24.03.2019.
“We will forgive if we can, but we will forget only if we perish”
The Day of Remembrance for Victims of the NATO Aggression in 1999 was marked by a state ceremony under the slogan “We will forgive if we can, but we will forget only if we perish” and a moleben at the Square of King Milan in Niš, a city of great suffering during the aggression. Symbolically, the ceremony began with the sound of air raid sirens at 19:45, in memory of the start of the NATO aggression on 24th March 1999.
The ceremony was led by President of the Republic of Serbia and Supreme Commander of the Serbian Armed Forces, Aleksandar Vučić, and attended by His Holiness Patriarch Irinej of Serbia, Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina Milorad Dodik, President of Republika Srpska Željka Cvijanović, Prime Minister of the Serbian Government Ana Brnabić, ministers, representatives of state institutions and numerous citizens.
In his address, the president of Serbia reminded of the events of 20 years ago when “they started to destroy Serbia”.- It has been for five years now that we are marking the anniversary of NATO's aggression against a small, freedom-loving and never-conquered country, in this magnificent way. I am proud of you, dear Serbian citizens, because your libertarian spirit made us, by teaching the younger generation about what was going on, not to forget that we can build the future only on such foundations, preserving Serbia's freedom, autonomy and independence as the highest value. Thank you for having Serbia of pride and future tonight with us. I want to say from here that, whatever happens, never allow anyone to destroy freedom and independence of the Republic of Serbia. Never – President Vučić said.
He reflected on the days of aggression, saying that we do not have the right to bow our heads and say we are a mistake.
- We are not a mistake. We are a numerically small, proud people, a victor in great wars, powerful, gifted, ready for sacrifice, but also for reconciliation, with this one, a small condition important for our survival – that we never forget, never, to anyone, our lives - President Vučić said emphasising that it is necessary to repeat, to the ends of time, that those people, that our children, were no mistake.
Stressing that the mistake was what some others did, and it was not only a mistake, but a crime, Vučić added that no matter how powerful we were, we could not stop repeating that it was a crime – against our children, against our people, also adding that Serbia will do everything to communicate using words “not iron”.
- We have to look for solutions to avoid bullets, not because we are weak. I will remind you that when I became defence minister, we had one MiG-29, which has more often been decorating our meadows than flying, because we did not even have a hangar. The Serbian Armed Forces today is a respectable force and has 14 MiG-29s, which are not only capable of flying, but they are also armed and equipped with the most powerful radar systems in the world. We are able to defend our state and national interests, but our state policy must be conversation instead of bullets – which is the policy of the future. This is the only way to find peace for all those who died in all the wars and in the aggression of 20 years ago – the president of Serbia said.
In his address to Master Sergeant Sladjan Vučković, he addressed the accident that changed his life.
- This wonderful man lost both his hands when he ran into the 107th mine that the criminals threw down to Serbia. But he has Anđela and Bogoljub, his grandchildren, and he will have more of them, God willing. Thank you Slađan, for your heroism, loyalty to your homeland, because what are all of us for our homeland? Nothing. There is nothing more important than our homeland. Thank you, infinitely. I bow to everything that you have done and done for our homeland. Thank you so much for all of our children that you saved from criminal mines – the president of Serbia said.
On the twentieth anniversary of the aggression, the Serbian President said that we are grateful to the best among us “and these are the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, who are guarding their hearth and their Serbian names”.
- During its historical period, Serbia has repeatedly raised and recovered as phoenix birds. Today we can proudly say that the smart people and the good people of Serbia, who are faithful to the patriotic ideals of the ancestors and are dedicated to the future of their children, have launched the revival of the fatherland. Nobody will stop it on this path of the future and progress – President Vučić said.
The Serbian President said that Serbia does not want to join NATO and that military neutrality is our natural choice.
- We want to be masters on our own land and nothing more. We do not threaten anyone, but Serbia today is ten times stronger than in 1999 and twenty times stronger than in 2008 – he concluded.
Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Milorad Dodik said that in 1999, NATO made a “terrible crime of aggression against Serbia, but also against Republika Srpska, that was unjust, unfair and cannot be forgiven, and Serbia should be united along with all the Serbs outside Serbia”.
- The damage they caused was huge, civilisation-size, and they did not consider it necessary to apologize. I am not one of those who will ever forgive them and I will not be ready to go over it. During my term of office, but also when I am an ordinary person, I will have an inexcusable and sad memory of those days when such heavy losses were caused to Republika Srpska and Serbia, Dodik said.
Dodik added that today Kosovo issue has not been resolved yet and that the bombs were not a decisive political factor to solve this issue.
- Thanks to the current government, this issue is again on the agenda. Difficult, painful, in unfortunate circumstances, in which this same world is against the Serbs again attempting to bring them around to recognise the so-called Kosovo. That is why it is important that Serbia gathers together as well as all of us around Serbia. Aleksandar Vučić and his negotiating position and everything that he is doing today and trying to make from Serbia should be given strength. Free sky, of blue colour symbolising freedom – Dodik said, emphasising that “Serbia's strength is in the power of the state, its president, government, democracy”.
His Holiness Patriarch of Serbia, Irinej, said in his address that today we remember the most tragic days in history and stressed that such a thing should never be repeated in any other place in the world.
- Sounds of alarm sirens are present in our lives today. We hear them in our dreams, in our memories. These are the most tragic days in our history, the days that we would like never to repeat again to our people or anywhere else in the world. These are the sounds of hell, the sounds of hatred that emerge from the depths of human beings that destroy, bring to death, and the saddest memories – Patriarch Irinej said.
The Patriarch said that we must come together and unite in goodness and that we needed it most today, because that is what our history, our culture and our ancestors deserve, which left a footprint in history and culture.
The Patriarch added that “what we see in our streets today is not good, because it gives power to our enemies”.
- It is known how the position and authority are to be gained. They can neither gain it in this way, nor scathe, but they can harm their people and their country. They should turn to their people, their homeland and the future with more love. We are a nation that distinguishes by its love for other nations, the Patriarch of Serbia said, adding that we have to defeat the evil that has come to us, defend our holy places in Kosovo and Metohija.
Recalling the sacrifices of ancestors, Patriarch of Serbia pointed out that we have to fight for the holy land of Kosovo and Metohija.
- We have to fight for that holy land, for which our ancestors shed blood and sacrificed lives, to preserve it and leave it to inheritance just as our ancestors left it to us. We cannot give this holy land to anyone. We must defend it with all the permissible means, but God save us from using other means. We do not want this and we pray to the Lord not to come to such an opportunity – Patriarch Irinej said.
Attendees were also addressed by Sergeant Major Slađan Vučković, a military deminer who lost both his hands on 25th April 1999, during the clearing of cluster bombs on Kopaonik.
In his address, he stressed that on that day his life changed completely and “the bomb from the NATO air force made his children to grow up too early”.
Members of the Serbian Armed Forces marked the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the NATO Aggression in 1999 by laying wreaths and flowers in all garrisons.
The delegation of the Army, led by the Commander Lieutenant General Milosav Simović, laid wreaths at the Memorial Chapel and the Monument near the Niš fortress, in the Niš city centre and at the Memorial to the victims of the NATO aggression in the “Mija Stanimirović” barracks.
A delegation of the Air Force and Air Defence, led by Commander Major General Duško Žarković, laid a wreath at the memorial in Zemun, near the building of the AF&AD Command, raised in honour of the members of the aviation killed during the NATO aggression.
In the NATO aggression, which began on 24th March 1999 and lasted for 78 days, 2 500 people were killed. In bombings that lasted for 11 weeks without interruption, infrastructure, businesses, schools, medical institutions, media houses, cultural monuments, were badly damaged.
The NATO aggression was completed by signing the Kumanovo Agreement on 9th June and the adoption of Resolution 1244 by the United Nations Security Council.
