http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/world/serbs_remember_3_000
_killed_by_nato
Morning Star (Britain)
March 24, 2009
Serbs remember 3,000 killed by NATO
Serbians marked the 10th anniversary of the start of a NATO blitz on the
former federal republic of Yugoslavia on Tuesday with commemorations
honouring over 3,000 victims.
Air-raid sirens sounded at noon throughout the country, while schools opened
classes with a minute's silence for the 89 children who were killed in the
78-day bombing campaign, which was initiated without UN security council
backing.
NATO claimed that it had launched Operation Allied Force in order to force
then president Slobodan Milosevic to stop a military crackdown against
Western-backed separatist insurgents in Kosovo province and pull out his
troops.
But the US Clinton administration blocked a negotiated settlement at the
Rambouillet conference.
Some 15,000 NATO-led soldiers remain in Kosovo, which 56 countries now
recognise as an independent state after its ethnic Albanian-dominated
parliament declared unilateral independence from Serbia 13 months ago.
Deputy Serbian PM Ivica Dacic described Kosovo's unilateral declaration as a
resumption of the NATO aggression.
Ms Dacic said: "I wish to reiterate that the bombing was a result of false
accusations of genocide and ethnic cleansing - the bombing of Serbia was
just the culmination of pressure on the former Yugoslavia that began at the
start of the 1990s."
Visiting Communist Party of Greece (KKE) general secretary Aleka Papariga
said: "We are in Belgrade to remember and show our respect to the Serb
people for the barbaric attacks by 19 NATO countries and to renew the two
peoples' friendly relations."
Ms Papariga and a KKE delegation visited the home town of late president
Slobodan Milosevic in Pozarevac and laid a wreath at his tomb.
The KKE leader said: "We came to remember the abduction, in essence, of
Slobodan Milosevic, which fully exposed the so-called European democracy.
"Precisely on this continent, which supposedly has a great culture and
humanism, a person was abducted before being tried with lies.
"He died shortly before the outcome, reminding us that the struggle of a
people never has an end," Ms Papariga declared.
She called on the people of Serbia and Europe to "lead matters to the
ultimate condemnation of imperialism" observing that "there is also a
popular trial that inspires the peoples."
Later in the day, the KKE delegation participated in an international peace
conference in Belgrade which was attended by representatives of
anti-imperialist groups from 45 countries.
Serbian News Network - SNN
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