not allow others not to respect us," Tadic said at the commemoration of members of the 78th brigade killed in NATO's aggression.
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