They tried to dismember our country, and it’s been 25 years and we still don’t give in, we don’t agree to the dismemberment of Serbia, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said on Sunday evening at the state commemoration on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the NATO-led bombing, Hina news agency writes.
Across Serbia today, a series of commemorations marked the 25th anniversary of the start of NATO air strikes on the former Yugoslavia, in which, according to official estimates, around 3,500 soldiers, policemen and civilians, including 89 children, were killed, and around 6,000 people were wounded, while economic damage is measured in billions of dollars.
The Western military alliance began attacks on the territory of the FRY on March 24, 1999 at 7:45 p.m. after Belgrade’s refusal to sign the Rambouillet agreement on Kosovo.
The decision on the bombing was made as a precedent in the history of the UN, without the approval of the Security Council, because NATO members, due to the vetoes announced by Russia and China, failed to obtain the consent of the UN Security Council.
On Saturday, the ambassadors of the leading Western countries published a statement in which they explained the reasons for launching the NATO airstrikes, stressing that “the Allied Force operation was designed to force Slobodan Milošević, the then president of the FRY, to stop the abuse of the civilian population in Kosovo, to prevent humanitarian disaster and enable refugees and displaced persons to return, and humanitarian organizations access to Kosovo”.
The airstrikes lasted until June 10, 1999, when an agreement was reached in Kumanovo that mandated the withdrawal of military and police forces from Kosovo and the establishment of the UN Interim Administrative Mission (UNMIK).
“You have not done your dirty work of breaking this country into pieces, because this nation is stronger and Serbia is stronger. Serbia will resist, you cannot take away our freedom, we will not give it and we will never voluntarily admit that you take Kosovo from us. Who and what are we without Serbia? Nobody and nothing,” Vučić said last night in Prokuplje in the south of Serbia, where the central commemorative event was held.
This year, he added, “some tried to explain to us that the bombing was necessary for us, in order for Serbia to move forward into the future.”
“And in the next sentence they say that they believe that Serbia and Kosovo will look to the future together,” said Vučić.
Enough killing, Vučić added, assessing that Serbia has a good future ahead of it.
“Ahead of us is a good and great future for Serbia, which will know how to defend itself,” said the Serbian president.
The commemoration in Prokuplje was attended by the head of state of Serbia, the president of the Bosnian entity of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, and the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Porifrija, who served the memorial service for the victims during the three-month bombing in 1999.
