Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia addressed the Serbian people on the anniversary of the NATO bombing of Serbia. In his remarks, the Crown Prince spoke of those affected by the bombing and criticised NATO’s operations during the war in the Balkans.
Crown Prince Alexander began his statement: “Twenty-three years have passed, and our people, our country, are still not fully recovered from the terrible aggression that occurred during those tragic 78 days in 1999. The suffering of innocent people, so many lives lost and destroyed, from the terror that was imposed upon all our citizens, keeps wounds hurting and memory of this tragedy fresh.”
His Royal Highness continued: “This was an unprecedented event of total aggression in Europe since World War Two, that was not authorised by the United Nations. Once again, regrettably, it is confirmed that violence only produces more violence and pain. And innocent people are those who always suffer the most.
“The memory of this aggression needs to remain alive and fresh; we must never forget all those that tragically fell as victims of this madness. They always must be in our minds, our hearts, and our prayers. We owe it to them, but also us, so that tragedy like this can never happen again.”
Crown Prince Alexander talked about this subject when he was interviewed by Royal Central in 2017. While discussing the establishment of democracy in Serbia, the Crown Prince said: “So I met the democratic opposition, and I became friends with the future prime minister, Mr Zoran Đinđić. And then I implemented, after the bombing here, which was criminal, I implemented meetings, conferences in Budapest, in Bosnia, Athens, and the last one was organised by Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.”
The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia (which Serbia was part of) was a military operation during the Kosovo War against Yugoslavia that lasted from 24 March to 10 June 1999. NATO called it a humanitarian intervention but launched the campaign without UN authorisation. It was the first time NATO had used force without the approval of the UN Security Council.
Around 489 to 528 civilians were killed. In addition, the airstrikes destroyed bridges, industrial plants, public buildings, private businesses, barracks and military installations.
