Killing Yugoslavia: The 20th Anniversary of the 78-Day Illegal NATO Air Bombings

March 24th, 2019 will mark the 20th anniversary of 78-day NATO air-bombing of Yugoslavia, with Serbia suffering the most catastrophic damage since it was the central target. As was already mentioned, Serbia was at the centre of one of the most vicious U.S. imperialist propaganda campaigns; to add insult to injury, it was re-victimized and humiliated in the ICC.

There are also reasonable grounds to believe that former Yugoslavian President and Serbian-born Slobodan Milošević was murdered (via poisoning) in 2006. Milošević was unfairly indicted for alleged war crimes and was arrested on March 31st, 2001. He was put on trial in the Hague Tribunal in 2002 and spent four years in prison, until the day of his death on March 11th, 2006. One of his defense lawyers, Christopher Black, writes [1]:

"The death of Slobodan Milosevic was clearly the only way out of the dilemma the NATO powers had put themselves in by charging him before the Hague tribunal. The propaganda against him was of an unprecedented scale. The trial was played in the press as one of the world’s great dramas, as world theatre in which an evil man would be made to answer for his crimes. But of course, there had been no crimes, except those of the NATO alliance, and the attempt to fabricate a case against him collapsed into farce. 

The trial was necessary from NATO’s point of view in order to justify the aggression against Yugoslavia and the putsch by the DOS forces in Belgrade supported by NATO, by which democracy in Yugoslavia was finally destroyed and Serbia reduced to a NATO protectorate under a Quisling regime. His illegal arrest, by NATO forces in Belgrade, his illegal detention in Belgrade Central Prison, his illegal rendition to the former Gestapo prison at Scheveningen, near The Hague, and the show trial that followed, were all part of the drama played out for the world public, and it could only have one of two endings, the conviction, or the death, of President Milosevic."

No matter how much they humiliated Milošević on the world stage, and no matter how unlawful his arrest was or unfair his trial was, the ICC had no credible evidence to suggest that a "genocide" or any other alleged war crimes took place at the behest of his government during Washington's decade-long war on Yugoslavia. And so the former President was about to be a free man. With that in mind, the circumstances surrounding his death are very suspicious, and how very convenient indeed that he would die when he came so close to being exonerated. Black also writes, "His acquittal would have brought down the entire structure of the propaganda framework of the NATO war machine and the western interests that use it as their armed fist." [2] The Hague and ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte even went as far as to go out to the media to make inconsistent claims that he deliberately took the wrong medication to "evade justice" --  as well as equally inconsistent claims that he committed suicide in order to sully the international courts and "evade justice". [3]

As soon as Yugoslavia was completely dismantled, Serbia's economy and social services saw rapid privatization as Neoliberalism infiltrated its markets. This was the aftermath of the 1999 bombings which came with destroyed infrastructure and the loss of industrial jobs, in addition to the balkanization of the Serbian province of Kosovo:

Another serious consequence of the NATO war in 1999 was the emigration of the younger generation to the West because they could not find work in their homeland. “Brain drain” is the name given to this migration of scientists and highly qualified skilled workers abroad that has been going on for decades. As a rule, doctors and nursing staff leave their home countries only after completing their extremely expensive training, which was financed by the taxpayers. Since the rich target countries do not pay any compensation for this, the home countries are left with billions in training costs. In Germany, taxpayers have to pay around 200.000 euros for the studies of a licensed doctor. If the research costs closely associated with teaching are added to the medical studies, the training costs almost double. According to calculations by the Munich-based Ifo Institute, if a 30-year-old female doctor goes abroad, it costs the taxpayer more than one million euros. (6) 

The economy and the people of Serbia are suffering badly. For years there has been a shortage of skilled labour, health systems have collapsed, mortality is on the rise, birth rates are falling, wages remain low, unemployment remains high and there is no end in sight to emigration. Rich EU states such as Germany have been massively influencing this exodus in their favour for years without compensating the country of origin. This increases the country’s need and its dependency. The country is being exploited – and that is pure neo-colonialism. The daily newspaper “Welt” headlined on 5th February 2019 “Serbia is bleeding out – and Germany is profiting”. (7) 

—Dr. Rudolf Hänsel [4]

Furthermore, the effects of the 1999 events also continue to be felt in terms of health because of the highly poisonous, radioactive uranium projectiles used in the bombings. By all accounts, what the United States had done to the former Yugoslavia -- and what it continues to do to other nations who refuse to kowtow its global dictatorship -- fits the very definition of terrorism.

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The video above is a 2009 interview with the last minister of Foreign Affairs of Yugoslavia, Zivadin Jovanovic, in Belgrade, Serbia. It was published on the 10th year anniversary of the NATO bombings.[5]

Notes:

1. Christopher Black, "The Death of Milosevic and NATO Responsibility." One Voyce of the World, 2015.

2. Ibid.

3. Marko Milošević, "MARKO MILOSEVIC'S LETTER TO THE ORGANS OF THE ICTY AND THE UNITED NATIONS REGARDING JUDGE PARKER'S INVESTIGATION INTO THE DEATH OF SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC." 2006. http://www.slobodan-milosevic.org/news/mm071706.htm

4. Dr. Rudolf Hänsel, "Twenty years Ago: NATO Aggression Against Serbia." Global Research, 2019. https://www.globalresearch.ca/20th-anniversary-nato-aggression-serbia-fry/5670029

5.  Zivadin Jovanovic, "1999 2009 there is no humanitarian war." Interview by Vanessa Stojilkovic and Zoran Jevric. InvestigAction, 2009. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH1Xf4zFilE