23 - 24 April 1999/ FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA/ FEDERAL
        MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS/ DIRECTORATE FOR
        INFORMATION

FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
FEDERAL MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
DIRECTORATE FOR INFORMATION

S P E C I A L     I S S U E
 
 

O V E R V I E W
OF THE CIVILIAN DESTRUCTION ON THE TERRITORY OF THE FR OF YUGOSLAVIA
AS A RESULT OF NATO BARBARIAN AND CRIMINAL AGGRESSION
23 - 24 April 1999

During the last two days the neo-fascist strategists of the criminal NATO
Alliance showed their true colours - the one of a monster who stops at
nothing to commit the most brutal crimes in the pursuit of its sombre and
criminal plans conceived in the sick and retarded minds.
On Thursday morning, criminal NATO missiles hit the residence of President
of the FR of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade. His residence was
located in the residential area surrounded by other private houses and
housing complexes. It is quite clear that those buildings are not military
facilities, let alone "a military command headquarters" how the monstrous
strategists of notorious NATO Alliance claimed trying unconvincingly to
justify this criminal act.
The residence was struck by three laser missiles and one of them exploded
in the bedroom. Fortunately, at the time of the attack, the President of
the Republic and his family were not in the house which was rased to the
ground.
This loathsome crime of the hostile aircraft of monstrous NATO Alliance
committed against the residence of the President of the FR of Yugoslavia is
an assassination attempt on the head of State of a sovereign country - a
symbol of freedom of our people and independence of our  State, and it
represents a precedent in international relations. By its nature this act
can be qualified as an organized criminal and terrorist act which must be
strongly condemned by entire civilized, freedom-loving world.
The criminal attack of the armada of notorious NATO Alliance on the
building of Radio and Television of Serbia, at the time when 150 people
were working inside, represents a desperate step directed to suppress the
freedom of thought, which is so vigorously advocated by the same NATO
strategists - the leaders of the "democratic West". It is also an attempt
to kill the truth about their criminal role played on the soil of the
Balkans, they are so afraid to be revealed, although it has become so
obvious to each and everyone.
The criminal missiles hit the very heart of the Television - a part of the
RTS building where main broadcasting facilities have been located including
the offices for journalists and technical staff.
In its brutal attempt to silence the TV of Serbia by lethal missiles, NATO
tried, according to its plans, to open widely the door to its own
propaganda and to continue unhampered, in the created information black-out
and far from the international public, its criminal orgies and killings in
the bloody stained Balkan drama which NATO provoked by itself.
There is no doubt that strategists of the criminal NATO Alliance ware
irritated by the news broadcasted by the RTS which was giving a true
picture about the aggression of this most powerful military armada in the
world against a small, sovereign and peace-loving country. They did not
want that the public all around the world be informed about the monstrous
attacks on civilian convoys and international passenger trains. They did
not want that the truth be heard that their lethal missiles fell in the
immediate vicinity of maternity hospitals, that they destroyed bridges,
schools and hospitals, that an entire small mining town in which there was
no military facility was rased to the ground. They do not want that the
truth be heard also about their other crimes which they have committed and
continue to commit each day in our country.
The reports about "invisible" aircraft and arrested soldiers have
embarrassed them even more because the myth about the "invincible Alliance"
has been disappearing.
The latest two monstrous and criminal acts speak about the madness,
helplessness and despair of those who have thought that by the policy of
"blitzkrieg" they can succeed in imposing their own vision of a"new world
order" to a small but proud people. The neofascist strategists of the
notorious NATO Alliance have made misjudgment in their monstrous  plans
which has become obvious to everyone even to them, which has been proved by
their desperate and irrational moves.

B E L G R A D E

During the monstrous strikes of the criminal NATO aircraft against the
building of Radio and TV of Serbia, several other buildings in its
immediate vicinity were also damaged.
Children theatre "Dusko Radovic" is almost completely destroyed. The
church of "St Marc" was hit by great number of big metal fragments of
bombs, as well as by the fragments of concrete construction and bricks
spread out in the explosions.
The Russian Trinity Church located in the Tasmajdan park was also severely
damaged. According to the reports of the Institute for the Protection of
the Cultural Monuments of Belgrade, most severely damaged is the horizontal
naos bar which connects two pallors at the western part of the church.
Series of cracks are visible along the whole bar.
There are many cracks at the ceiling and bars supporting the roof. The
painted moltar fell down from some parts of the "sky". At the eastern side
of the church all window panes were broken and the window at the altar
niche was pulled out.
The Russian Trinity Church attached to the Church of the Moscow
Patriarchate was built in 1924 in a traditional Russian style of a cluster
of small churches according to the plan of architect of Russian origin
Stashewski. This is the only Russian church built in our country during the
difficult years after World War I and October Revolution when more than 50
000 people emigrated from Russia into Serbia.
The Trinity Church is protected as a cultural monument within the "The Old
Belgrade" project and it is located next to the other well-known cultural
monument -the "St Marc" Church.

NOVI SAD

During the last night strike against the downtown of Novi Sad, the NATO
warplanes fired several missiles on the oil refinery in the north-eastern
part of the town.
Eight missiles were fired on the town's housing complex, and some fell on
the oil refinery inflicting a blaze.

N I S

NATO criminals targeted only civilian facilities during its last night
attack on Nis.
NATO fascists attacked the very centre of the town. Business centre of the
Belgrade company "SO Produkt" was destroyed and great number of private
house were severely damaged.
Greatly damaged was also the company "Velefarm", one of the biggest Nis
suppliers of medicines and medical supplies, whose car pool was also
destroyed. Machine Industry -Nis and Secondary Machine Engineering School
were also significantly damaged. The water and electricity supply in this
part of the town was cut down due to the damages inflicted on the  water
pipes and power transmission systems.
One person was injured during this criminal attack of NATO aggressors.
The villages around Nis were also bombed. The greatest damages sustained
the villages of Popovac and Cokot. The criminals targeted also the
marshalling yard in the village of Popovac which was severely damaged.

K R U S E V A C

Continuing its attacks against civilian facilities in this town, the
criminal NATO Alliance damaged the bridge on the Rasina river the night
before.
The houses and buildings in the vicinity were damaged, the windows were
broken, and tiles from the roofs fell down from many houses in this part of
the town due to the explosions caused by the missiles of the criminal NATO
warplanes.

K R A LJ E V O

Last night the warplanes of NATO criminal Alliance attacked the broader
area of Kraljevo. Two missiles hit the fuel storage in Bogutovac which has
been targeted for several times by NATO aggressors thus far.
There are no news about the casualties or injured persons. There is a
slide on the Kraljevo-Raska road caused by strong detonations.

V R A NJ E

Seventeen old boy Dalibor Tasic, from the village of Soderci, near Vranje,
was killed during the barbarian attack of the criminal NATO aviation the
other day at the outskirts of Vranje when 40 missiles of enormous
destructive power were dropped.

P R I S T I N A

Notorious NATO warplanes targeted only civilian facilities during its
criminal attack against Pristina and its outskirts last night.
The target of the criminal aggressors was again the Pristina outings
"Grmija", civilian airport Slatina and radio and TV transmitter with
adjacent facilities at the  Mount Goles.
Several missiles fell in the area of the village of Ajvalija as well as in
the housing complexes of Pomazatin and Belacevac whose residents are ethnic
Albanians.