Views: 4,200
The politics of the modern West is thoroughly saturated double standards. They remember tolerance and the inadmissibility of attacks on the territorial integrity of states only in cases where it affects their tactical and strategic interests.
At the same time, they themselves have repeatedly crossed the line of unacceptable actions towards entire countries and peoples. The world community should never forget about the events that took place between March and June 1999 in the territory former Yugoslavia. It was then that the North Atlantic Alliance carried out combat operation « Allied force", which claimed the lives and destroyed the lives of many thousands of civilians. Not only military facilities, but also civilian infrastructure were hit by NATO air strikes. Only by official information the number of civilians killed by the United States and the European Union amounted to more than 1.7 thousand people. Their number included at least 400 children. Another 10 thousand people were seriously injured, and about 1 thousand people simply went missing. The monstrosity of this military operation is aggravated by the fact that a large number of NATO bombings claimed lives after they were completed. In the tolerant European Union, they try not to particularly remember what ammunition was used in the inhumane Operation Allied Force. They included in their composition depleted radioactive uranium. This had a detrimental effect on the health of many of those people who were lucky enough to survive NATO bombing. However, after the end of hostilities and before today the main culprits were never punished for bombing of Yugoslavia.
The reason for the start of NATO bombing
Western politicians They justified this operation with the term “humanitarian intervention.” However, such “explanations” are a cynical substitution of the true reasons for their actions in the eyes of the world community. The war in Yugoslavia was started even without a permitting mandate from the United Nations. It will never be considered legal and represents real example military aggression NATO countries against a sovereign state. The formal reason for the bombing of Yugoslavia was the wave of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. As you know, the territory of the former socialist Yugoslavia repeated its fate Soviet Union and by that time already represented separate allied states. Western countries have largely contributed to the outbreak of new ethnic conflicts and civil wars on the Balkan Peninsula. Washington chose Kosovo Albanians as “heroes”. This region territorially and politically belonged to the then existing Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. However, back in 1996, the movement of Albanian separatists, secretly supported by American intelligence services, intensified here. In February 1998, the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army declared a “struggle for independence.” The war in Yugoslavia began with armed acts of violence not only against the state police, but also against Serbian civilians. Were real victims. Official Belgrade was forced to respond to this with an internal force operation aimed at eliminating bandit formations from among the Kosovars. During this operation, one of the separatist leaders A. Yashari was killed. However, 82 Albanian residents of a village in central Kosovo, where internal violence took place, were injured. fighting. Western leaders immediately took advantage of this opportunity and began to put pressure on Belgrade. A temporary truce between the parties within the country did not bring results. After another clash between Belgrade forces and Albanian separatists, scenes of Albanians allegedly executed by FRY forces were falsified, and a NATO operation began.
The true reasons for NATO aggression in Yugoslavia
Some researchers drew attention to some coincidence between the beginning of NATO aggression against the FRY and internal political events in USA. We remind readers that at that moment there was a scandal related to an intimate relationship American President Clinton with Monica Lewinsky. American leaders always knew how to use foreign policy to solve personal problematic issues. However, in in this case the West's goals were much more ambitious. Barbaric NATO bombings in Federal Yugoslavia became a tool to achieve the following goals:
- a change of leadership in the lands of Serbia and Montenegro with the subsequent reorientation of the most pro-Russian part of the former Yugoslavia towards the West;
- state division of Serbia and Montenegro along with the transformation of Kosovo into a separate state;
- liquidation of the army of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia;
- free deployment and consolidation of NATO forces on the Balkan Peninsula and, in particular, in Serbia and Kosovo;
- trial military power North Atlantic Alliance in real combat conditions. Destruction of old weapons and testing of new types of weapons;
- demonstrating to the whole world the significant role of NATO in supposedly resolving ethnic conflicts.
Notably, the United Nations has been tracking general situation on the territory of the FRY. However, the UN did not impose any sanctions in response to the open intervention of NATO countries in Yugoslavia. Why? Why war in Yugoslavia went unpunished? The UN resolution, which condemned the actions of the North Atlantic Alliance, received only 3 votes in the Security Council. Only the Russian Federation, China and Namibia dared to openly condemn the actions of Washington and NATO. There has been some criticism of NATO in the West. A number of independent media tried to focus the attention of the world community on the fact that aggressive actions the North Atlantic Alliance without the appropriate sanction of the UN Security Council are a direct violation of the Charter of the United Nations and all canons international law. However, by and large, the West has not yet heard an official Objective assessment this criminal military operation.
Consequences of the barbaric bombing of Yugoslavia
The most terrible “result” of NATO aggression in the FRY is the death of at least 1.7 thousand civilians, as well as thousands of wounded and missing. If we talk about economic damage, the losses are more than significant. As a result of the war in Yugoslavia, all the most important objects the civil infrastructure in place at that time. National oil refineries, bridges, power supply centers and major enterprises came under deadly shells from the North Atlantic Alliance forces. More than 500 thousand people were left without work and means of subsistence. A huge number of citizens lost their homes. According to the calculations of the future Serbian authorities, the war in Yugoslavia brought economic damage equivalent to 20 billion US dollars.
