A train, targeted and destroyed, its passengers killed in what has got to be the most barbaric of ways imaginable. This is just one incident of a thousand more. It was callous and evil act of aggression during the NATO bombing of former Yugoslavia, 1999. Although it's not called terrorism, eventhough it's pure and abseloute terrorism. The American military calls this despicable crime Collateral damage.It was March 24th, 1999. I was on the other side of the world, far away and safe, but my life was to change forever. I was an innocent 12 year old at the time, the world seemed so beautiful and normal, but that all changed, almost instantly. My entire view of the world was to change forever. It was all over the television and radio. It was on the front page of the paper. It was the fateful news that the NATO alliance had begun its bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, my native motherland and the home of so much family.
It was an unprovoked attack on Yugoslavia, justified by what were later found to be clearly falsified claims that yugoslavia was taking genocidal actions upon the albanian population of Kosovo. Ludicrous claims came to be and all to justify the bombing of Yugoslavia. Lies from media giants such as The Times, claimed figures of some half a million albanian deaths and displacements. Figures were invented, stories were fabricated, reality was distorted and human emotions were drawn upon as the conflict was constantly compared to the holocaust of WW2.
It was a conflict which calumniated in 1998 as the KLA (Kosovo 'Albanian' Liberation Army) tried to seize control of Kosovo. One fact that you must keep in mind is that since 1996 the KLA were known by the world as a terrorist organisation, their sole existence was to bomb Serbian property, kill Serbian people and rape Serbian women. Hatred was their ideology and a separated and Albanian led independent Kosovo was their goal. This was to be achieved regardless of their terrorist actions. It was a decade long onslaught of terrorism and murder, waiting to evolve into war. The KLA's ongoing and constant terror campaign which initially forced Milosevic to dissolve Kosovo's autonomy in the late 80s, finally calumniated in full scale war between the Yugoslav army and KLA. Unjustifyingly at that very time in 1998, the US de-listed the KLA as a terrorist organisation and so did a few other nations most notably the UK and France. In the western worlds eyes the KLA were no longer the terrorists as they were seen before. The Yugoslav military became the 'terrorist organisation'. The terrorists became the 'liberators', and the protectors of the nation from the attacker, became the terrorists! Thus the fundamental platform on which lies and falsifications could be fabricated upon was created.
In 1998 the Yugoslav forces had to launch a full scale war in eliminating the spreading plague, the KLA was. The KLA had to get eliminated once and for all. In the protection of all people the terrorist KLA had to get destroyed, and in the effort of doing so, the NATO alliance prompted by the US began its unprovoked bombing of Yugoslavia. It was hoped to be a short two day bombing in which the Serbian military would be crippled into surrender. The illegal bombing of Yugoslavia lasted exactly 11 weeks from March 34th to June 10. It was 11 weeks of lawless, barbaric, unprovoked, disproportionate and unjustified military action against the people of Yugoslavia.
It was a strongly protested war, and a horrific crime to humanity by the western world. It was an act of terrorism that makes the 9/11 attack seem like child's play in comparison. It was a bombing campaign designed to shock the nation into surrender, to bomb non military targets in hope to achieve surrender. It was the utmost pinnacle of cowardice and malice, to systematically bomb innocent civilians all over Yugoslavia in aim to kill as many innocent civilians as possible and destroy the peoples lifelines such as power, water, sanitation, fuel, agricultural, industrial and transport systems by which the peoples very existence depended on. The 77 days of NATO aggression encompassed some 35 000 assault missions by a force of some 1000 warplanes, 206 helicopters and a large fleet of warships. More than 10.000 cruise missiles were launched and over 79.000 tons of explosives were dropped. This includes 35.450 cluster bombs, thermo visual and graphite bombs which are prohibited under international conventions. Depleted uranium bombs were dropped to poison the ground and water ways, spreading radiation and causing death all over the country. Undetonated cluster bombs scattered everywhere for the unfortunate soul to step upon.
Some 600.000 people became unemployed and some 2.5 million people were left with insufficient means to survive. This was a nation which also had to support 750.000 Serbian refugees from the previous Yugoslav wars and an exodus of some 200.000 Serbs from Kosovo who were getting systematically killed or exiled by the KLA. The humanitarian disaster and the chaos that the NATO bombing had caused were on a scale not seen in Europe since WW2.
