China says never to forget US-led NATO 'barbaric crimes' in Yugoslavia

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
8 May 19:53

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin commemorated the 24th anniversary of the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in the former Yugoslavia in 1999 in Belgrade.

Serbian Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin (center) and Minister of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs Darija Kisic Tepavcevic (right) on May 7, 2022, lay wreaths to commemorate the three Chinese journalists killed during the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in the former Yugoslavia in 1999 (Courtesy of the Chinese Embassy in Serbia)

The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin, on Monday, said that the Chinese people will never forget the "barbaric crimes" that NATO committed in former Yugoslavia in 1999 when NATO dropped five bombs on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, on May 7 of that year, killing three and injuring 20.

On March 24, 1999, NATO militarily intervened in former Yugoslavia, breaching the country's sovereignty, under the pretense of "human rights protection".

On May 7/8, 1999, a United States Airforce B-2 bomber dropped five bombs on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, killing three.

President Bill Clinton apologized for the bombing, stating it was an “accident.”

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In a briefing, Wang said "Chinese people will never forget the blood and the lives that it gave for the protection of truth, honesty, and justice. And it will never forget the barbaric crimes of US-led NATO as well."

He emphasized that while NATO regularly portrayed itself as a regional defense alliance, it has been a driver for regional tensions and has generated various bloc adversities.

"Following the end of the Cold War, US-led NATO has repeatedly stirred up conflicts all over the world, from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Kosovo, from Iraq to Afghanistan, from Libya to Syria," the spokesman said and emphasized, "US-led NATO needs to give serious thought to its crimes, to completely abandon its outdated, Cold War era mentality and to stop provoking regional conflicts and causing discord and riots."

Remembering NATO's monstruous bombing of Yugoslavia: 24th anniversary

Speaking at the mourning event dedicated to the 24th anniversary of NATO aggression against Yugoslavia, the Serbian head of State, President Aleksandar Vucic, said, on March 24, that Serbs will forget the atrocities committed by the alliance "only when all Serbs disappear."

He recalled that the illegal campaign had resulted in the death of over 2,500 people, including 87 children, as well as abnormally high cases of cancer and birth defects as a result of the depleted uranium shells that were used to bomb the then-Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

"It has been 24 years since you ripped away part of our country, killing children and civilians, military and police. Where did you get the right to kill our military and police, who gave you that right?" Vucic said, noting that NATO's illegal campaign had caused $100 billion worth of damage.

"You have not prevented any humanitarian catastrophe, you have armed rebel groups in a free and sovereign country, which has crossed to the territory of another state even a single inch, not even one toe," Vucic added.

Nation-wide memorials kicked off on March 24 evening in the city of Sombor, where the first NATO air bomb fell on March 24, 1999.

Among the millions of attendees who had gathered for the memorial included the Serbian President, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, Serb co-president of Bosnia and Herzegovina Milorad Dodik, and other government officials.

During his address, Vucic also condemned NATO for fabricating false pretexts of alleged humanitarian disaster to launch its attack on Yugoslavia.

He said that when NATO understood it could not earn formal legal approval from the UN Security Council to launch the attack, they had decided to carry it out without UN approval.