Such a barbaric action could not pass without a trace from an environmental point of view. Targeted bombing of refineries contributed to the release of sending substances into the atmosphere. This is about hydrochloric acid, toxic alkalis and chlorine compounds. Spilled oil entered the waters of the Danube. This led to the poisoning of not only the territories of modern Serbia, but also the countries that were located downstream of the largest European river. The use of ammunition containing depleted uranium has provoked outbreaks of cancer and hereditary diseases. The NATO operation has killed thousands of people, and hundreds of thousands are feeling the consequences terrible tragedy and in our time.
War crime by the United States and European Union should not be forgotten by humanity. After such operations, statements by NATO leaders that the military bloc ensures “peace in Europe” sound doubly cynical. Only thanks to meaningful policies Russian Federation, at present there is a certain parity of forces that does not allow the West to repeat this in any of the countries they dislike. They still continue to arrange " democratic revolutions"and pit each other against each other fraternal peoples. However, this will not last forever. The world is on the brink of radical change. And I want to believe that he will no longer allow death and destruction from the bombing of “humanitarian rescuers” from the NATO bloc.
NATO's military operation in Yugoslavia in 1999 was the consequence of a decade of civil wars across the Balkan Peninsula. After the unified socialist state collapsed, previously frozen ethnic conflicts flared up in the region. Kosovo became one of the main centers of tension. This region remained under Serbian control, although mostly Albanians lived here.
Prerequisites
The mutual hostility of the two peoples was aggravated by chaos and anarchy in neighboring Bosnia and Croatia, as well as various religious affiliation. Serbs are Orthodox, Albanians are Muslims. The bombing of Yugoslavia began due to ethnic cleansing carried out by the secret services of this country. They were a response to the speeches of Albanian separatists who wanted to make Kosovo independent from Belgrade and annex it to Albania.
This movement was formed in 1996. The separatists created the Kosovo Liberation Army. Its militants began to organize attacks on Yugoslav police and other representatives central government in the province. The international community was outraged when the army attacked several Albanian villages in response to the attacks. More than 80 people died.
Albanian-Serb conflict
Despite the negative international reaction, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic continued to pursue his tough policy against the separatists. In September 1998, the UN adopted a resolution calling on all parties to the conflict to lay down their arms. At this time, NATO was demonstratively preparing to bomb Yugoslavia. Under this double pressure, Milosevic retreated. Troops were withdrawn from peaceful villages. They returned to their bases. Formally, the truce was signed on October 15, 1998.
However, it soon became clear that the hostility was too deep and strong to be stopped by declarations and documents. The truce was periodically violated by both Albanians and Yugoslavs. In January 1999, a massacre occurred in the village of Rachak. Yugoslav police executed more than 40 people. The country's authorities later claimed that those Albanians were killed in battle. One way or another, it was this event that became the final reason for preparing the operation, which resulted in the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.
What prompted the US authorities to initiate these attacks? Formally, NATO struck Yugoslavia to force the country's leadership to stop its punitive policy against the Albanians. But it should also be noted that at that time a domestic political scandal broke out in the United States, because of which President Bill Clinton was threatened with impeachment and deprivation of office. In such conditions, “small victorious war" would be an excellent maneuver to divert public opinion to unrelated foreign issues.
On the eve of the operation
The last peace talks failed in March. After their completion, the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia began. Russia, whose leadership supported Milosevic, also took part in these negotiations. Great Britain and the United States have proposed a project providing for the creation of broad autonomy in Kosovo. Wherein future status The region was to be determined according to the results of the general vote in a few years. It was assumed that until that moment NATO peacekeeping forces would be in Kosovo, and the forces of the Yugoslav Ministry of Internal Affairs and the army would leave the region in order to avoid unnecessary tension. Albanians accepted this project.
This was the last chance that the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia would not have happened after all. However, Belgrade's representatives at the negotiations refused to accept the conditions put forward. Most of all, they did not like the idea of NATO troops appearing in Kosovo. At the same time, the Yugoslavs agreed to the rest of the project. Negotiations broke down. On March 23, NATO decided that it was time to start bombing Yugoslavia (1999). The end date of the operation (it was believed in the North Atlantic Alliance) was to come only when Belgrade agreed to accept the entire project.
The negotiations were closely followed at the UN. The Organization never gave the go-ahead for the bombing. Moreover, soon after the start of the operation, a vote was held in the Security Council at which it was proposed to recognize the United States as the aggressor. This resolution was supported only by Russia and Namibia. Both then and today, the lack of UN permission for the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia (1999) is considered by some researchers and ordinary people to be evidence that the US leadership grossly violated international law.
NATO forces
NATO's intensive 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia was a major part of the military's Operation Allied Force. Air raids targeted strategic civilian and military targets located on Serbian territory. Sometimes residential areas suffered, including in the capital Belgrade.
Since the bombing of Yugoslavia (1999), photos of the results of which spread all over the world, was an allied action, in addition to the United States, 13 more states took part in them. In total, about 1,200 aircraft were used. In addition to aviation, NATO also involved naval forces - aircraft carriers, attack submarines, cruisers, destroyers, frigates and large landing ships. 60 thousand NATO troops took part in the operation.
The bombing of Yugoslavia continued for 78 days (1999). Photos of the victims were widely circulated in the press. In total, the country experienced 35 thousand NATO air strikes, and about 23 thousand missiles and bombs were dropped on its soil.
