"Victims of NATO must not be forgotten"

"Victims of NATO must not be forgotten"

"One day, when you young people are asked whether Serbia should join NATO, whether we would do to others what has been done to us, do not explain, write books, make movies, say only the name of Bojana Tošović, and say that NATO killed her, and that NATO is evil," Vulin said while addressing students at the Faculty of Law.

Tošović was a six-month old baby from Merdare who died in her father’s arms after being hit by shrapnel from NATO missiles.

Vulin said that "some decided to speak out 15 years after Bojana’s death, faced with the consequences of the fire they fueled in Kosovo and now being able to hear its echoes in the Crimea, northern Italy, Catalonia and Scotland."

“They told us and admitted that they bombed us with depleted uranium and unloaded tons of cluster bombs. They did not say where. I want them to say where they poisoned our waters and air, so we can purge the evil so no child should suffer from it. They did not say that they were sorry, but they did say everything else,” said Vulin.

He also addressed a controversy regarding a message reposted on the official account of NATO's spokesperson Oleana Lungescu on Monday, the day Serbia was marking 15 years since it came under attack, war and remembered its victims.

"I am disgusted by you, Oleana Lungescu, I am honestly disgusted," Vulin said.

Bishop Jovan Lipljanski, vicar bishop to the Serbian Patriarch Irinej, asked where can the truth why Serbia was bombed be found.

He pointed out that 800,000 people were killed in the greatest crime that occurred after the Holocaust, in only 100 days, in Rwanda in 1994, and NATO had not fired a single bullet to save the people there.

The bishop also said that during the bombing of Libya, former U.S. envoy to Kosovo Christopher Hill said that NATO's interest in 1999 was to enter Kosovo, and that they termed the operation a humanitarian intervention.

Former Yugoslav foreign minister and ambassador to the UN Vladislav Jovanović noted that the Western military alliance yesterday celebrated a “shameful anniversary,” as 15 years ago, it attacked a country after violating principles of international law and morality as well as its own statute.

The aggression against Yugoslavia has reduced the significance and greatly weakened the United Nations, which has become a service to be used by NATO countries, he said.

"This act against our country was a hit below the belt, conducted in a cowardly manner, just as the al-Qaeda terrorist’s destruction of the World Trade Center, which is something to be condemned as well as the aggression against our country," Jovanović said.

He urged democratic states to apologize so that Serbia and them can build relationships on a sound foundation in the future.

Historian Čedomir Antić said that the war NATO imposed on Serbia was a defensive war and that Serbia is still suffering the consequences of the defeat.

The meeting was attended by Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić, Defense Minister Nebojša Rodić and Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, Lt. Gen. Ljubiša Diković.