The United States is currently negotiating peace with Russia in an attempt to end the war in Europe, which has been grinding on for more than three years. However, twenty-six years ago, the US, along with its NATO allies, decided to end a civil war in the Balkans in Europe by launching a barbaric bombing campaign.
Since Donald Trump assumed office as President in January, his administration has been making concerted attempts at ending the war in Europe. In fact, Trump has sidestepped his alliance with NATO states to deal directly with his Russian counterpart.
This is a sharp about-face by Washington, which had been at the forefront of joint NATO assistance for Ukraine. However, this alliance was not as divided as it is now.
Twenty-six years ago, led by the United States, NATO launched ‘Operation Allied Forces’—a large-scale bombing campaign against Yugoslavia—without obtaining the sanction from the United Nations Security Council.
On March 24, the 26th anniversary of the NATO bombing campaign in Yugoslavia, Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic said that the Serbs would never forget the atrocities against their homeland committed by NATO and lamented that the alliance had not been held accountable for its crimes.
“On this day, March 24, 1999, Nineteen big ones attacked Serbia, violating international law and the decisions of the United Nations Security Council. For the next 78 days, they ravaged our homeland, killed our children, damaged our bridges, factories, schools, and hospitals, and ruined our media…,” the Prime Minister wrote on X.
“We still remember the sound of air raid sirens and unceasing explosions. NATO still enjoys impunity for this offense. We are a nation that always remembers its victims and its history. We keep the memory of all those who bravely defended our country and sacrificed their lives for freedom and the future of our children, he added.
When NATO Rained Bombs On Yugoslavia
In 1999, a conflict erupted between Albanian separatists from the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and the Serbian army in what was then the Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia, consisting of Serbia and Montenegro.
The NATO forces launched a bombing campaign based on information that the Serbian Army was conducting an ethnic cleansing of the Albanians in Kosovo.
“We have incontrovertible evidence that tens of thousands of ethnic Albanians have been forcibly expelled from Kosovo and that thousands of dwellings have been torched,” states an archive from the US State Department from March 1999.
To end this war and bring about peace in the country, NATO allies led by the United States, the United Kingdom, and France launched “Operation Allied Forces” on March 24, 1999.
The allies did not seek authorization from the UN amid fears that a resolution seeking military intervention in the socialist country would be vetoed by Russia and China, the other two non-NATO permanent members of the UNSC.
At 19:00 UTC on March 24, NATO began its bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. This was the first time in about fifty years that NATO attacked a sovereign European country.
The first NATO aircraft to attack Belgrade and carry out Suppression of Enemy Air Defense (SEAD) sorties were the Spanish Air Force’s F/A-18 Hornets. In the Adriatic, ships and submarines launched Tomahawk cruise missiles.
The first NATO planes to enter Serbian airspace were four Dutch Air Force F-16AMs on the evening of March 24. The Dutch won their first air-to-air victory since World War II when they shot down the Serbian MiG-29 in a matter of minutes. However, a bigger and more significant incident to occur in this war was the deployment and shooting down of a US stealth aircraft.
The US Lost A Stealth Fighter
The US developed the world’s first operational stealth aircraft, the F-117 Nighthawk, in response to the need for a jet fighter that could completely evade the enemy’s radar. The aircraft was deployed to Yugoslavia during Operation Allied Force.
Three days into the conflict, the aircraft was shot down by a Soviet-era S-125 Pechora/Neva air defense system on March 27, 1999. The kill was reportedly scored when the US Air Force’s F-117 stealth fighter, also known as the super secret “Black Jet,” was on a night-time mission.
The F-117 pilot, whose name was withheld, later recalled: “I took off from Aviano Air Base, Italy. I flew the F-117 to the target and dropped two 2,000-lb—laser-guided weapons on a very specific target in the Belgrade area. I came off the target 20 nautical miles northwest of Belgrade when it happened.”
The pilot ejected behind enemy lines. The incident dispelled the perception of invulnerability associated with stealth technology. At a time when stealth capabilities were hailed as revolutionary, the episode seriously tarnished the image of American “stealth technology,” which was the result of decades of research.
Notably, this NATO war was full of surprises. For one, it saw a large-scale deployment of drones, which is far less discussed than the other aspects of Operation Allied Forces.
As the NATO air campaign escalated into nearly continuous bombing, drones, or light unmanned aerial vehicles, were flying over Kosovo. They were essentially just electronic scouts, finding and recording hard-to-find targets, including Serbian forces hiding in woods or bunkers, and sending the footage immediately to fighter jets above.
Destruction For Peace?
For an alliance that called for peace, the operation killed almost 2,500 people, including 87 children, in airstrikes that lasted from March 24 to June 10, 1999. These are official figures, and there is the possibility that the actual figures are even higher.
The bombing has been considered “illegal” by many, with accusations of human rights violations leveled against the countries that took part in the bloody campaign. While the NATO allies had promised to minimize civilian casualties and not cause harm to the country, they ended up dropping several tons of depleted uranium bombs on the country.
This was later classified as an “ecocide on a planetary scale” by a prominent Serbian expert on environmental issues, Prof. Velimir Nedeljkovic.
The professor made a documentary—”Uranium-238. My story”—which claims that at least 15 tons of depleted uranium were dropped on Serbia during the three months of the NATO aggression. According to the professor, previously quoted by TASS, the use of depleted uranium caused cancer in 30,000 people in the ten years after the bombing.
The NATO bombing campaign also resulted in an unprecedented incident that led to massive diplomatic fallout between the West and China.
While the NATO Alliance was bombing hundreds of targets over Serbia and Kosovo, most of them were military installations such as army headquarters and air defense stations. However, one of these attacks destroyed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.
On May 7, five bombs hit the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, killing three people and injuring over 20. In the aftermath of the incident, former US President Bill Clinton apologized to China and expressed his “profound condolences.” He regretted the strike and explained that the strike was an error.
However, more than 25 years later, the Chinese maintain that they will never forget the barbaric crimes of the US-led NATO bombing campaign.
Needless to say, the campaign went down in history as unjust in the Balkan state. The scars from the bombing remain fresh more than two decades later, especially since Serbia remains at odds with NATO for giving international recognition of Kosovo’s independence.
Kosovo broke away from Serbia with the help of the United States and declared independence in 2008. Serbia has rejected Kosovo’s independence and considers it a renegade province. However, the United States and Europe unconditionally support Kosovo’s independence.
In recent times, Serbia has somewhat become more amicable with the West. However, while it has decided to join the European Union (EU), it officially remains opposed to membership in NATO.
In Serbia, March 24 is commemorated as Remembrance Day for the victims of the NATO Aggression on Yugoslavia. Grieving for all the lives lost, Vucevic emphasized: “Serbia is a free and proud country! We will forget NATO’s crime only if we are dead! Glory and eternity to innocent victims! Serbia remembers the tragedy and mourns!”
- Contact the author at sakshi.tiwari9555 (at) gmail.com
- Follow EurAsian Times on Google News
