15 years since NATO airstrikes against RTS

15 years since NATO airstrikes against RTS

BELGRADE -- On the night of April 23, 1999, at 02:06 CET, NATO carried out airstrikes against the building in downtown Belgrade housing Serbia's public broadcaster RTS.

16 workers were killed in the attack. 15 years later, there is no answer to the question why.

The victims were makeup artist Jelica Munitlak (28), video mixer Ksenija Banković (28), tehcnicians Darko Stiomenovski (26), Nebojša Stojanović (27) and Branislav Jovanovic (50), security guards Dragorad Dragojević (27), Dejan Marković ( 39) and Milan Joksimović (47).

Among those killed were also electrician Dragan Tasić (31), cameraman Aleksandar Deletić (31), technicians Slaviša Stevanović (32) and Ivan Stukalo (34), program designer Siniša Medić (32), mechanic Milan Jankovic (59), television director Tomislav Mitrović (61) and assembler Slobodan Jontić (54).

The Association of Journalists of Serbia (UNS) stated on the anniversary that "the whole investigation of this war crime has not been carried out yet." It warned that the 1999 attack established the practice of using military force against the media in international conflicts, despite the fact that they are civilian objects and should not be considered a military target.

The statement stressed that all major global human rights organizations condemned the killing of civilians, while Amnesty International said it considered the deliberate attack on the RTS building as a civilian structure and the killing of 16 media workers a war crime.

The association called on the Ministry of Defense and Military Security Agency to make available to the Commission for Investigation of Murders of Journalists all relevant facts to...