Forty Fifth Day of Bombing Yugoslavia

The Severest Attack on the Capital

AIM Podgorica, 8 May, 1999

(By AIM correspondent from Belgrade)

Saturday 8 May will be a day of mourning in Nis. The result of the last day of bombing in this city in the south of Serbia (on 7 May at 11.20 hours) is 15 dead civilians and about sixty injured. The very heart of Nis (the market place, bus terminal, and clinical hospital) was shot at by cluster bombs. The building of Nis University was also damaged. The pictures broadcast by the still visible Radio-Television Serbia which carried them from the local television station reminded of scenes of a real massacre not seen here since the war in Bosnia. Corpses and the wounded lying all over the place, in the streets, under ruins. The centre of Nis literally looked like a battle-ground with demolished houses, broken glass, cars in flames. Four persons died in hospitals as the result of bombing.

According to testimony of Dr. Ceda Kutlesic, director of the clinical hospital in Nis, a casette bomb fell on the parking place between the institute of pathology, emergency hospital and the ear-nose-throat clinic, many people were wounded and the damage is enormous. He also said that in the vicinity of the hospitals there were no military or police facilities and as he said, this strike was uncomprehensible for "human reason and intellect".

Late last night Reuters carried the statement of NATO from Brussels in which the treaty organization admits the use of casette bombs (banned as unconventional arms by Geneva conventions and rules of international law recognised by NATO member countries) claiming that they were not intended for the centre of Nis but that they "missed the target - the airfield in Nis". Even if it is a mistake it is a big one, especially for the precise NATO in view of considerable distance of the airfield from the centre of the city. There were not even expressions of regret in the statement.

In the 45th night of bombing of Yugoslavia, from the beginning of NATO airforce operations, Belgrade was experiencing its most difficult night. In four waves, between midnight and four o'clock in the morning, the centre of the city was bombed. Civilian targets were hit and damaged, even the building of the embassy of the People's Republic of China. Official Beijing demanded an urgent session of UN Security Council because of it. There were about thirty employees of the embassy in the building at the moment of the attack. The building was hit by three missiles, and as Tanjug reports there were wounded and killed persons. A while later, the number of the victims became more specific: two were dead, two were still searched for and about ten were injured. As Belgrade media reported, the ambassador of the Republic of China in Yugoslavia, Fa Jan Li, characterised the attack on the building of the embassy as intentional, "since it is far from military and industrial facilities. This could not have happened by mistake of the pilot. China is deeply shocked by the barbarian act of NATO which is a brutal violation of the United Nations Charter and international law".

Almost two hours before the attack, because of graphite bombs thrown on main transformers via which Belgrade is supplied with electric power, the city was left in the dark. Then detonations were heard in suburbs Bezanija, Lestane and Batajnica. About quarter of an hour before midnight, Jugoslavija Hotel in New Belgrade was hit, in the vicinity of Chinese Embassy, and a secondary music school was demolished. Downtown Belgrade, in Kneza Milosa street which Belgraders already call the "sooty street" because of previous bombing of police and army buildings, for the third time the building of the federal ministry of the interior was shot at, then the building of Army general staff once again, and the building of the government of Serbia. The office of the minister of information of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic is completely destroyed, who as BK Television carried, on the ruins of his office declared that he was "proud that his department was the target of the aggressor and that he and his associates would work as before...". In front of the once beautiful and now considerably damaged building of the government of the Republic of Serbia, there is a heap of broken glass, mortar and rubble. The street is closed for traffic.

The next attack on Belgrade began about two o'clock in the morning when Jugoslavija Hotel was hit for the second time. There are no information for the time being why it was targeted. Possible victims are shyly mentioned.

Quite a large number of civilian buildings downtown Belgrade have been left without glass on their windows. The detonations were so powerful that window panes and doors were ripped off. The urological hospital, the central pharmacy of the clinical hospital centre and the gyneacological hospital were damaged. Windows were broken on the Belgrade palace where, among other, premises of TV Studio B are located. Italian Embassy was also damaged in last night's bombing. According to Beta agency, there were no victims in it. Belgrade literally shook under detonations until four o'clock in the morning. The case of the Chinese embassy in New Belgrade threw everything into the shade, at least when the dead and the wounded are concerned. Local politicians are now expressing their condolence to the Chinese people and officials of this country.

Belgrade started getting electricity supply today in the afternoon. It is more difficult with water supply, especially in high buildings in New Belgrade.

The territory of Paracin municipality was also bombed last night. Agencies report that Novi Sad and parts of Sombor were also bombed. Detonations were heard in the densely populated part of Nosi Sad called Detelinara, the inhabitants of which had already been victims of a bomb that fell on their part of the city two days ago and damaged buildings and a school.

Agencies reported that in the vicinity of Lipljani in Kosovo, the body of Fehmi Agani, Rugova's close associate was found, who was believed to have been abroad, it was stated. In the official Tanjug's news, the murder of Agani was characterised as a terrorist act attributed to the Kosovo Liberation Army which, it was said, had also threatened Ibrahim Rugova in revenge for participation in the negotiatons and collaboration with the regime in Belgrade.

Belgraders are nowadays busy surviving. Due to interrupted power supply, destroyed TV relays and transmitters, there is less and less information. Priviled spectators who watch foreign TV programs spread the news by telephone to those whose electric power supply has been cut off. They say that there are less and less reports on civilian victims. The evening daily news program of state television, judging by the time it got, is also talking mostly about the shelling of Chinese embassy like the rest of the world.

Spomenka Lazic

(AIM)