Start of operation
On March 24, 1999, NATO aircraft began the first stage of the bombing of Yugoslavia (1999). The start date of the operation was agreed upon by the allies in advance. As soon as the Milosevic government refused to withdraw troops from Kosovo, NATO planes were brought into combat readiness. The first to come under attack was the Yugoslav air defense system. Within three days she was completely paralyzed. Thanks to this, Allied aircraft gained unconditional air superiority. Serbian planes hardly left their hangars; only a few sorties were carried out during the entire conflict.
Losses
After the operation in Belgrade, they began to count the losses that the bombing of Yugoslavia (1999) entailed. The country's economic losses were significant. Serbian estimates spoke of 20 billion dollars. Important civilian infrastructure was damaged. Bridges, oil refineries, large industrial facilities, and power generation units were hit by shells. After this, 500 thousand people were left unemployed in Serbia during peacetime.
Already in the first days of the operation, it became known about the inevitable casualties among civilian population. According to Yugoslav authorities, more than 1,700 civilians were killed in the country. 10 thousand people were seriously injured, many thousands more lost their homes, and a million Serbs were left without water. More than 500 soldiers died in the ranks of the Yugoslav armed forces. Mostly they came under attack from the intensified Albanian separatists.
Serbian aviation was paralyzed. NATO maintained total air superiority throughout the operation. Most of the Yugoslav aircraft were not yet destroyed on the ground (more than 70 aircraft). NATO suffered two casualties during the campaign. They were the crew of a helicopter that crashed during a test flight over Albania. Yugoslav air defenses shot down two enemy aircraft, while their pilots ejected and were later picked up by rescuers. The remains of the crashed plane are now kept in the museum. When Belgrade agreed to concessions and admitted defeat, it became clear that the war could now be won if we used only aviation and a bombing strategy.
Environmental pollution
Environmental disaster is another large-scale consequence that resulted from the bombing of Yugoslavia (1999). The victims of that operation were not only those who died under shells, but also people who suffered from air poisoning. Aviation diligently bombed important economic point view of petrochemical plants. After such an attack in Pancevo, dangerous toxic substances were released into the atmosphere. These were compounds of chlorine, hydrochloric acid, alkali, etc.
Oil from the destroyed reservoirs entered the Danube, which led to the poisoning of the territory not only of Serbia, but also of all countries downstream. Another precedent was the use of NATO armed forces. Later, outbreaks of hereditary and oncological diseases were recorded in places where they were used.
Political consequences
Every day the situation in Yugoslavia became worse. Under these conditions, Slobodan Milosevic agreed to accept the conflict resolution plan, which was proposed by NATO even before the bombing began. The cornerstone of these agreements was the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops from Kosovo. All this time, the American side insisted on its own. Representatives of the North Atlantic Alliance stated that only after concessions from Belgrade would the bombing of Yugoslavia stop (1999).
UN Resolution No. 1244, adopted on June 10, finally established new order in the region. The international community emphasized that it recognizes the sovereignty of Yugoslavia. Kosovo, which remained part of this state, received broad autonomy. The Albanian army had to disarm. An international peacekeeping contingent appeared in Kosovo, which began to monitor the provision of public order and security.
According to the agreements, the Yugoslav army left Kosovo on June 20. The region, which received real self-government, began to gradually recover after a long civil war. NATO recognized their operation as a success - this is precisely why the bombing of Yugoslavia began (1999). Ethnic cleansing stopped, although mutual hostility between the two peoples remained. Over the following years, Serbs began to leave Kosovo en masse. In February 2008, the leadership of the region declared its independence from Serbia (Yugoslavia had completely disappeared from the map of Europe several years before). Today, Kosovo's sovereignty is recognized by 108 states. Russia, which traditionally adheres to pro-Serbian positions, considers the region to be part of Serbia.
Views: 4,201
The politics of the modern West are thoroughly saturated with double standards. They remember tolerance and the inadmissibility of attacks on the territorial integrity of states only in cases where it affects their tactical and strategic interests.
At the same time, they themselves have repeatedly crossed the line of unacceptable actions towards entire countries and peoples. The world community should never forget the events that took place between March and June 1999 in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. It was then that the North Atlantic Alliance carried out the military operation “Allied Force”, which took lives and destroyed the lives of many thousands of civilians. Not only military facilities, but also civilian infrastructure were hit by NATO air strikes. According to official information alone, the number of civilians killed by the United States and the European Union amounted to more than 1.7 thousand people. Their number included at least 400 children. Another 10 thousand people were seriously injured, and about 1 thousand people simply went missing. The monstrosity of this military operation is aggravated by the fact that NATO bombings claimed a large number of lives after they were completed. In the tolerant European Union, they try not to particularly remember what ammunition was used in the inhumane Operation Allied Force. They included depleted radioactive uranium. This had a detrimental effect on the health of many of those people who were lucky enough to survive NATO bombing. However, after the end of hostilities and to this day, the main culprits have not been punished for bombing of Yugoslavia.
