YUGOSLAV DAILY SURVEY
 

BELGRADE, 27 April 1999 No. 2277

S P E C I A L     I S S U E
 

NATO CRIMES AGAINST CIVILIANS
AND CIVILIAN INFRASTRUCTURE
IN THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA

The NATO criminal aggression represents the most flagrant violation of the
Charter of the United Nations since the inception of the world
Organization, a violation of the Helsinki Final Act and the undermining of
the very foundations of the international legal order. At the same time,
this aggression is a crime against peace, stability and humanity.
The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has warned on time the United Nations
Security Council that NATO is planning an aggression, and during the
aggression itself it requested that it be immediately halted and most
strongly condemned. Had this legitimate request of the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia been met, enormous human sufferings and destructions would have
been avoided. The most illustrative examples are given below.

KILLING AND SUFFERING OF THE CIVILIAN POPULATION

During the last thirty-five days of the NATO aggression, the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia has been suffering great destructions of the
civilian infrastructure which is unprecedented in modern history of the
world. NATO aggressors have focused their attacks primarily on civilian
targets, directly threatening the lives and fundamental human rights of the
entire population of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. By bombing
relentlessly the cities, towns and villages throughout Yugoslavia, the NATO
aggressor has killed until today more than a thousand civilians, including
great number of children. Over five thousand people sustained injuries
while a large number of them will remain crippled for life. At the same
time, several thousand private homes and flats have been ruined. What
follows are the most tragic instances of the killings and suffering of the
innocent civilian population.
Fifty-five passengers were killed and twenty six injured in an
international passenger train on the Belgrade-Thessaloniki line.
Seventy-five civilians were killed and one hundred and eleven of them
wounded in a refugee convoy of mainly women, children and elderly people on
the Prizren-Djakovica road.
More than four hundred civilians were killed by NATO bombs in Kosovo and
Metohija: in the downtown of Pristina, in Djakovica, Prizren, Kosovo Polje,
Urosevac, Kosovska Mitrovica; as well as in refugee camps in Orahovac,
Srbica and Vitina, etc.
Thirteen civilians lost their lives and twenty-five were wounded during
the attacks on Kur{umlija.
  Twelve civilians were killed and forty of them suffered injuries in the
bombing of the town of Aleksinac.
Sixteen employees of Radio and Television Serbia were killed and seventeen
others sustained injuries as a result of the air strike launched against
the main office building of this largest media outlet in the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia. Unfortunately, the total number of victims has not
been established yet because there are still many dead trapped under the
debris.
In Pancevo, Cacak, Vranje and Nis the number of casualties has been
increasing each day.

KILLING OF CHILDREN

Children are the most vulnerable and the least protected group of the
population which suffer in particular due to the barbaric bombing of NATO
aircraft, which is illustrated by the following examples:
The killing of seven children in Srbica;
The killing of five children from the Kodza family in the village of
Doganovici near Urosevac on 24 April 1999 as a result of the delayed effect
of bombs (Edon, aged 3, Fisnik, aged 9, Osman, aged 13, Burim, aged 14 and
Vajdet, aged 15. Six other children were also injured in the same incident,
two of them were seriously wounded.
The killing of a three-year old Milica Rakic in the Belgrade suburb of
Batajnica;
The killing of six children in the refugee centre in Djakovica;
The death of nineteen children in the refugee column near Djakovica;
The death of a child in Kosovo Polje;
The killing of nine children in Kursumlija;
The killing of two children in Aleksinac, as well as other numerous
examples.
Children are most often victims of the sprinkle cluster bombs with delayed
effect. The death toll on children would have been even more tragic, had
the missile struck the biggest Maternity Hospital in Belgrade (It exploded
some thirty metres away from the Hospital).

ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT ON PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL
REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC

An assassination attempt on the President of the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia on 22 April 1999 represents an organized terrorist act without
precedent in the history of modern Europe. This is not only a crime against
a Head of a sovereign State, but primarily an attack on the democratically
expressed will of a people and thus against the foundations of the
democratic values of the civilization. Although, the residence of the
President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was targeted, this attack
has also a symbolic meaning as if the targets had been the homes of all
Yugoslav citizens. This crime has caused the abhorrence and condemnation by
international public. However, it is incomprehensible that the United
Nations Security Council has remained silent and has not condemned this
terrorist act or the killings of civilians and children.

CRIME AGAINST FREEDOM OF SPEECH

The destruction of more than ten radio and television stations, two dozen
TV transmitters, as well as the bombing of the Radio and Television Serbia
building on 23 April 1999 represent the biggest aggression against freedom
of thought and a disgrace to the civilization at the threshold of a third
millennium. In this attack the building was demolished taking a heavy toll
in this largest Radio and TV media outlet in the Balkans.  The aim of this
crime was more than obvious: to suppress the right to a different opinion
and its public expression with a view to a further military manipulation
with the world public. Clearly, the intention of NATO aggressors is to
prevent the world public to learn about the excessive proportions of their
crimes and to impose on the world their totalitarian and single-minded
perception. The censorship imposed by NATO generals to US and Western media
makes this quite evident.
For all champions of freedom of speech and for all people committed to the
right to freedom of expression, this destructive act represents a last
warning alarm before NATO generals censor the aggressors' media.
 
