15th anniversary of NATO bombing marked in Vienna

VIENNA - The Austrian-Serbian Solidarity Movement organized a gathering in downtown Vienna late on Monday to mark 15 years since the NATO aggression on the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

With the message “NATO aggression, a crime without punishment - Lest we forget", the public paid their respects to the victims of the 78-day bombing campaign.

Lazar Bilanovic, president of the Austrian-Serbian Solidarity Movement gave credit to the people who were gathering in Vienna throughout all 78 days to protest against the NATO bombing.

Radisa Djokic, a poet from Vienna, pointed to “the NATO's and the EU's mendacious policy” and the interest-based motives of the military and financial industries whose goal is not peace.

Austrian Wilhelm Langthaler, who joined the Serbs in the daily protests, said that the injustice done to the Serbian people must not be forgotten. The greatest victims of this war were Serbs, even though they are constantly referred to as the perpetrators, he said.

According to Austrian political expert Hannes Hofbauer, March 24, 1999 marked the end of the European post-war reconstruction and created a precedent for further interventions in Europe and the world.

During the NATO bombing campaign, which was launched on March 24,1999, around 3,000 people were killed and around 12,000 wounded.

During the 78-day air raids, 1,008 Yugoslav Forces troops and Serbian policemen were killed, as well as around 1,500 civilians, including 89 children, while about a dozen people remain missing.

Around 6,000 civilians were wounded, including 2,700 children, as well as 5,173 military troops and policemen. Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo-Metohija account for more than half of the...