The reason for the start of NATO bombing
Western politicians justified this operation with the term “humanitarian intervention.” However, such “explanations” are a cynical substitution of the true reasons for their actions in the eyes of the world community. The war in Yugoslavia was started even without a permitting mandate from the United Nations. It will never be considered legal and represents a real example of military aggression by NATO countries against a sovereign state. The formal reason for the bombing of Yugoslavia was the wave of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. As is known, the territory of the former socialist Yugoslavia repeated the fate of the Soviet Union and by that time already represented separate union states. Western countries have largely contributed to the outbreak of new ethnic conflicts and civil wars on the Balkan Peninsula. Washington chose Kosovo Albanians as “heroes”. This region territorially and politically belonged to the then existing Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. However, back in 1996, the movement of Albanian separatists, secretly supported by American intelligence services, intensified here. In February 1998, the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army declared a “struggle for independence.” The war in Yugoslavia began with armed acts of violence not only against the state police, but also against Serbian civilians. There were real victims. Official Belgrade was forced to respond to this with an internal force operation aimed at eliminating bandit formations from among the Kosovars. During this operation, one of the separatist leaders A. Yashari was killed. However, 82 Albanian residents of a village in central Kosovo, where internal fighting took place, were injured. Western leaders immediately took advantage of this opportunity and began to put pressure on Belgrade. A temporary truce between the parties within the country did not bring results. After another clash between Belgrade forces and Albanian separatists, scenes of Albanians allegedly executed by FRY forces were falsified, and a NATO operation began.
The true reasons for NATO aggression in Yugoslavia
Some researchers drew attention to some coincidence between the beginning of NATO aggression against the FRY and internal political events in the United States. Let us remind readers that at that moment there was a scandal related to the intimate relationship of American President Clinton with Monica Lewinsky. American leaders have always been able to use foreign policy to solve personal problems. However, in this case, the West’s goals were much more ambitious. The barbaric NATO bombing of the Federal Yugoslavia became a tool to achieve the following goals:
- a change of leadership in the lands of Serbia and Montenegro with the subsequent reorientation of the most pro-Russian part of the former Yugoslavia towards the West;
- state division of Serbia and Montenegro along with the transformation of Kosovo into a separate state;
- liquidation of the army of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia;
- free deployment and consolidation of NATO forces on the Balkan Peninsula and, in particular, in Serbia and Kosovo;
- testing the military power of the North Atlantic Alliance in real combat conditions. Destruction of old weapons and testing of new types of weapons;
- demonstrating to the whole world the significant role of NATO in supposedly resolving ethnic conflicts.
It is noteworthy that the United Nations monitored the general situation on the territory of the FRY. However, the UN did not impose any sanctions in response to the open intervention of NATO countries in Yugoslavia. Why? Why war in Yugoslavia went unpunished? The UN resolution, which condemned the actions of the North Atlantic Alliance, received only 3 votes in the Security Council. Only the Russian Federation, China and Namibia dared to openly condemn the actions of Washington and NATO. There has been some criticism of NATO in the West. A number of independent media outlets tried to focus the attention of the world community on the fact that the aggressive actions of the North Atlantic Alliance without the appropriate sanction of the UN Security Council are a direct violation of the Charter of the United Nations and all canons of international law. However, by and large, the West has not yet made an official objective assessment of this criminal military operation.
Consequences of the barbaric bombing of Yugoslavia
The most terrible “result” of NATO aggression in the FRY is the death of at least 1.7 thousand civilians, as well as thousands of wounded and missing. If we talk about economic damage, the losses are more than significant. As a result of the war in Yugoslavia, all the most important objects of the civilian infrastructure operating at that time were destroyed or seriously damaged. National oil refineries, bridges, power supply centers and major enterprises came under deadly shells from the North Atlantic Alliance forces. More than 500 thousand people were left without work and means of subsistence. A huge number of citizens lost their homes. According to the calculations of the future Serbian authorities, the war in Yugoslavia brought economic damage equivalent to 20 billion US dollars.
Such a barbaric action could not pass without a trace from an environmental point of view. Targeted bombing of refineries contributed to the release of sending substances into the atmosphere. We are talking about hydrochloric acid, toxic alkalis and chlorine compounds. Spilled oil entered the waters of the Danube. This led to the poisoning of not only the territories of modern Serbia, but also the countries that were located downstream of the largest European river. The use of ammunition containing depleted uranium has provoked outbreaks of cancer and hereditary diseases. The NATO operation destroyed thousands of people, and hundreds of thousands feel the consequences of this terrible tragedy in our time.
The war crime committed by the United States and the European Union should not be forgotten by humanity. After such operations, statements by NATO leaders that the military bloc ensures “peace in Europe” sound doubly cynical. Only thanks to the meaningful policy of the Russian Federation, there is currently a certain parity of forces that does not allow the West to repeat this in any of the countries they dislike. They still continue to organize “democratic revolutions” and pit fraternal peoples against each other. However, this will not last forever. The world is on the brink of radical change. And I want to believe that he will no longer allow death and destruction from the bombing of “humanitarian rescuers” from the NATO bloc.
The United States, due to the situation around Syria, accusing Moscow of “war crimes”, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
“Now, against the backdrop of what is happening around Syria, our Western partners, primarily the Americans and the British, are already reaching the point of public insults in their hysteria, using words such as “barbarity,” “ war crime“,” Lavrov said in an interview for the film “I have firmly decided everything. Evgeny Primakov” on the Rossiya 1 TV channel.
