Posted on 07/26/2002 12:49:18 PM PDT by Nachum
"...I am afraid that a conflict such as this is an unpleasant business. There is no nice way of conducting it." Tony Blair, 26 Apr 1999, answering a question in the UK Parliament regarding the death of 16 Yugoslav civilians killed during targeted NATO bombing of a radio and television station in Belgrade (see below for complete quote)
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In the early hours of April 23 1999, Nato bombed the head office of Radio-Television Serbia in Belgrade, killing 16 employees, mostly technicians and support staff, and injuring 16 others. [...]
Why did Nato deliberately bomb a civilian target that no one seems ever to have seriously suggested was performing any military function? [...]
But by April 18 the concept of what constituted a legitimate target had apparently changed. Shea said at a press briefing: "I think the time has come to take a closer look at the Serb state media. It is not really a media at all; it is part of President Milosevic's war machine." Attacks followed on radio relay and TV transmitting stations. General Giuseppe Marani, a Nato spokesman, described these on April 21 as attacks designed to "disrupt the regime and degrade the FRY [Federal Republic of Yugloslavia] propaganda apparatus". Within two days Nato had graduated from bombing transmitters to bombing the RTS studios.
Source:
Guardian Unlimited, "At war with Nato", Tuesday October 23, 2001
http://www.guardian.co.uk/serbia/article/0,2479,579007,00.html
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Mr. Martin Bell (Tatton): I wonder whether we can ask for a little more clarity about targeting; we need it because last week, for the first time, NATO attacked a target--the television station in Belgrade--which could not have been destroyed but for the certainty of killing civilians inside it. With that attack, NATO crossed a rubicon which, in my judgment, should not have been crossed. If we are unwilling to adopt a conclusive strategy--which, as the Prime Minister knows very well, includes the use of ground troops--surely we have to spare the innocent civilians.
The Prime Minister: People cannot have this all ways round, I am afraid. The television stations and the Serbian media are part of the Milosevic power apparatus--part of the apparatus that keeps him in power and allows his dictatorship to carry out the policies of ethnic cleansing. I have no doubt at all that action was justified. We do everything we can to minimise civilian casualties, but I am afraid that a conflict such as this is an unpleasant business. There is no nice way of conducting it. What is important is to conduct it in such a way that we leave Milosevic and his regime in no doubt that we will carry on pounding every part of that regime day after day until it accedes to the NATO demands. That is the only thing that we can do. The best answer to people who accuse us of risking civilian casualties is to say that we do everything that we can to avoid civilian casualties. Compare and contrast that with the deliberate and brutal murder of people in Kosovo. Source:
The United Kingdom Parliament. The Official Report (Hansard)
26 Apr 1999 : Column 31
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199899/cmhansrd/vo990426/debtext/90426-08.htm
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199899/cmhansrd/vo990426/debtext/90426-09.htm
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NATO said its planes were justified in bombing a bridge in central Serbia, but Yugoslav officials said Monday that 12 civilians were killed in that attack and more died in other raids.
Yugoslavia said more than 30 people died in NATO air raids Sunday and Monday, including those killed in a raid Sunday on the Varvarin bridge over the Velika Morava River.
"This was a major line of communication and a designated and legitimate target," NATO said in a statement from its supreme commander, Gen. Wesley Clark. Source:
CNN: NATO says bridge was legitimate target http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9905/31/kosovo.01/
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For numerous more interesting examples of Europe's and the USA's (President Clinton) justification of civilian casualties during the bombing of Yugoslavia try the following search
http://www.google.com/search?q=Serbia+civilian+casualties+justified+European+Union&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&start=20&sa=N
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