Exactly 20 years began NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. The first shells fell on Serbian cities on March 24, 1999, and the aggression lasted 78 days. The desire of the Serbs to preserve the integrity of the country in parts of Kosovo and Metohija tried to ruthlessly stop 19 countries of the world’s largest military bloc. Contrary to allegations of strikes against military targets, bridges and roads, a telecentre, schools and hospitals, a passenger train, enterprises, including petrochemicals, became targets of NATO aircraft. About two thousand civilians, 89 children, became victims of the attack. And the consequences of the bombing are felt by the new generations of Serbians.
This intervention, besides being a tragic event for thousands of simple, peaceful families, was also a vivid demonstration of the face of a unipolar world. Unpunished war crimes, the formation of a quasi- “state” on the basis of a terrorist organization, media technologies justifying the invasion – against Yugoslavia, as many local and foreign experts now say, were conducted not just a war, but an experiment, testing technologies that are potentially possible in others parts of the planet.
Today, Belgrade and other cities in Serbia recall the victims of NATO bombings. Events are held at the state level, and in the organization of various social structures. What happened 20 years ago, perhaps, for many generations in advance, determined the outlook of millions of Serbs, and not only them but all of us