In response, Lavrov recalled that NATO countries unleashed the first armed aggression in Europe since the end of World War II, attacking Yugoslavia in 1999.
“The aggression against Yugoslavia was, of course, just that: aggression. By the way, this was the first armed attack in Europe on a sovereign state after 1945,” said the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“Let me remind you that the aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was associated with attacks on a huge number of civilian objects, including, by the way, Serbian television, bridges over which civilian passenger trains ran, and much more,” Lavrov noted.
NATO is on the side of the militants
Since the mid-1990s, Albanian separatists in the province of Kosovo, which was part of Serbia, have carried out armed attacks against government officials, as well as the Serbian population of the region.
In 1998, the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) declared the beginning of open armed struggle for separating the region from Serbia. In response, Yugoslav security forces launched an operation against the terrorists.
Throughout 1998, NATO countries increased pressure on Belgrade to stop hostilities in Kosovo. On September 23, 1998, the UN Security Council adopted resolution number 1199, calling on the parties to a ceasefire.
The immediate reason for NATO's intervention in the conflict was the incident in Racak, when 45 Albanians were killed during an attack on a village held by Kosovo Liberation Army militants. Representatives of Western countries claimed that the Albanians were executed, representatives of Yugoslavia - that they died in battle.
Wherein Western countries ignored numerous cases of massacres committed by KLA militants against Serbs.
The United States tried to obtain a NATO mandate to conduct a military operation against Yugoslavia, but this turned out to be impossible due to the categorical disagreement to support such a resolution on the part of two permanent members of the UN Security Council: Russia and China.
"Allied Force": 78 days of destruction
Under these conditions, NATO issued an ultimatum to the leadership of Yugoslavia demanding the withdrawal of troops from Kosovo, threatening to use force in case of refusal.
On March 24, 1999, after the terms of the ultimatum were not fulfilled, NATO Secretary General Javier Solana gave orders to the commander of NATO forces in Europe, the American General Wesley Clark begin military operation against Yugoslavia. The operation was codenamed "Allied Force". Already on the evening of March 24, NATO aircraft bombed Belgrade, Pristina, Uzice, Novi Sad, Kragujevac, Pancevo, Podgorica and other cities.
Novi Sad during the bombing. Photo: Creative Commons
The beginning of NATO aggression against Yugoslavia became the cause of the first large-scale crisis in Russian-American relations since the collapse of the USSR. Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, who was on his way to visit the United States, after receiving information about the start of the bombing, turned the plane over the Atlantic and urgently returned to Russia.
NATO bombing of Yugoslavia continued from March 24 to June 10, 1999. Both military and civilian targets were subjected to air strikes.
According to Yugoslav authorities, civilian casualties amounted to 1,700 killed and more than 10,000 wounded, with more than 800 missing. Among the victims of the bombing were about 400 children.
14 countries took part in the operation, with 1,200 aircraft at their disposal. The naval group consisted of 3 aircraft carriers, 6 attack aircraft submarines, 2 cruisers, 7 destroyers, 13 frigates, 4 large landing ship. The total manpower of NATO forces involved in the operation exceeded 60 thousand people.
During the operation, over 78 days, NATO aircraft flew 35,219 sorties and more than 23,000 bombs and missiles were dropped and fired.
During the bombing, 89 factories and factories, 128 other industrial and service facilities, 120 energy facilities, 14 airfields, 48 hospitals and clinics, 118 radio and TV repeaters, 82 bridges, 61 road junctions and tunnels, 25 post and telegraph offices, 70 schools, 18 kindergartens, 9 university buildings and 4 dormitories, 35 churches, 29 monasteries.
Among the sites that were destroyed by NATO bombing was the industrial complex in Pancevo: a nitrogen plant, an oil refinery and a petrochemical complex.
Toxic chemicals and compounds were released into the air, water and soil, posing a threat to human health and ecological systems throughout the Balkans.
Due to this Serbian Minister of Health Leposava Milicevic stated: “Our chemical plants were not even bombed Adolf Gitler! NATO calmly does this, destroying rivers, poisoning the air, killing people, the country. A brutal experiment is being conducted on our people using the latest weapons.”
During the attacks on Yugoslavia, ammunition with depleted uranium was used, which provoked contamination of the area and an outbreak of cancer in subsequent years.
"Tomahawk" for journalists
During the operation, NATO forces committed actions that could directly be considered war crimes.
On April 12, 1999, a NATO aircraft attacked passenger train No. 393, traveling from Belgrade to Ristovac, with missiles. As a result of the attack, 14 people were killed and 16 were injured. All the dead and injured were civilians.
The NATO representative, acknowledging the fact of the attack, expressed regret and explained that the pilot simply “wanted to destroy the bridge.” International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, considering this incident, considered that the bridge “was a legal target” and the passenger train was not deliberately hit.
On April 23, 1999, the Radio and Television of Serbia building in Belgrade was destroyed by Tomahawk cruise missiles. 16 employees of the television center who were at their workplace at the time of the bombing and broadcast to live nightly news report, were killed and 16 more were injured. NATO declared the television center building a legal target on the grounds that the journalists were waging a “propaganda campaign.”
On May 7, 1999 it was struck bomb strike on the building of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. Xinhua News Agency journalist killed Shao Yunhuan, journalist of the People's Daily newspaper Xu Xinghu and his wife Zhu Ying.
