Reasons for bombing Serbia 25 years ago? "Unacceptable"

Reasons for bombing Serbia 25 years ago? "Unacceptable"

After the conflict, OSCE representative William Walker accused Serbia of what he claimed was a massacre of innocent civilians.

This was allegedly the reason for NATO's aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

The aggression that followed at the end of March 1999 was fully prepared in the last months of 1998, only waiting for the order to attack.

At a closed meeting on July 2, 1998, the NATO Council decided on the accelerated preparations for the attack on Serbia (FRY) and the deployment of troops in the border areas.

The 161st brigade of the so-called KLA operated around Štimlje. In that area, from July 1998 to January 1999, 24 people were killed, members of the Serbian Police, the Yugoslav Army, or civilians, and 25 people were also wounded. From October 1998 to mid-January 1999, terrorists of the so-called KLA killed Siniša Mihajlović, Nazmi Alurij, Saša Janković, Ranko Đorđević, Svetislav Pešić, as well as civilians Enver Gashi and Miftar Reseni around Štimlje.

The police action in Račak on January 15, 1999, was directly caused by the murder of three policemen on January 8 and policeman Svetislav Pržić on January 10. The police action took place, after a delay, in the early morning of January 15.

Drecun: It’s beyond comprehension

Milovan Drecun was a guest on the morning program of RTS and said that he returned from Kosovo and Metohija the previous day.

"I was the first to publish what happened in Račak, the entire action in the book The Second Battle of Kosovo. This was quoted by the late Slobodan Milošević at the Hague Tribunal in the opening statement of the defense. That Račak case was a fundamental pillar of the Hague Tribunal's indictment against Milosevic regarding the events at Kosovo and Metohija. After that quote that Milosevic took out of my book and some other events, the court dropped that part of the indictment. The indictment related to the Račak case itself was completely withdrawn and thrown out. This speaks volumes for the fact that there was no evidence, that there was no massacre," said Drecun.

However, as he says, it is incomprehensible that for 25 years he persists in presenting a lie as the truth and that Serbia continues to be accused of a non-existent massacre.

Drecun pointed out that he had previously met with William Walker in Rogovo, as well as with the British general, and that he saw "how ready these people are to manipulate what was happening".

He also states that Walker had arrived in Račak before the journalists and that he had prepared the scenography. When the journalist teams arrived, some bodies were moved to a neighboring village, and some of the members of the so-called KLA were dressed in civilian clothes. Although they spoke of a massacre, there was no blood and no shell casings.

He also reminds us that before the start of the action, our security services announced to the OSCE that the action would be carried out.

"If someone wants to commit a massacre, he's not crazy to tell someone. The OSCE comes, deploys when the action is supposed to start there on the road in front of the village and is present all the time while the conflicts in the village of Račak continue," said Drecun.

Investigating judge Danica Marinković, who was working on the Račak case at the time, repeatedly stated that Walker's assessment that a massacre and war crime took place in Račak was a lie.

In his latest address, he points out that the truth was known to everyone from the very beginning, including those who decided to bomb the then-Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but that it was not in their interest.

Radosavljević: West will never admit what really happened in Račak

Speaking about the action in Račak, retired police general Goran Radosavljević says that the action itself was planned based on operational data and events on the ground.

"The action was prepared for a long time, that village was ethnically clean, and there were no Serbs in it, but we had enough information to act. We were observing the village, and we knew that there were no civilians in it, but only terrorists in one house and at the school in the village of Račak. They were expecting our arrival, but they didn't know when," said Goran Radosavljević.

The fact that the police did not secure the scene, he claims, did not affect the action itself.

"As for the consequences, the FRY would have been bombed even without it. It is only one of the omissions that the place was not secured, the police left the village, and I cannot claim who is responsible. In the operation itself, a large terrorist group was eliminated which posed a threat to both civilians and the police who were traveling to Uroševac," said the former police general.

According to him, the head of the verification mission, William Walker, entered Račak with the terrorists during the night, where they brought bodies from other locations.

"It was clear to us that it was a montage that would result in the bombing of the country, but that was already expected. Everyone knows the truth from the first day, however, the West will never admit that the police action was legitimate. We were not afraid even then not even after, because we knew we were working for our country," retired police general Goran Radosavljević told RTS.