“Children Accuse – Children-Victims of NATO aggression against FR Yugoslavia”
“Children Accuse – Children-Victims of NATO aggression against FR Yugoslavia”
by Dr phil. Barbara Hug
The NATO war against a small Balkan country is soon celebrating its 20th anniversary. Serbia and Kosovo-Methochia today, then already the fragmented Yugoslavia, experienced a “blitzkrieg” that Hitler could not have done better. Novi Sad, Belgrade, southern Serbia and Kosovo have been bombarded with cluster bombs and mini-nukes bringing forth to this day their cruel trail of destruction of life.
The Commission of the Revealing of Crimes Against Humanity and against the International Law of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia reveals in the present book the fate of the children who were relentlessly sent to suffering and death. Author is Dr Margit Savovic, then Minister of Human Rights in the Yugoslav government. Only a few hundred copies of this documentary have been printed, although it provides substantial background for understanding the magnitude of attacks on the civilian population in April/May 1999.
In the fields, when harvesting or driving the cattle, when playing in the barn, at school, on the bus trip, at the weekend visit to relatives – death came mercilessly. Children were victims, as were their parents and grandparents – all civilian victims.
Precision weapons hit the tractor, where often the whole family was sitting. Craters show the violence of the impact. Who really knows the villages and areas where all this happened? Finding a map and locating the sceneries would be worthwhile.
The testimonies produced by the regional police stations give an impression of the circumstances of death, of the nature of the injuries, we see bodies with torn heads, carbonised bodies, documented in the hospital, autopsy reports, the destruction of residential buildings, photographic images complete the testimonies of the survivors.
Branislava Pavlovics from Ralja for example, who lost her husband and her children, places on record
(see above).
The Yugoslav Committee of UNICEF composed this collection – but it was not allowed to reach the public. The 500 printed copies disappeared, and only thanks to Dr Savovic posterity gets a copy thereof. The death of a child also destroys the lives of the parents and of the whole family. Every breath parents live with their children and for their children. The emotional connection is so close and unique that the parents, so to speak, die with their children. Who can gauge this suffering and injustice caused by the “blitzkrieg”?
In the meantime, Serbia and Kosovo are experiencing a constantly rising cancer rate, caused by the ammunition used. A test area for new weapons, that was also the 1999 war. Nobody feels responsible, nobody wants to take responsibility. We should certainly take note of it. •
Savovic, Margit. Children Accuse – Children-Victims of NATO Aggression against FR Yugoslavia. Ed. by Yugoslav Commission for the cooperation with UNICEF, Belgrade 2002, 490 p.,
ISBN 86-7552-013-1
The book can be ordered in its electronic form against a contribution towards costs at <link>b.hug@thurweb.ch.