NATO said the strike was carried out by mistake. The United States paid $28 million to China for the destruction of the building. diplomatic mission, as well as $4.5 million to the relatives of the victims and embassy employees who were injured.
"We are sincerely sorry"
On May 7, 1999, NATO aircraft attacked residential areas of the city of Nis with cluster bombs. As a result of the bombing, 15 people were killed and another 18 were injured. NATO Secretary General Javier Solana said: “Our target was an airfield. We sincerely regret the civilian casualties. The alliance had no intention of attacking their lives and will take every precaution to avoid such incidents."
On May 13, 1999, NATO aircraft bombed the village of Korisa, where Albanian refugees were located. At least 48 people were killed in the attack, and more than 60 were injured.
On May 16, NATO Secretary General Javier Solana accused the Serbs of killing Kosovo Albanians in the village of Korisha. In an interview with the BBC, he stated that Kosovar refugees were being used in the village of Korishe, which is "without a doubt" command post"Serbian army, as "human shields". Therefore, although the refugees died and suffered from alliance bombs, the blame for what happened lies with the Serbs, according to the statement Secretary General block. Press Secretary Jimmy Shea also accused Yugoslav troops of deliberately placing about 600 refugees near military installations in Koris. Shea said that this incident, as well as the fact that the Serbs may continue to use Kosovo Albanians as “human shields”, will not force NATO to abandon the bombing.
Western journalists working in the area of the village of Korisa said that there were no Serb military installations there, and the bombing could have been a blunder by NATO.
Verdict: The Serbs are to blame for everything
On June 10, 1999, the UN Security Council adopted resolution number 1244, according to which the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops and police forces from Kosovo was approved. The region was transferred under international control.
Thus, there was a de facto separation of Kosovo from Yugoslavia, which was legally formalized in February 2008.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia accused the Serbian leadership and Serbian intelligence services of crimes against humanity against the Albanian population of Kosovo.
Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, indicted by the ICTY for war crimes in Kosovo, died in prison during his trial in The Hague in 2006 as a result of a heart attack. Before this, several requests from Milosevic for assistance medical care in Russia due to heart disease were rejected by the tribunal. The trial of Slobodan Milosevic was closed due to the death of the accused.
No NATO official was held responsible for attacks on civilian targets and civilian deaths during Operation Allied Force.
The show trial of the former Yugoslavia at the Hague Tribunal was supposed to complete what the bombing of 1999 did not do - destroy not only the country, but also the very person of the last president, Slobodan Milosevic. After hearing the charges, on February 13, 2002, he made a speech in his defense. Full text This speech is only available today from the court transcript; the video recording has apparently been destroyed.
The future will show that Yugoslavia, in fact, is a testing ground and a model for countries former USSR. One of the main points is the confrontation between Russia and Ukraine and the planned inclusion of Ukraine in NATO by the end of 2005. That's why Madame Albright said in September 1999 that Kosovo was a major accomplishment.
During his speech, Milosevic said that the war unleashed by the United States and its allies in Yugoslavia was only part of a large offensive against Russia.
Yugoslavia, once huge Balkan country, inhabited by the Slavs and the main European ally of Russia, was destroyed.
For 78 days, NATO bombers bombed Yugoslavia. Final chord XX century was in the very center of Europe: bombs fell on cities, railways, factories and airfields.
From the high stands of the UN and NATO, the operation was called “Allied Force”. Western politicians spoke of nothing less than a “humanitarian war” for the sake of peace, while in reality the blows fell on the heads of civilians and their homes. American soldiers They often wrote “hello” to the Serbs on bombs.
So, for example, from American and British aircraft, to Orthodox Easter, bombs were dropped on Serbian cities with messages like: “Happy Easter”, “We hope you like it”, “Do you still want to be a Serb?”
The Kosovars, approved by the West, with air support, felt full power and began to destroy everything Serbian. Kosovo Albanians in the city of Podujevo destroyed the Church of St. Elijah. This happened within an hour after the KFOR peacekeepers left the city and left the city at the complete disposal of the militants of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army.
Few people remember this, but 150 churches were destroyed in the ancient Orthodox Balkan land of Kosovo. Monuments with a centuries-old history, frescoes, relics of saints, and icons were wiped off the face of the earth. At the same time, the parishioners of these churches, mostly ethnic Serbs, were also expelled from their homes.
However, the bombing of Belgrade was only the final act of a bloody drama played out according to the scenarios of Western geostrategists in the Balkans. Today, few people remember how it all began.
And there was a whole series of incidents presented in the Western press in such a way that the blood of an ordinary American or European simply ran cold in their veins and there was only one desire left - to maul every last Serb.
Anti-Serbian hysteria was whipped up consistently and professionally.
On May 27, 1992, in Sarajevo, in the area of Vase Miskina Street, television cameras of Western television channels lined up, they received nothing less than an invitation from a little-known PR company and were warned about upcoming event. Namely, the journalists knew in advance about the TERROR ATTACK in the CENTER of Sarajevo.
Some terrorists, who were immediately declared the “Serbian side,” fired at civilians standing in line for bread. Western television cameras showed what was happening live. Mostly Muslims stood in line; of course, they could not even think that the mortar attack was also organized by Muslims, who chose their own co-religionists as targets.
