“Exactly
15 years ago, on March 24, NATO began its 78-day bombing of
Yugoslavia. The alliance bypassed the UN under a 'humanitarian'
pretext, launching aggression that claimed hundreds of civilian lives
and caused a much larger catastrophe than it averted.”
“Codenamed
'Operation Allied Force,' it was the largest attack ever undertaken
by the alliance. It was also the first time that NATO used military
force without the approval of the UN Security Council and against a
sovereign nation that did not pose a real threat to any member of the
alliance.”
“In the
course of the campaign, NATO launched 2,300 missiles at 990 targets
and dropped 14,000 bombs, including depleted uranium bombs and
cluster munitions (unexploded cluster bombs continued to pose a
threat to people long after the campaign was over.) Over 2,000
civilians were killed, including 88 children, and thousands more were
injured. Over 200,000 ethnic Serbs were forced to leave their
homeland in Kosovo.”
“In
what the alliance described as 'collateral damage', its
airstrikes destroyed more than 300 schools, libraries, and over 20
hospitals. At least 40,000 homes were either completely eliminated or
damaged and about 90 historic and architectural monuments were
ruined. That is not to mention the long-term harm caused to the
region’s ecology and, therefore, people’s health, as well as the
billion-dollar economic damage.”
“Rights
organization Amnesty International accused the allied forces of
committing war crimes: 'Indications
are that NATO did not always meet its legal obligations in selecting
targets and in choosing means and methods of attack, On the basis of
available evidence, including NATO's own statements and accounts of
specific incidents, Amnesty International believes that - whatever
their intentions - NATO forces did commit serious violations of the
laws of war leading in a number of cases to the unlawful killings of
civilians,'
the rights watchdog said in a report published in June 2000.”
“Back
then, Slobodan Milosevic's forces were engaged in armed conflict with
an Albanian rebel group, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which
sought the province’s separation from Yugoslavia. Former US
President Bill Clinton's special envoy to the Balkans, Robert
Gelbard, had earlier described the KLA as 'without
any questions, a terrorist group.'
(The KLA was later repeatedly accused of being involved in the organ
trafficking of Serbs in the late 1990s.)”
“An
incident involving the 'mass
killing'
of Albanians in central Kosovo’s village of Racak – a KLA
stronghold – became a major excuse and justification for NATO’s
decision to start its operation. Serbs were blamed for the deaths of
dozens of Albanian 'civilians'
on January 15, 1999. However, it was alleged that the accusations
could have been false and the bodies actually belonged to KLA
insurgents whose clothes had been changed.”
More:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/EUR70/018/2000/en/eaeb3f72-df56-11dd-89a6-e712e728ac9e/eur700182000en.html
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