BOMBING OF A REFUGEE COLUMN ON THE DJAKOVICA

The first volume of the White Book on NATO aggression against the FR of Yugoslavia was published at the end of May 1999 and covers the period from the start of the aggression on 24 March through 24 April 1999. The second volume provides further information and evidence about the crimes of NATO and its Member States that participated in the aggression against the FR of Yugoslavia in the period from 25 April 1999 until the end of the aggression on 10 June 1999. Although more extensive than the first one, this volume is not complete, either. Not a long interval has passed since the end of the aggression and before the publication of this second volume to allow enough time to collect evidence on all crimes.

Information on the crimes, photographs, witness accounts, forensic reports published in this volume, bear witness to the gravity and character of the crimes. The aggressors used bombs that upon impact charred human bodies within their range. They used these bombs when hitting targets in populated areas, which not only demolished the targets but inflicted damage on entire residential blocks. By dropping cluster bombs on the fields which, lying unexploded, waited for curious children to find them and pay dearly for their curiosity. They did not spare oil refineries and chemical plants causing massive pollution of air, water and soil with perilous consequences. They did not hesitate to use weapons containing depleted uranium which also causes far-reaching and dangerous consequences. The aggressors targeted the entire nation, hitting power supply installations and using the so-called graphite bombs. The aggressors were after civilians. They bombed the railway bridge in the Grdelica gorge on 12 April in broad daylight while an international train was passing through. On 30 May, they bombed a bridge in Varvarin on the river Velika Morava at midday on a religious holiday, even though they knew for sure and saw that civilians were on it. They, for example, targeted this bridge an hour later, knowing that rescue teams were there, trying to help the victims (Belgrade, Novi Sad, Surdulica...). The aim of this bombing was to terrorize and crush the entire Yugoslav nation.

Both volumes of the White Book deal with crimes against civilians, constituting by their nature crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. They do not contain information on the killing of soldiers of the Yugoslav Army or police officers. This does not imply that those deaths are not considered as crimes by us. The criminal nature of these acts stems from the very aggression, which is a crime against peace and surely one of the gravest crimes. If peace figures highest on the scale of the United Nations, then crime against peace is the gravest crime.

The committed crimes cannot be justified at all. Those were premeditated crimes. The aggression against the FR of Yugoslavia had been planned several months in advance. The targets were selected a few months before. Furthermore, by presenting an unacceptable text for the alleged Rambouillet Agreement which implied an occupation of all of the FR of Yugoslavia (Chapters II, V and VII), anti-Serb and anti-Yugoslav propaganda in the most influential media provided the needed excuse for the impending aggression. It is more than obvious today that the true reason for NATO aggression was geo-strategic expansion of NATO interests and those of some of its Member States, i.e. the setting of a precedent for aggression, for the use of force contrary to the Charter of the United Nations and without the authorization of the UN Security Council.