The terrorist attacks in the center of Sarajevo, regardless of who was behind them, ultimately had very specific consequences. They influenced the decision of the UN Security Council, which was right on the heels of the bloody shelling of the bread line. And under pressure from the Americans, the council decided to introduce economic sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
American geostrategists also did not particularly rack their brains over the scenario of the destruction of Yugoslavia. They decided to disintegrate the union state step by step, plucking region after region from the country. Slovenia was the first to separate, regional authorities announced secession from Yugoslavia, and a ten-day war began in Slovenia. This war lasted only 10 days and ended relatively peacefully for both sides.
In order to support the independence of the Yugoslav republics, the United States had to prepare ahead of time. In October 1990, eight months before Slovenia declared independence, the US Congress approved an amendment to the Foreign Operations Financing Act, which prohibited the issuance of American loans to Yugoslavia unless they were intended for the republic. which has held three free elections and in which there is no systematic violation of human rights".
This was an extraordinary incident in legislative practice USA. The congressional amendment meant that Federal Republic Yugoslavia no longer existed, and so the US government had to deal with "republics" - entities that had no legal international status.
American senators are flexible when it comes to US national interests.
The media followed the civil war in Yugoslavia very selectively, so they chose not to notice how Croatian troops under the Ustasha flags, without hiding nationalist slogans, went to the Republic of Serbian Krajina.
Historians believe that it was not without the efforts of the United States and Germany, which had a so-called “sleeping network” of agents from former Nazi collaborators in pro-fascist organizations in Croatia and Albania. One way or another, with the approval of the US Embassy and with the support of US aviation, Croatian troops in 1995 carried out a brutal punitive organization to destroy the Republic of Serbian Krajina and expel ethnic Serbs from Croatia. More than 200 thousand people were forced to leave their homes - thousands of people on tractors, cars and on foot, along with simple belongings, moved from Croatia to Serbia; those who did not have time or did not want to do this were brutally killed by Croatian troops, and their houses were burned.
As it turned out after NATO bombing, information support for the collapse of Yugoslavia was coordinated and well paid through non-governmental foundations. And the American PR company Ruder Finns Global Public Affairs, headed by James Harf, was involved in it.
It turned out unexpectedly - James Harf could not resist and, apparently, in search of fame, gave an interview in which he admitted that the tasks of his company included promoting negative image Serbs in the world. Harf was especially pleased that he was able to implement public consciousness a number of cliches such as “concentration camp”, “genocide”, “mass rape”.
Press releases from Ruder Finns were circulated almost unchanged on all news channels around the world. The tasks of this information company included preparing public opinion in countries allied with the United States to the joint destruction of Yugoslavia.
The report of the famous American CNN journalist Christiane Amanpour, then just a journalist, also spread throughout the world. She gained fame thanks to just such comments on events in Yugoslavia.
In July 1992, reporters learned about concentration camps in Bosnia. Muslim prisoners were tortured, sexually assaulted and executed. No one has seen such footage in Europe since the Holocaust.
They were shown on prime time and they amazed the American public.
The footage that Christiane Amanpour demonstrates in her story is still shown by Western TV channels whenever it is mentioned. Yugoslav War- This is a television cliche. Moreover, most reporters know exactly how this fake was filmed! Footage of refugees behind barbed wire filmed in 1992 in Bosnia was exposed by German journalist Thomas Deichmann.
There really were emaciated refugees, and throughout the entire territory of Yugoslavia, where there was a civil war. There were aid centers for victims and special settlements organized by the government, but there were not only concentration camps like Auschwitz, but they really needed to be invented. So, in 1992, a film crew from the British television channel ITN filmed a report in a camp for displaced persons in Trnopolje, where there were Muslim refugees who had fled the horrors of the civil war. Many of them were exhausted and scared. However, this seemed insufficient to the correspondent; she needed a more detailed picture, and then the cameraman of the film crew asked a group of refugees to move closer to the fence with two rows of barbed wire that fenced the electrical substation, and they recorded the interview there.
Some myths about civil war are still being replicated in Yugoslavia. Thus, every year on July 11, the world media remember and talk about the tragedy of the small Bosnian town of Srebrenica, where, according to journalists, 7,414 Muslims were killed by the Serbs in July 1995 - most of male population of the city...
For international public opinion, Srebrenica has become a symbol of crimes against humanity, the “natural brutality” of the Serbs and their unconditional guilt in all bloody Balkan conflicts nineties. In confirmation, they usually show footage like this.
Bosnian Muslims say they were terrorized by the army of the Serbian Krajina under the leadership of General Ratko Mladic. Allegedly, Mladic’s troops entered the city and carried out a massacre of the local civilian population there, only because they were Muslims. And here are these shots, Western media usually not shown. This same General Ratko Mladic personally leads the evacuation of Muslim civilians from Srebrenica.
Children, women first, then old people and men, don’t worry, we’re not creating panic, calm down, there are enough buses for everyone. You will be transported to territory controlled by the troops of Alija Izetbegovic and Croatia. Calmly, without fuss, board the buses, be attentive, do not forget the children.
