Today Smederevo marked 26 years since the start of the NATO aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
After the national anthem, a minute’s silence and the reading of the names of the soldiers and police officers from Smederevo who were killed, wreaths and flowers were laid at the Monument to the Victims of the 1999 Bombing by representatives of the Požarevac Garrison Command, the leadership of the City of Smederevo, a delegation of the Smederevo Police Administration, the families of the victims, representatives of the City Board of the SPS, a delegation of the Association of Reserve Military Officers, SUBNOR, the Association of War Volunteers of 1912–1918 and Their Admirers, and representatives of the “Budimo Smederevo” Movement.
“We still ask ourselves why no one has yet been held accountable for this crime, why international law failed in 1999, and why the air forces of 19 powerful countries of the world attacked a small, peace-loving nation that has never waged wars of conquest, only wars of liberation.
The days of suffering, the deafening sound of the sirens, the explosions, life in shelters and our defiant gatherings in the squares, with targets drawn on our chests, will never be erased from our memory.
Sadly, in the spring of 1999 the City of Smederevo also lost 14 of our fellow citizens, and today we stand here beside the monument bearing their names to pay tribute to them, because they paid a high price with their lives for the freedom of our country. Their courage is written in capital letters in our recent history,” said the Mayor of Smederevo, Jasmina Vojinović, at the commemoration, recalling that Smederevo was targeted by NATO aircraft on the very first night of the bombing.
Military positions in the Vučak area were hit, and in the following days there were attacks on the industrial zone, the Jugopetrol tanks, the bridge over the Danube linking Smederevo and Kovin, the substation within the Steelworks complex and other locations.
After the commemoration at the Monument to the Victims of the NATO Bombing, a reception was held at the City Administration for the families of the fallen.
During the 78 days of the bombing of the FRY, in the operation called “Merciful Angel”, more than 2,500 lives were lost, 79 of them children’s, while 12,500 people were wounded.
The enormous material damage caused during that operation in some places across Serbia is still visible today.