Non military targets were the recipients of most of the bombing. Whilst the Yugoslav military marched on and fought the terrorist KLA, the Yugoslav people were getting cowardly bombed by NATO. Several thousand civilians lost their lives, whilst over 6000 sustained serious injuries and were left crippled for life. Children made up 40% of the casualties as well as 40% of the number injured, whilst some 10% of all Yugoslav children (some 300.000) were left to suffer severe psychological trauma. People were bombed in their homes, during the night hours mostly, from 20.000ft indiscriminately. They were innocent, defenseless civilians and they were being punished for being Serbs.
Some 70 bridges got destroyed or heavily damaged, 30 railway lines and stations, 14 airports, most highways and thoroughfares, some 120 factories and industrial installations, two out of three refineries and some 20 chemical storage installations, a huge amount of fertile land and waterway got contaminated or burnt, some 30 hospitals and health care institutions got attacked, over 300 schools got damaged or destroyed, hundreds of public and housing facilities got damaged or destroyed, huge damage to the power stations and power supply transmitters including a hydro electric power station, 43 telecommunication transmitters got damaged or destroyed, 59 medieval monasteries and sacred shrines got damaged or destroyed, many cultural-historical monuments and museums got destroyed, some 20 diplomatic and consular buildings were damaged or destroyed, the presidents residence and thousands and thousands of homes. The grand total of all commercial, industrial and civil have incurred damages in excess of 100 billion US dollars. Its ironic that two years later the main NATO aggressor being the US, experienced terrorism on its own soil, then had the audacity to wage war with Afghanistan in retaliation. Why didn't they just shrug it off and call it 'collateral damage'? Instead they admitted it was an act of terrorism upon them. I too believe the term 'collateral damage' is a word of no meaning in relation to the 1999 bombing of former Yugoslavia, today's Serbia. I too call it terrorism. It was the pinnacle of terrorism. Only difference being the Americans are getting some sort of retribution with their war efforts in Afghanistan whilst my people have not had the chance to take action and get a degree of justice for the evil crimes of NATO. Its been ten years now. And the footage is as fresh in my mind as it was watching it all those years ago. I know that the NATO alliance is evil, simply a terrorist organisation. I know the Clinton administration is guilty of terrorism. I'm fully aware that justice had not yet been brought upon the people who deserve the death penalty. I live with an undying hatred for that terrorist attack upon my native homeland. Its not just 'collateral damage' its terrorism. It doesn't matter how you word it, the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia remains an act of international terrorism.
A stern supporter of the 99' war against Yugoslavia was none other than the Albanian loving 'Serbophobe', not to mention mentally ill, Joe Biden, the current Vice President of the United States. He was a very adamant supporter of the KLA, and had in the past, said things about the Serbian people that would have got any other politician, had the topic being anything else, sacked from their job. His recent visit only the other month to Serbia, the very nation he wanted to see wiped of the face of the earth to urge the Serbian people to accept the illegal, so called independence of Kosovo by their KLA originated government. To rub salt in the wound so to speak. Suddenly Kosovo is the hot topic once again, and an act of terrorism the western world is still not ready to pay for. Say no to terrorism! Say no to political correctness and nonsensical terminology such as 'collateral damage', because despite it ability to act as an effective title to a Schwarzenegger movie, it's extremely inadequate in justifying the terrorist actions of the NATO alliance and the US.
It's this simple, terrorism is terrorism and terrorism is a callous crime against humanity. Its been a decade since the US backed terrorist attack. When will Serbia have its justice? When will the criminal Kosovo Albanian government get tried and imprisoned? When will Kosovo be returned to the Serbian border? When will the western world apologise to my people and compensate the Serbian people for their decade of hardship and pain caused as a result of the bombing? When will the western world, especially US awake to the fact they are run by mentally ill people? I will never forget nor forgive the nations responsible and I haven't even lost a loved one as result of the bombing. Do you seriously believe that the actual people of Kosovo and Serbia, that had personally lived through their unprecedented ordeal, to move on, forget and forgive, or even co-exist in the European sphere? Do you think that the Serbian people would give up their homeland, Kosovo, even after centuries of Ottoman oppression, two world wars during which hundreds of thousand Kosovo Serbs got killed and displaced? Joe Biden seems to think so! As a Serb, i dont think so! Not even over my dead body.