In July 1995, Ratko Mladic's army occupied Srebrenica, the city in which Naser Ocic's Muslim troops were located. Ocic's militants became famous for raiding Serbian villages, so on May 6, 1992, the communities of Srebrenica itself were destroyed, and part of the village of Blecevo in the Bratunac community was burned. Having learned about the reprisals against the residents of this village, on May 9, the remaining Serb residents of Srebrenica fled from the city. By the end of 1992, 21 Serbian villages were destroyed in the Srebrenica community, and 22 Serbian villages in the Bratunac community, and about a thousand Serb civilians were killed. All this happened in front of the KFOR peacekeepers, whose contingent was in Srebrenica; in fact, the “blue helmets” were guarding Naser Ocic’s people.
However, when the army of the Republika Srpska entered the city, a humanitarian corridor was organized for everyone who wanted to leave Srebrenica without weapons.
A column of buses with refugees was supposed to proceed from Srebrenica to Tuzla, controlled by Izetbegovic's troops. However, on the way she was attacked by unknown armed people; more than two hundred people died in this military provocation.
Then, in 1995, this story, oddly enough, did not receive wide public resonance; it acquired it later and in a completely different light.
By 1999, from Yugoslavia itself large state in central Europe, there is practically nothing left. Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and even Montenegro broke away; in fact, only Serbia itself remained with its capital in Belgrade, although it was called the same Union Republic Yugoslavia. But even this Western world it seemed a little! A new special operation has begun. And Western journalists started it again.
Similar terrible footage in January 1999 spread all over the world. International observers discover mass grave– 45 Albanians killed in Racak in Yugoslavia. Official Washington states that those killed are ethnic Albanians and this is nothing more than genocide of the Albanian population by the Serbian army. This incident would later become the formal reason for the bombing of Yugoslavia.
Then no one thought to figure it out, they only needed a reason to get even with Milosevic and forever destroy the last rebellious republic in the center of Europe. In a peremptory manner characteristic only of the State Department, Slobodan Milosevic was accused of tyranny, dictatorship and massacres. And already in March, NATO bombs fell on the heads of civilians in Yugoslavia.
But today the lie about the murder in Racak has been destroyed. An international investigation exposed the staging - killed militants and corpses from local morgues were brought to this village from all fronts of Kosovo, they were dressed in civilian clothes and reporters were called to the scene. The scenario is exactly the same as the one that was previously worked out at the cemetery near Srebrenica.
NATO officials claimed in front of television cameras that they were bombing military targets in Yugoslavia, but in practice everything was different. Bombs fell on the streets of peaceful cities.
As it turned out later, NATO troops knew perfectly well that they were bombing peaceful cities, there was no mistake in this. At the trial in the Hague Tribunal, they tried to accuse Milosevic of ethnic cleansing of Kosovo, but the evidence crumbled before our eyes. Prosecutors argued that the Serbs were expelling ethnic Albanians and other Muslims. However, for example, the city of New Pazar is considered the center of the Muslim community and before the bombing no one even thought of fleeing from there. NATO bombs forced some civilians to flee this city. This was subsequently presented as pressure from the Serbian authorities...
For whom and why Belgrade was bombed became clear later. When from former militants The Kosovo Liberation Army formed the politics of the unrecognized republic. For example, ex field commander Ramush Haradinaj.
In 1998, the testimony of a woman who witnessed the terrible murder that Haradinaj committed in front of her eyes was recorded - he stabbed two captured Serbian police officers and raped her. These testimonies were not the only ones; Haradinaj was suspected of at least two hundred murders! Forty witnesses were ready to testify in court against Haradinaj. Formally, the witnesses were entitled to the protection of the Hague International Tribunal.
When his trial began, it was assumed that there would be about 40 witnesses who would accuse him. But all 40 died. All 40 were killed just before the start of the indictment process. Therefore, the court, releasing Haradinaj, said: "We have no evidence of his guilt."
Even the biased judges of the Hague Tribunal refused to believe this, and in 2010 they tried to raise Haradinaj’s case again. Information even surfaced in the press that another witness had been found alive, but he never appeared at the new trial and Haradinaj was acquitted again.
Don’t be surprised, but in 2004-2005 he was the Prime Minister of the Republic of Kosovo, and then, according to the results of the parliamentary elections, his party “Alliance for the Future of Kosovo” won.
Modern Serbia is still reaping the consequences of the bombing of Yugoslavia. After all, few people know that the Americans used shells filled with depleted uranium during the bombing.
During the period from 2001 to 2010, cancer cases in Serbia increased by 20%. And mortality increased by 25%. Professor Slobodan Cikiric estimates that about 400 thousand people will become ill in Serbia, based on a population of 5.5 million. Most often we are talking about leukemia and lymphoma...
The effect of uranium is only now being discovered – 17 years later. That's exactly how much cancer proceed secretly, without malignant formations, but now, Serbian doctors are recording the explosive growth of oncology throughout the country, where NATO bombs fell.
Not the declared, but the real results of the Yugoslav NATO company “Allied Force” are truly impressive. In order to understand this, you need to forget all the pompous words about the freedom-loving Kosovars and the tyrant Milosevic. Real result fits well into national interests USA. In the territory central Europe a state that declared its own sovereign policy was destroyed, and on its ruins, right on the territory former Serbia, the pseudo-state of Kosovo was formed, where the largest American military base in Europe, Camp Bondstee, was immediately located.