BELGRADE, March 24./TASS/. Members and supporters of the Serbian Radical Party staged a rally in Belgrade on Sunday, March 24, the day that marks 20 years since NATO launched its military operation against Yugoslavia. Party leader Vojislav Seselj burned flags of NATO and the European Union during the Sunday rally, Tanjug news agency reported.
"Twenty years ago we saw criminal and barbarous raids against the Serbian people and the killing of Serbian children. We must never forget this, and it will never occur to the Serbian people to join this organization [NATO] to make us then attack other peoples," the politician said.
"We have nothing to seek in the EU, as most EU countries are NATO members. There is only one road for Serbia and the Serbian people - this is a road east, integration with Russian and membership of the Collective Security Treaty Organization," Seselj added. Participants in the rally chanted "Serbia, Russia, we don’t need the European Union" as they marched through Belgrade’s streets.
NATO air raids
March 24, 2019 marks 20 years since NATO started its military operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The bombings started without the permission of the UN Security Council. Top NATO officials said the primary cause of Operation Allied Force was to prevent the alleged genocide of the Albanian population in Kosovo. According to the NATO website, during the operation, which lasted 78 days, the alliance’s warplanes made 38,000 sorties, more than 10,000 of them for conducting bombing raids.
According to Western data published by Human Rights Watch, the bombings killed nearly 500 civilians and some 1,000 military. Serbian data said some 2,000 civilians died in the bombings and several hundred people went missing, while the death toll among the military is estimated at 1,000. Serbia’s military and industrial infrastructure was almost fully destroyed, and more than 1,500 settlements, 60 bridges, 30% schools and 100 monuments were ruined. Material damage amounted to between $30bln and $100bln, and some facilities have not been reconstructed by now.
