30.05.2015.

Anniversary of the NATO bombing in Varvarin marked

Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic attended the ceremony marking 16 years since the NATO bombing of Serbian town of Varvarin, when many civilians were killed. He laid a wreath at the Memorial to the victims of NATO bombing on the Varvarin Bridge, accompanied by Brigadier Generals Marinko Pavlovic and Dejan Jankovic.

Episcope of Krusevac David held the service for the victims.

Minister Gasic stressed that today “we remember the time when, 16 years ago, the force of weapons overpowered the reason”.

- Scars of the victims of war still hurt. Memories of the suffering hardly fade, especially for the parents, sisters, brothers and friends that lost their loved ones. Even for the others, those who did not lose anyone, cannot be unmoved by the sense of pain – Minister of Defence said, stating that “we must not allow those difficult days to fall into oblivion”.

He added that we must also think about the present and the future, while bowing down to the memory of those that were killed in 1999.

- For the sake of them, we must not allow bridges to keep us apart, but they need to connect us, just like they always had. Let us let the time overcome the ugly images from the past – Minister Gasic said.

President of the Municipality of Varvarin Bratislav Tasic stated that, with the memorial ceremony, “we are sending the message so this would not happen again”.

With the representatives of the Ministry of Defence and the Serbian Armed Forces, wreaths and flowers were also laid by representatives of the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy, Rasina District, Municipality of Vavarin, numerous delegations, and families and friends of the victims.

Best student of the Grammar School in Varvarin traditionally threw a wreath of flowers into the Great Morava, as a token of eternal memory of the victims.
On Sunday, 30th May 1999, on the day of the religious festival of the Holy Trinity and the time when the Sunday greenmarket was crowded with people, at 1pm, NATO Air Forces threw three projectiles on a bridge over the Great Morava river, killing 10 and heavily and lightly wounding dozens of people.