Zivadin Jovanovic, former foreign minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, lays flowers by a monument to child victims of the 1999 NATO bombing missions in Yugoslavia at Tasmajdan Park, Belgrade, Serbia, March 23, 2023. /CFP
Serbia commemorated the 24th anniversary of NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia on Friday. The central commemorative event was held in Sombor, where the first bomb fell in 1999 and the first Serbian citizen was killed.
Serbian President Alexander Vucic, other officials and thousands of citizens attended the rally. Russian Ambassador to Belgrade Alexander Bocan Harchenko also attended the event.
Serbia's Minister of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs Nikola Selakovic laid a wreath in Tasmajdan Park in Belgrade at a memorial to three-year-old Milica Rakic and other children who were killed during the bombing.
Belgrade Assembly President Nikola Nikodijevic laid a wreath at a memorial on Strazevica hill in Belgrade, saying "it is our duty to preserve and cultivate a culture of remembrance, first of all for all those heroes who gave their lives so that we could live in peace, but also for all innocent civilians who died."
Addressing a large crowd of people who gathered at St. George Square in Sombor, Vucic said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)'s aggression against Yugoslavia 24 years ago marked the death of international law.
"It is not an unimportant bureaucratic wording, but much more than that," Vucic said.
A street poster is displayed, calling for the stop of NATO bombing, with a bombed building in the background in Belgrade, Serbia, May, 1999. /CFP
"Nothing worse could happen in the world than what was done here, to a small country, which was guilty only of seeking to make its own decisions and to be free. As such it didn't appeal to those powers which destroyed the old international order in 1989/90 and created a new one in which only they have the final say in everything," Vucic said.
Crowds waved Serbian flags and lighted candles for the victims of the bombings at St. George Square to commemorate those who died in the air strikes.
US Ambassador to Belgrade Christopher Hill expressed the hope that the Serbs "will set aside their grievances" caused by NATO's aggression. Vucic responded that it's their obligation to attempt to forgive, but they will forget only when all the Serbians have ceased to exist.
"You will not succeed in breaking this country; it will keep on living," Vucic said.
Bombings of Yugoslavia started on March 24, 1999, without the previous authorization of the United Nations (UN) Security Council.
During the 78-day bombings of both civilian and military targets, NATO forces dropped 15 tons of depleted uranium in bombs and shells on Serbia, 3,500 to 4,000 people were killed and 10,000 others (two-thirds of them civilians) were injured, according to Serbian estimates. Material damages totaled up to $100 billion.
(With input from Xinhua)