Consequences of NATO's attacks

In The Jakarta Post April 13, 1999, editorial "How many more bombs?" you mentioned "The glimpses of terrified Serbs living under the constant threat of aerial bombardment". However, to get a better picture of the plight of complete population of almost 11 million of Yugoslavs, not only of Serbs, but also of members of 26 different national communities, let me add that the consequences of more than 1,000 criminal NATO attacks involving 600 aircraft and 800 cruises missiles have been devastating. Over 3,000 tons of explosives have been launched on 150 targets. Such a destructive power has caused enormous suffering and pain of the civilians in the Federation Republic of Yugoslavia.

After each attack on the selected targets in the territory of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the aggressor has admitted only their actions against military and police facilities. However, over 300 civilians including many women, children and the elderly have lost their lives during air strikes of the brutal and totally unprovoked NATO aggression of the Federation Republic of Yugoslavia which began on March 24, 1999. More than 3,000 citizens suffered serious injuries, while several thousands of enterprises and tens of thousands of houses have been destroyed.

During the attacks of NATO aggressive forces, a great number of industrial facilities, public enterprises, school buildings, nurseries, medical centers, bridges, radio and TV centers and their relay stations were destroyed or seriously damaged. The precious cultural and historical monuments and monasteries, including those which are under the Unesco protection (Gracanica and Pecka Patrijarsija) were not spared either.

The list of demolished and damaged factories is too long. During the Bombardment of the "Crvena Zastava" car factory in Kragujevac, 124 workers were injured. The aggressors knew that the workers were in the factory because the TV images about that had been broadcast already all over the world. The livelihood of about two million people has been endangered because of the crimes of the power wheelers, and they have lost any sources of living overnight.

The refugees camps in Pristina and Nis have been also become the target of NATO bombing when 15 refugees from Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina lost their lives. More than 30,000 refugees have become homeless.

A great number of bridges were demolished and damaged. The international navigation on the river of Danube has been completely discontinued by the demolition of the bridges in Novi Sad. Even the Orthodox Christian cemeteries were not spared during the onslaughts. The NATO Pact criminals used during the attacks the weapons banned by the international convention: cluster bombs and slow activating bombs.

However, as all of those was not enough, NATO is going to keep up and step up its bombing campaign in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

DUSAN STOJKOVIC

Charge d'Affaires a.i.

Embassy of the Federal

Republic of Yugoslavia

Jakarta