BALKANS: Radio Station Bombing Dispute Rises Again

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, May 2 2006 (IPS) - A book by a Serbian journalist has again stirred controversy over the NATO bombing of the Radio Television of Serbia building in Belgrade in April 1999. Sixteen people were killed in the attack.

The book ‘Silence on Aberdareva Street’ blames the Serbian regime then led by Slobodan Milosevic besides the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) for the bombing.

“This was a premeditated sacrifice of 16 innocent people by the regime, with the aim of scoring a propaganda point,” author Zoran Janjic told IPS.

None of the victims were journalists. They were sound or tape technicians, tape editors, make-up specialists and security personnel. Four were aged above 50, the rest being in their 20s and 30s. Two among them were women, both aged 27.

“Although it is evident and clear that NATO executed a crime with the bombing of RTS, it is also evident that this was an organised crime by the regime with the aim of gaining the decisive upper hand in the propaganda war,” Janjic said.

Families of victims are still fighting to bring those responsible to trial. Only one man has been sentenced for the deaths. Dragoljub Milanovic, head of RTS at the time and one of the aides of Milosevic, received a 10-year prison sentence in 2002. He was found guilty of failing to evacuate the employees.

The 11-week NATO bombing campaign against Serbia in 1999 was undertaken due to the repression of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo by Milosevic’s regime.

Janjic and survivors say the regime was warned in advance of the imminent bombing of the RTS building, but did nothing.

“Deputy editor-in-chief Dusan Vojvodic came to the building in the late evening hours and took home his daughter Natalija, who was the journalist on duty at the time,” Janjic says.

Vojvodic has always denied this. But only minutes after the RTS building was hit at 02.06 am Apr. 23, editor-in-chief Milorad Komrakov and information minister Aleksandar Vucic arrived with TV crews from nearby cafes.

The book names several top RTS officials it claims knew of the bombing in advance. The officials have denied the accusations, and refused to comment to IPS.

The book quotes journalist Dragana Kuzmanovic of RTS, one of the closest aides of Milosevic’s wife Mira, as saying that “NATO did send the list of targets to be bombed” to the Serbian leadership.

International media crew that worked from the RTS building since the bombing of Serbia began Mar. 24 stopped coming to the RTS offices a week before it was hit.

“We were informed by our head office that RTS was going to be the target,” a Serbian reporter working for an international TV station told IPS. “We did not know the exact date, but we were warned; we did pass the warning to relevant people in RTS.” CNN and NBC staff are quoted making similar statements.

NATO representatives had said then that the TV station was a “legitimate target” because it was the strongest propaganda machinery of Milosevic.

A day after the bombing, Milosevic’s regime announced it was pressing charges against NATO before the UN-founded International Court of Justice (ICJ) for “genocide and excessive use of force.” The charges were drafted in advance, they could not have been prepared in one night, Janjic claims.

The ICJ said it had no jurisdiction because the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia then was not a member of the United Nations.

Milosevic fell from power in 2000.. He died last month in the detention unit of the UN- founded International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, while on trial for war crimes.

“There is only one question we want the real answer to: why did the regime leave our dear ones to die and who will be finally held responsible for that,” said Zanka Stojanovic. “Milosevic is dead now, but there are others. In our hearts and minds it is clear that they knew in advance and practically collaborated with NATO, who did carry out the execution of my son and other innocent victims”.