24.03.2012.
Day of Remembrance for victims of NATO bombing
On the occasion of marking the Day of Remembrance for victims of the NATO bombing, President of the Republic of Serbia, Boris Tadic, Minister of Defence Dragan Sutanovac and the Serbian Armed Forces Chief of General Staff Lieutenant General Ljubisa Dikovic laid a wreath at the memorial to victims killed in NATO bombing in 1999, in Aleksinac.On behalf of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces, the wreaths were laid by the Deputy Chief of General Staff Major General Milan Bjelica, Army Commander Major General Milan Mojsilovic, and Air Force and Air Defence Commander Major General Ranko Zivak.
Wreaths at the memorial to victims were laid by representatives of the Municipality of Aleksinac and relatives of the victims, and the remembrance ceremony was attended by a large number of citizens of Aleksinac, as well as the members of the Serbian Armed Forces Guard and cadets of the Military Academy.
After laying the wreath, President Tadic said that there are many places in Serbia like Aleksinac and that is the place where we pay homage to the citizens who were killed.- As the poet said a moment ago, this war has happened to us "from Milica to Grdelica" and it was a crime against our country and against our people. We will always mark this day remembering the killed citizens. Unfortunately, we cannot bring back those who lost their lives, but we can keep the memory of them alive, the President said.
- Everything we do in the future should be built on the way so that we never become involved in any war again, keeping primarily human lives and our country, President Tadic underlined.
Aleksinac is a town with 17,000 inhabitants in the South Morava River valley, which was bombed several times in spring 1999. The memorial dedicated to the victims was erected at the place where private houses were hit on the 5th April. On that occasion, 11 people were killed, 50 of them suffered serious bodily injuries, and many residential buildings were completely destroyed including a health centre and an ambulance.
The city was bombed again on 27th May when the private houses and industrial zones of the city were affected.
On the occasion of the Day of Remembrance, the wreaths have been laid today at memorials throughout Serbia, to mark the suffering under the NATO air intervention against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY), which lasted 78 days. The bombing ended on 10th June by signing of the Kumanovo Agreement and the adoption of the UN Security Council Resolution 1244.
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