DESTRUCTION OF VITAL YUGOSLAV ECONOMIC FACILITIES

According to the assessment of experts from Western countries, the damage
done to date by NATO air strikes is well in excess of one hundred billion
US dollars. By the destruction of factories, business capacities and
production facilities, more than half a million people have lost their job
and over two million of them remained without any kind of income. Destroyed
are the industrial complexes in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Kragujevac, NiS,
PanCevo, Cacak, Kraljevo, Valjevo, Pristina, Vranje, Kursumlija, Krusevac,
Kula, Gnjilane, Sremska Mitrovica and in other towns and cities.
The petrochemical industry of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia has been
totally destroyed, as well as the largest Yugoslav factory of artificial
fertilizers.
Private entrepreneurship is a particular target of NATO aggression and the
most glaring example of it is the destruction of the "U{}e" business centre
in Novi Beograd. That was one of the biggest business centres in the
Balkans, which hosted more than a hundred newly established private firms
in full business expansion. The building of this business centre is also
one of the landmarks of modern Belgrade.

DESTRUCTION OF BRIDGES

On the false pretence of "neutralizing the military power of the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia", the NATO aggressor started systematic destruction
of the major Yugoslav road and rail traffic routes. About 20 bridges have
been totally demolished so far and a few dozen of them have been damaged.
Also, several dozen major and local roads, airports, railway tracks,
railway stations, etc. have been destroyed. All ruined facilities were part
of costly capital investments, into which the resources and the efforts of
several generations of Yugoslav citizens were pooled. All the facilities
are strategic part of the European traffic infrastructure, and some of them
are of historical and cultural importance.
About 30 bridges have been destroyed including those at the strategic
European E10 corridor. By the destruction of the bridges on the Danube
river the aggressors have blocked the entire river navigation at this
traffic artery of the greatest importance for European economy and the
shortest link between the Northern and Mediterranean sea. Thus, the
European shipping companies suffer each day the damage of over 20 million
DM.
Examples: Sloboda Bridge, Wailing Bridge, @e`elj Bridge and the bridge in
Be{ka (all in the city of Novi Sad); several bridges on the Ibar primary
road and on the major railway lines.

ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER

Concurrently with the humanitarian, NATO strikes have caused an
environmental catastrophe which is endangering not only the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia, but also the neighbouring countries and the entire
European continent. Ecology does not recognize boundaries. The NATO
aggressor is thus teetering on the brink of another Chernobyl in the heart
of Europe. The destruction of petrochemical installations, the warehouses
storing semi-processed and finished products of the chemical industry have
already caused significant adverse effects on the health of the population
of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the neighbouring countries.
During some of the air strikes it was pure luck that an environmental
catastrophe was not provoked spreading all over Europe.
The aggressor's attacks did not spare even the national parks and the
ozone layer was depleted by the exhaust gases. The Black Sea, Aegean and
the Adriatic basins, practically the entire Mediterranean, are threatened
by environmental pollution.
Examples: Nitrogen factory in Pan~evo, the oil refineries in Pan~evo and
Novi Sad, the chemical company "Prva iskra" in Bari~ and others.

HOSPITALS AND HEALTH INSTITUTIONS

The aggressors' bombings, calculated to provoke the greatest possible
confusion and panic among innocent people, have damaged many clinical and
hospital centres, inflicting not only great material damage to property
(destruction of buildings and expensive medical equipment), but also
causing new health problems and intensifying psychological traumas among
the sick people. The destruction of all the three bridges in Novi Sad
totally cut off and left, without the supply of water, the largest Yugoslav
centre for the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, to which several
million people gravitate. The Maternity Hospital in Belgrade, and the
biggest hospital in the Balkans (Military Medical Academy Hospital - VMA),
and the Orthopaedic hospital of Banjica, the hospitals in ]uprija and
Aleksinac, as well as the medical centres in Pri{tina and in many other
towns were damaged.

DESTRUCTION OF PRE-SCHOOL INSTITUTIONS AND SCHOOLS

Since the outset of the aggression, NATO has put a stop to the education
of close to one million pupils and students in Yugoslavia. Over three
hundred facilities built for the education and upbringing of children and
young people of all ages were destroyed. This will inevitably be reflected
on the development and social integration of young people.

DESTRUCTION OF WORLD CULTURAL HERITAGE
ON THE SOIL OF THE FR OF YUGOSLAVIA

Kosovo and Metohija in particular, but also the entire territory of the FR
of Yugoslavia, is a treasury of European culture and civilization since
ancient times. By violating all international conventions for the
protection of civilization and its heritage, and in the pursuit of the
spirit of aggressive nihilism and new barbarity, more than twenty
monasteries and churches have been severely damaged thus far, as well as a
couple of dozen of other cultural and historic monuments. Severe damage was
caused to the monastery of De~ani (14th century), the monastery of Rakovica
and many others. The bombs have even destroyed many cemeteries all across
Yugoslavia.
At the moment it is difficult to perceive and evaluate all the
humanitarian, economic, environmental, health and other consequences of the
NATO criminal aggression against the FR of Yugoslavia. The greatest victim
of the aggression is the entire Yugoslav people and its material and
cultural resources. At the same time, the violation of the Charter of the
United Nations by NATO has created a precedent which may a cast a shadow
over the future of all peoples and sovereign States. The cause for concern
is all the grater because, by combining pressure and promises, NATO is
drawing an increasing number of countries into its aggression against the
FR of Yugoslavia, which will have long-term negative consequences on the
future relations and cooperation between all Southeast European countries.
Attempts by NATO to justify its brutal aggression by an alleged care for
the refugees may bring about an irreversible degradation of the United
Nations and involve this highest international forum in the crime against a
country which is one of its founding members